It is a story of disappointment and feeling disrespected by his boss. It is a story of strained relations between the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Uganda’s Parliament. MPs yesterday said the troubles at the top in Parliament are what fed the anger which blew up in Wednesday’s unprecedented incident where an honourable member was manhandled and bundled from a plenary session. Kyadondo East MP Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda will go down in history as probably the first representative to be physically removed from the House chambers in Uganda. Senior legislators revealed that the Deputy Speaker, Mr Jacob Oulanyah, has repeatedly complained to them about what he calls “mistreatment, being taken for granted, and being used and led up the garden path and left alone” by the Speaker, Ms Rebecca Kadaga. “He (Ssemujju) is being a victim of uncoordinated working relationship between [Oulanyah] and the Office of the Speaker,” said Mr Sam Otada (Indep, Kibanda). “For us to improve the image of Parliament we are going to need dialogue between the two speakers.” Word is that Oulanyah’s patience finally ran out after the passing of the Public Order Management Bill, which law has been denounced by human rights defenders as unconstitutional and an infringement on civil liberties and fundamental freedoms. Sources said there was an unwritten agreement between the Parliamentary Commission and Oulanyah that he forces through the controversial Bill and that the Commission, which is chaired by Ms Kadaga, would handle the public relations. This was not done, leaving his public image in shreds. When he suspended Mr Ssemujju, Odonga Otto (Aruu) and Theodore Ssekikubo (Lwemiyaga) for misconduct and asked them to apologise, he expected Ms Kadaga to enforce the ruling since she chaired subsequent House sittings. To his disappointment, she allowed the MPs to sit in the House without apologising. The Deputy Speaker is reported have confided in colleagues that this was the height of disrespect by his boss and that “he had had enough and cannot tolerate it anymore.” He wrote to the Speaker informing her that he would be out of town for the whole of September, even when he knew she was travelling to South Africa for a Commonwealth meeting. This forced the House to be sent on recess in the middle of the budgeting process. Mr Otada told this newspaper that Kadaga had procured a middle ground with the suspended MPs: that they would drop a motion to debate the Deputy Speaker’s conduct in exchange for not apologising to Mr Oulanyah, but this had been arrived at without Mr Oulanyah’s consent. Mr Oulanyah indeed opposed the plan and insisted on an apology. Sources say he further told the Speaker that he would never chair the House unless the suspended MPs apologised. This insistence, sources say, compelled Ms Kadaga to announce before she travelled to Seychelles last week that the suspended MPs should indeed apologise. “It took the Deputy Speaker to boycott chairing the House for Kadaga to instruct the clerk to put the instructions in writing. They should stop playing one against the other,” he said. “For Kadaga to proceed with the House without following through the earlier ruling of her colleague was going to the core of Oulanyah’s authority in the House. The authority of the Speaker must be respected,” Mr Otada said. But other members have given different reactions to the manner in which the Deputy Speaker handled the situation when Ssemujju defied his orders to leave the House. The MP had insisted that their suspension did not also include the requirement of an apology.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Oct 2013 04:41:14 +0000
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