Deputy Speaker adjourns House as ministers skip plenary

As the House convened in the afternoon, Member of Parliament raised issues of national importance, starting with the current wave of killings in different parts of the country.

Bukomansimbi District Woman representative, Veronica Nanyondo raised the issues of Machete wielding gangs who have killed a number of people in her district and the greater Masaka area.  She asked the government to intervene and save the people from the terror groups.

She was joined by Dr Abed Bwanika, the Kimaanya-Kabonera County legislator who reported that in his constituency, four people have been killed as security forces look on. He accused the police of withdrawing personnel from the area and failing to protect the lives of the people.

When the deputy speaker, asked the government to respond, the Government Chief Whip Thomas Tayebwa rose up and promised to inform the responsible ministers who, he said would provide an explanation on how they are handling the issues of insecurity.

“Rt Hon speaker, I will relay this matter to the security minister who will coordinate with other agencies so that they link up with honourable members and then resolve the matters,” he said.

However before he could make further submission, Geoffrey Macho, the Busia Municipality MP rose on the issue of procedure and wondered whether it was right for the ministers to skip a house sitting when important issues that demand their actions are being raised on the floor.

“I rise on the matter of procedure. This country is one of the countries in Sub Saharan Africa with the biggest cabinet and the biggest numbers of ministers in the dockets of finance and the internal affairs ministries. I don’t know whether we are proceeding well madam Speaker when these people who have just been given these dockets leave the Government chief whip to stagger on the floor of Parliament, asking for permission to come back tomorrow when we are talking about security of our people which is a very important matter to discuss right now. Therefore madam, I am seeking a procedural matter whether we are proceeding well,” he said.

The visibly angry Among, however, warned ministers about the promises they made when they were being vetted. She said they made commitments to attend the House sittings. 

“Honourable members, when we were vetting these ministers, one caution we gave them was that they must always be in the House and if they are not going to be available, they must inform us earlier so that we don’t raise matters that concern their portfolio. In each ministry, there is more than one minister. I am surprised there is no minister of defence, no minister of security, no minister of internal affairs, so how are we going to run this country when we have a skeleton? Out of 82 ministers we only have five, how are we going to run this country?” Among questioned.

Joseph Ssewungu Gonzaga, the MP for Kalungu West County demanded that the ministers must account for their absence from the plenary. He said they are well facilitated to do their work and there should be no excuses for them to dodge the sittings.

“This is a very serious matter. There are a number of ministers here who have put sirens in their vehicles to clear way for them as they come to Kampala and go back home and we also abide by that though they have no right of the way. When ministers come to the appointments committee, they talk heaven on earth. We should not be waiting for another week because these are matters that need urgent attention,” he said.

“Why they are given vehicles, why they are given police escorts is an extra privilege to them to carry out work for  the government and this is very dangerous. We are going back to the same system where the chief whip has to come and explain and the trend continues,” he added.

Solomon Silwany, the Bukooli Central MP was bitter with the ministers, accusing them of deliberately dodging House sessions when they are within the precincts of the Parliament.

“I have seen ministers around the precincts of Parliament but when you get into the Chamber, they are not here. I think this Parliament must take a strong stand that ministers must attend the plenary because they are around. I have seen several ministers outside, there are some in the canteen, I saw them with my naked eyes. Let these ministers attend plenary and attend to issues of this country,” he said.

At this point, the discussions were getting out of hand and with that, the deputy speaker adjourned the house to next week.

“Honourable members I want to tell that the issues being raised are matters of life. If people are being killed and we don’t have a minister to respond and you have the government chief whip here all the time coming to apologise, I am not sure whether that is what he is supposed to do. If we cannot have the ministers in the house to respond to the issues being raised. My issue is one, I want the ministers in the House, and short of that I am adjourning the House… I adjourn the house to Tuesday 24^th next week,” she summarily said.

Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja did not respond to our repeated calls as she made her number busy for much of the afternoon. 

In her maiden speech as the Prime Minister, Nabbanja promised to ensure that all ministers attend House sitings. However, her statement is already coming back to haunt her as she was also missing in the plenary.

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