Humanist

Our priorities are wrong and they will come back to bite us. And future generations too will be beaten the hardest. Hell, we are already facing the repercussions of our misdirected priorities.

For instance, how it has become the norm to ill-treat our elderly and retirees. Denying them their dues which they need to live out their days in comfort and good quality of life, as it should be after their service to country.

The plight of former employees of the East Africa Community (EAC), case in point. Nearly five decades later, former employees now in their 70s, 80s and older have not received fair pensions and other packages, in accordance with the terms of their employment. Some have sadly since died before getting paid.

“My grandfather has died without receiving his. My father tried to follow up when my grandpa was still alive and nothing changed. I haven’t heard of any new developments since my grandpa died. It’s things like this that have made me inherit my grandparents’s pain.” @RMKabejja

“Parliament passed the EAC Mediation Agreement Bill in March. It awaits the President’s signature. My dad is also waiting. It’s been 48 years!” @lindakibombo

“The funds to pay them are available the problem is not a lack of money, but a lack of will. If there’s money to donate to musicians and purchase luxury vehicles for former Speakers, then surely there’s money to compensate these gallant men and women who have served the nation.” @Honest_ug_man

Mrs. Betty Anne Apio Owaraga in her hey days as an air hostess with East African Airways Corporation

My toto (mum), Mrs. Owaraga, a widow since 2020, is among elders not prioritized by the State. She has not been paid her hard earned earnings while she served as a air hostess with East African Airways Corporation. She has done all that she was required to do and is included in the Ministry of EAC Affairs database as among verified former EAC employees.

She has made n follow-ups on her own right, and I have made a couple on her behalf. Each time we are told that the issue is with Ministry of Finance, insinuating there isn’t sufficient budget allocation to the Ministry of EAC Affairs to make the overdue payments to former EAC employees.

Sincerely, if Parliament can okay emolument increments to the ever growing number of members of Parliament, then the State should be in the position to prioritize and allocate resources to pay the elderly their pensions and retirement packages.

Not only for former employees of the EAC, but also all pensioners and retirees. They must always be the priority, especially so since ours is not a welfare state; and in which the elderly have to fend for themselves.

This is me thinking that we need in our political leadership those who prescribe to a democratic socialist world of view, such as the Democrats New York Mayoral Candidate Zohran Kwame Mamdani, who in word and action seems genuinely concerned with ensuring the welfare and quality of life of all constituents in his constituency.