During the week, the Ministry of Internal Affairs Spokesperson Jacob Simunyu asked former Ministers and Members of Parliament who had lost their seats in the cabinet and in the 11th Parliament to return the diplomatic passports that had been given to them during their tenure.
In June 2021, 38 cabinet members were dropped whereas in the January 14th elections, over 200 MPs lost their seats. According to Simunyu, the passports are only valid during their time of service. He then asked the former diplomats to surrender them or await embarrassment that may result from their forceful acquisition.
The passports, green in color, are given to cabinet ministers and MPs, as well as their family members such as spouses and children.
As the son of the late Permanent Secretary Ambassador Julius Baker Onen, Fatboy, a previous holder of a diplomatic passport, said that like any ordinary passport, if the diplomatic passport has an expiration date of 10 years then former officials shouldn’t have to surrender them before their actual date of expiry.
Olive Najjuma additionally noted, “Since MPs serve for at least 10 years, then probably the Ministry of Internal Affairs needs to let us know how many years are on the book because if you've given me a book and it is valid for 10 years, then you have no legal right to ask for it before it expires,” she said.
Fatboy in addition thought that this was one of the things that the former Ministers and MPS would want to hold onto for the privileges it offers them when traveling outside the country. He compared it to extra change given back to a customer after buying something, asking Olive if she would give it back if ever she was in such a scenario while shopping.
“It depends on a person’s values, personally I would return the money and it's not because I'm perfect, it's because I've been in the service industry before where every time I gave out more money as change and it wasn't returned, that loss would be on me yet I was a young woman starting out in life. So now, if I find this 18-year-old vacist seated behind a till and I take the extra money she has mistakenly given me, really who would I be as an individual?” Olive said in response.
“But then if I realize I have more change when I'm home let's say it was given to me in Ntinda and I am already in Kira, it will really depend on how much it is because I won't go back to return shs.5000, sorry honey but that’s on you,” she added as she chuckled.
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy, Olive, Sarah and Lesham every weekday from 6am to 10am on RX Radio.