Archbishop Kaziimba Blasts Government Over Shs158 Billion MP Cars While Medical Interns Go Unpaid: “They Do the Donkey Work”

LCC TV NEWS

KAMPALA, UGANDA – In an unusually pointed intervention from the country’s top Anglican cleric, Archbishop Stephen Kaziimba Mugalu has publicly accused the Ugandan government of a “crushing” hypocrisy—condemning the disbursement of Shs 158 billion to purchase luxury vehicles for Members of Parliament while refusing to release just Shs 28 billion to pay medical interns whose allowances he says are the only thing keeping the nation’s hospitals running.

Speaking during a church service in the diocese of Central Buganda over the weekend, Archbishop Kaziimba, the head of the Church of Uganda, did not hold back, directly challenging the fiscal arguments put forward by the Ministry of Finance.

“You cannot say that you have Shs 158 billion to purchase cars for MPs and then claim that you do not have Shs 28 billion to pay medical interns’ allowances, with the excuse that it would crush the economy,” the Archbishop charged, drawing sharp applause from congregants.

His remarks come amid a prolonged, acrimonious standoff between the government and the Uganda Medical Association (UMA). Medical interns—newly graduated doctors required to serve a one-year internship before full registration—have not received their monthly allowances (typically ranging from Shs 1.5 million to Shs 2.5 million) for several months. The Ministry of Finance has repeatedly cited fiscal constraints, warning that honoring the interns’ demands would set a dangerous precedent and destabilize the wage bill.

But Archbishop Kaziimba dismissed the economic argument as a convenient lie, drawing a stark contrast between the nation’s political class and its frontline healthcare workers.

“By the way, doctors are rarely in the hospitals,” the Archbishop said, making a distinction that has rarely been articulated so bluntly by a national religious leader. “It is the medical interns who are everywhere doing the donkey work.”

The Archbishop’s phrasing—using the Luganda-influenced English term “donkey work” (meaning the heaviest, most thankless labor)—has since gone viral. Clerics and political commentators noted the significance of a primate of the Church of Uganda using such direct, labor-focused language.

‘A Moral Reckoning’

Political analyst Dr. Mwambutsya Ndebesa told this reporter that the Archbishop’s statement transcends typical religious commentary. “When the Archbishop says ‘donkey work,’ he is speaking to the deep-seated perception that Uganda runs on two tracks: one for the political elite, who vote themselves ever-expanding perks, and another for the professional classes, who are expected to sacrifice without complaint,” Dr. Ndebesa said.

The Shs 158 billion car loan scheme for MPs, approved earlier this year, allows legislators to purchase high-end SUVs (reportedly Toyota Land Cruisers) and repay the state over their term. Critics have long argued the scheme is an unnecessary luxury in a country where public health and education systems are chronically underfunded.

Hospital Crisis Deepens

The timing of the Archbishop’s intervention is critical. Multiple regional referral hospitals, including Mulago National Referral Hospital, have reported skeleton crews in recent weeks, as striking interns have withdrawn from wards. Senior doctors, while sympathetic, are often engaged in administrative, teaching, or private practice, leaving interns—who typically handle night shifts, emergency admissions, and routine surgeries—as the de facto frontline workforce.

“The Archbishop is right,” said a senior consultant at Lira Regional Referral Hospital who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “Interns do 80% of the clinical work. Without them, the system collapses. To say we cannot find Shs 28 billion after finding Shs 158 billion for cars is not economics—it is a choice.”

Government Response

As of press time, neither the Ministry of Finance nor the Parliamentary Commission had issued a formal response to the Archbishop’s sermon. However, a source within the Ministry told this reporter that officials were “troubled” by the moral framing of the issue, given the Archbishop’s significant moral authority among Uganda’s majority Christian population.

The Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among, has previously defended the car loan scheme as a “productivity tool,” arguing that MPs need reliable transport to serve their constituents. The government has also maintained that the interns’ demands are being “processed” but that the budget must follow due process.

A Broader Warning

Archbishop Kaziimba concluded his remarks with a broader warning about national leadership. “Do not kill the very people who keep your hospitals alive,” he said. “A society that pays for the comfort of its rulers while refusing to pay for the labour of its healers is a society sowing the seeds of its own destruction.”

The sermon has reignited a national debate on fiscal priorities, with opposition MPs and civil society groups calling for an immediate budget reallocation—cancelling or delaying the MP car fund to cover the interns’ Shs 28 billion shortfall.

For now, medical interns remain unpaid, MPs are awaiting their new vehicles, and the Archbishop has thrown down a moral gauntlet that the government is struggling to ignore.

LCC TV NEWS