The speaker of the eleventh Parliament Rt. Hon. Anita Among has approved a loan request of 1.7 trillion shillings externally secured from the Standard Chartered Bank.

The Speaker of Parliament Anita Among while presiding plenary yesterday said that the loan for budget support was in fulfilment of a portion of what the MPs approved for the current financial year. She added that she does not expect any contestation from the opposition side, as the loan is for the boost of the economy in one way as a supplement to the budget.

This is one of the only times government has internally borrowed, a factor ex presidential press secretary Joseph Tamale Mirundi attributes to the Kampala fall out with the west over gross rights violations and corruption. Speaking about the loan yesterday on a TV show, Mirundi reiterated that the donors are lately concerned with the human rights abuses by Uganda’s security forces and corruption by government agencies and officials.

Opposition MPs who opposed the loan have said that a comprehensive schedule on how the funds are to be expended has not been provided besides this being an expensive commercial loan.