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A Ugandan politician is going viral for unabashedly defending the time she took back an ambulance she had donated to her district after she lost an election there.
In several posts on her official X account, Ugandan State Minister of Finance for Investment and Privatization, Evelyn Anite, admitted that she rescinded the ambulance donation in 2021, and said she had “no apologies” for her actions.
Her belated defense was spurred by a news account that resurfaced the two-year-old incident. When a supporter tried to defend Anite and say she wouldn’t do such a thing, the state minister’s account responded: “My dear, I actually did it, and I am very proud of my action.”
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Ugandan newspaper The Observer reported in 2021 that Anite donated the ambulance to constituents in the town of Koboko, which had a critical need for ambulances. The vehicle featured Anite’s name and photo; she also promised to pay the driver of the ambulance for up to six months.
Anite, who had served in the parliament since 2011, was running for reelection in her party’s parliamentary primary. But “the donation of such a rare service was not enough to fend off an embarrassing defeat at the voting booth,” The Observer wrote.
As a result, she reversed the ambulance donation.
“It was not help it was a conditional grant,” she tweeted on Tuesday. In another post she said, “Like seriously why would you vote out someone who has given you ambulance?“
After another user on X called her “shameless,” she responded: “I am shameless to the extent that I sold it.”