Is Mityana’s Zaake an MP custom-made for trouble? 

Voters in Mityana Municipality in 2021 re-elected Francis Zaake to represent them in the 11th Parliament. 

They first gave the businessman-turned-lawmaker the legislative mandate in 2016 as an Independent candidate before he three years ago joined the National Unity Party (NUP). 

He was 25-years-old during the first win, placing him in a historical fold of some of Uganda’s youngest MPs. 

Mr Zaake, at 32, may be more mature and an experienced lawmaker today, but trouble of the kind that dogged him during his maiden tenure continues.

The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Thomas Tayebwa, last Thursday abruptly adjourned House sitting to today after alleged utterances by Mr Zaake sparked uproar from some female MPs.

Ms Juliet Kinyamatama, the Rakai District Woman lawmaker, dragged her counterpart for disciplining on account of something that transpired outside Parliament Building, and roughly 200 kilometres away from Kampala.

She claimed that Mr Zaake, while addressing a rally in Rakai District on Independence Day, demeaned her before her constituents with words so vile she was ashamed to repeat them.

She asked the recording to be played, which Parliament’s ICT Department did, and friendly MPs had to chaperon the Mityana Municipality representative to safety after female MPs staged at the chamber doorway ostensibly to attack him.

It is this allegation that Parliament’s Committee on Rules, Privileges, and Discipline is to inquire into and report back to the full House within 45 days.

This would be the third time that Mr Zaake faces the same Committee, the first when Speaker Anita Among on February 15, 2022 referred him for allegedly abusing her and the House on the microblogging site, X, formerly twitter.

Despite the alleged offensive February 9 tweet being taken down, the Committee convicted Mr Zaake of disrespecting the Speaker.

Subsequently, 155 legislators voted to remove him as a member of the powerful Parliamentary Commission which, among others, recruits/punishes Parliament staff and oversees welfare of members.

Mr Zaake, who was promptly stripped of the perks of a parliamentary commissioner, ran to court and the Constitutional Court late last month quashed the resolution for his removal.

The judges determined that there was no quorum when the decision was made and that Speaker Among played both as an accuser and judge against the rules of natural justice and fair hearing.

The joy of the victory was short-lived. Mr Zaake was not reinstated as he hoped. Instead, Parliament through the Attorney General appealed the judgment, returning the matter for another lengthy judicial consideration.

Rather than celebrate, the Mityana Municipality now must prepare defence relating to Ms Kinyamata’s accusation against him.

It will be his third disciplinary issue in the House, adding to his referral in November 2022 by Deputy Speaker Tayebwa over an alleged misconduct. 

That time, Mr Zaake, against parliamentary rules, sought to reopen debate on abduction of mainly Opposition supporters allegedly by state security forces after the House resolved on it when the legislator missed 10 sittings.

Injuries the MP sustained when brutalised by security forces kept him hospitalised and unable to represent his electorate for several months. 

He had been arrested on claims of violating strict Covid-19 containment measures by distributing food to his constituents, but Justice Esta Nambayo determined that the lawmaker had been tortured when held incommunicado for 10 days.

She ordered the government to pay him Shs75m as compensation, and it’s unclear if the payment has been made.  

Before this torture verdict, Mr Zaake spent time in hospital after he alleged that Works minister, Gen Katumba Wamala, punched him during a September 2017 fracas when Opposition lawmakers attempted to filibuster proceedings to scrap the presidential age limit. 

The standoff was violently broken by suited Special Forces Command soldiers who, in an unprecedented assault, plunged into the Parliament chambers reserved for MPs and physically extracted dissenters.

Many were arrested or injured during the melee, Mr Zaake being among them.

It was a long stretch for trouble for him, one which started two years after he was elected an MP in 2016. 

One flare up of violence he survived took the life of his former driver Yasin Kawuma, whom he had assigned to chauffeur NUP principal Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, in Arua.

They had travelled to West Nile to drum up support for their candidate, Kassiano Wadri, on the final day of campaigns for a re-election to replace slain Arua Municipality MP Ibrahim Abiriga, who subscribed to the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM).

Incidentally, President Museveni was in town to make a final pitch for the NRM candidate. 

Chaos broke out later the evening of the last rally after police and army pounced on a retreating procession of Opposition faithful, accusing some of the supporters of obstructing the presidential convoy and hurling stones that reportedly broke the rear screens of one of the cars in the motorcade.

MP Zaake and Bobi Wine were among individuals that security forces arrested and allegedly tortured, leaving them limping in court and requiring medication both within and outside the country.