Support minister Lumumba on MPs discipline

Jul 09, 2013

Government Chief Whip, Justine Kasule Lumumba issued a statement outlining the guidelines on how MPs must/should attend committees, caucus and plenary.

By Stephen Asiimwe

On Tuesday, July 2, Government Chief Whip, Justine Kasule Lumumba issued a statement outlining the guidelines on how MPs must/should attend committees, caucus and plenary.


She said the Government has lined up many Bills so MPs should be able to attend and debate all of them. “None of the NRM MP’s went through unopposed”.

That means there was a lot of competition to get to Parliament. When they get here and absent themselves, that is a form of corruption,” Lumumba stated while warning all of them of a serious action.

But Bahati was unopposed, it is true the current Parliament started with a lot of pomp and exaggerated fight against corruption and one time the Speaker was quoted saying that she knows all her MPs.

This year only, MPs have involved in many uncoordinated projects stretching from harassing the Police to overrunning bridges.

Lumumba is correct to warn MPs but the only measure that is effective is to allocate time, and for those who are too lazy try and roll call in caucus committee and plenary, for example, if I am a minister of East African Affairs, Teso, Bunyoro, or Northern region, it may be hard for one to attend caucus committee or plenary unless it is on time table or on parliamentary calendar; when is actually in the field, short of that, Lumumba you are flogging a dead horse, and some have started asking how many times you attended before you became a minister? But two wrongs do not make a right.

Parties all over the world have whips, even Lukyamuzi’s party I know have a whip in Parliament, Uganda today is a multiparty democracy, meaning that parties have to caucus, debate in committees and come up with a position which they must present in a plenary, that is why parties appoint Whips.

When you read Wikipedia, it defines a chief whip as an official, whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature, whips sometimes or typically, offer inducements and threatens punishments for party members to ensure they vote according to the official party policy.

A whip’s role is also to ensure that the elected representatives of their party are in attendance when important votes are taken. In other democracies, attendance is compulsory unless prior permission given by the whip and breach would lead you to expulsion from the party.

It is, therefore, not a joke that the chief whip issued these guidelines as Parliament resumes to debate important Bill and the Budget 2013/2014.

MPs should understand that the NRM government must translate the 2011-2016 manifesto into results and this can only be achieved by passing laws that enables the economy to grow. We need concrete political will, sufficient authority, dedicated bureaucrats (civil servants), enlightened and eager public.

The next Budget to be read will be 2014/2015 that shows you that we only have this year for parliament to transact business effectively or else we shall have entered the year of electioneering.

Let our dear members respect the voters and do what is expected of them. It is true some of them are busy but also true that some are just engaged in unproductive ventures that do not protect the common good, they have complained of corruption that has thwarted many development initiatives in Uganda and in the region, so it would be good, if they walked the talk.

The rules of procedure of Parliament have a nice prayer, which talks about deliberating for national development.

Our leaders’ goal is to steer this country to prosperity. Parliament plays an important role in implementation of all government programs by making laws timely in order to move forward, therefore Lumumba should try you’re her luck on her colleagues.

She should move around with her register. Please check even those who don’t eat lunch and forget to pick their monthly salary.

The writer is a Pan Africanist

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});