Godwin Toko. Photo/Courtesy
On August 29, Parliament granted leave to Mityana South Member of Parliament Richard Lumu to present a private member's Bill to amend the Administration of Parliament Act and leave it to members of the Opposition to choose their leader in the August House.Under the current set-up, the leading Opposition party decides whoever takes up the mantle to lead the Opposition.
From the onset, it was clear that Lumu's was no ordinary Bill; a day earlier, his Lwemiyaga County colleague, who solicited more than the bare minimum of signatures required to table a censure motion against four parliamentary commissioners on allegations of corruption, had been halted from proceeding by the Speaker when he sought to.
Warning MPs not to take their 'nonsense' to the inaugural regional sitting that was happening in Gulu, the Speaker informed the House that all the sessions in Gulu were to be dedicated to addressing issues from northern Uganda and nothing else.
As such, it was baffling that the same Speaker entertained Mr Lumu's request that had absolutely nothing to do with northern Uganda barely 24 hours later and the same was granted – in Gulu.
The fact that the current Leader of the Opposition in Parliament (LoP), Mr Joel Ssenyonyi, who has made no secret of his frosty relationship with the leadership of Parliament, also led a section of MPs to boycott the said sitting further raised eyebrows with claims the Bill was probably targeting the current top.
It is also worth noting that there is no suggestion of ruling part MPs electing the prime minister who, in our parliamentary setting, is the Leader of Government Business and equivalent of the LoP, on the other side.
Mr Lumu has denied all allegations that his Bill – which is now before the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee where some members have raised concerns about the way it is being ‘rushed' – is special or targeting anyone, let alone the current LoP.
However, this has not done much to take away the questions about the actual intent of the Bill given the circumstances around it.
Ugandan history has a lot to teach us about legislation that is designed to target certain people. In the 1960s, the government of Apollo Milton Obote drafted and brought before Parliament the Emergency Detention Ordinances. Specifically, these ordinances gave the sitting government power to detain individuals without trial.
One of the key people behind the ordinances was a prominent politician of the 60s and a key figure in the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC), Grace Ibingira.
As happens a lot in politics, Ibingira later fell out with the UPC government and was detained without trial – thanks to the Emergency Detention Ordinance that he passionately defended.He was not to be the last.
Former prime minister Amama Mbabazi so passionately defended the Public Order Management Act (POMA) when it was a Bill before Parliament.
Like Ibingira before him, he fell out with the government not longer after and announced a presidential bid for 2016. He soon hit a major stumbling block on his way – the Public Order Management Act, 2013.
From being blocked at Jinja on his way to a consultation meeting in Mbale, to being blocked from taking the microphone at a music concert, POMA followed Mbabazi like his shadow, only unlike shadows, it was the perfect cover used by policemen to block the once powerful “Super Minister”.
Under Article 79 (1), the 1995 Constitution gives Parliament the powers to make laws for peace, order, development and good governance of Uganda.
Regardless of Mr Lumu’s actual intentions, MPs must always bear in mind that in democracies like ours where once all-powerful presidents are dragged from bunkers in vests and onto the next plane to face justice at The Hague or dragged from culverts by rowdy crowds and killed in cold blood, tables have a way of turning rather fast and in inexplicable ways. However, the onus remains on them to put themselves somewhere on the other side, as they do.
The writer us a lawyer with a keen interest in politics, human rights and governance. [email protected]
