The Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa has refuted claims that Parliament refused to pay for the treatment of Kawempe South MP, Muhammad Ssegirinya abroad.
This follows a video circulating on social media in which the ailing MP accused Parliament of refusing to extend financial assistance to him to clear his medical bills.
Chairing Tuesday's plenary sitting, Tayebwa dismissed the claims as untrue but rather faulted Ssegirinya for failure to adhere to set procedures on how to acquire medical treatment abroad.
The Deputy Speaker told Parliament that for Ssegirinya's medical bill to be paid using taxpayers' money, the MP ought to have applied through the medical board that authorises such payments.
However, he says he had crosschecked and established that the board had not received any application of that kind from the MP.
"I have cross-checked, The Medical Board hasn't received any application from Hon.Ssegirinya but also the Speaker and Office of Clerk hasn't received any formal information from Hon. Ssegirinya," Tayebwa said.
However, the Deputy Speaker requested the MP's relatives to present his documents before the medical board, to see how the MP could be helped.
"Let us be proactive and see how best we can help him, because of the state he is in, he isn't able to come and do the application, so whoever can reach out to his relatives, please bring his documents so that we present them to the medical board to see how best our colleague can be helped," he said.
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Following Tayebwa's clarification, the Leader of Opposition, Mathias Mpuuga called for the revision of the Parliament's insurance scheme, saying it is not of significant help to MPs.
Mpuuga, said that some of the insurance companies contracted by Parliament to extend medical insurance to MPs are limiting them to 'only taking Panadol', despite the high premium costs they are charging the Parliamentary Commission.
"We need to revise our insurance scheme, it isn't very helpful to so many members some of the insurance companies are cheating its members some of them are supplying air, some of them are limiting MPs to Panadol we need to revise it, probably, the first area of contact should have been his insurance company," Mpuuga said.
This week, during a video call with fellow MP Muhammad Nsereko, Ssegirinya said he is suffering from skin cancer and lung infections.
The MP who is currently admitted at Amsterdam Universitair Medische Centra Hospital in the Netherlands said his hospital bill had worryingly hit Shs80 million which he did not have at the moment.
