UGANDA   |   PARLIAMENT   | POLITICS

The Deputy Speaker, Jacob Oulanyah, has complained about the way the Speaker, Rebecca Kadaga, treated him during a recent debate on a motion against President Yoweri Museveni.

During the motion, last month, Oulanyah's conduct came into question. However, it was only yesterday that Oulanyah's displeasure with his senior colleague came to light during the plenary.

Oulanyah came to the House and signaled his desire to be given the floor to make a statement but in vain.

Later, while speaking to New Vision, he described the decision by the Speaker to maintain on the Parliament's record, an informal motion against his conduct as, "unprofessional, disrespectful and unfair."

 

"I don't know what could have motivated this kind of procedure and dealing with issues, but all I know is that it was unfair to me or anybody else for that matter. It was unprofessional, disrespectful and unfair to treat people like that," Oulanyah said after walking out of the chambers.

Oulanyah had spent the better part of the day attempting to catch Kadaga's eye to request that an informal amendment on a motion of displeasure against President Yoweri Museveni moved by Bugabula South MP Maurice Kibalya be expunged from Parliament's record to no avail.

In what is unusual in parliamentary practice, Oulanyah made his way to the plenary session chaired by Kadaga at 10:00 am purposely to have the motion against him expunged from the record, but it took a backroom negotiation for the record to be set straight much later at 2:00 pm.

Looking pensive, Oulanyah time and again kept signaling Kadaga to give him chance to say something, but in vain.

When the House was adjourned for lunch, the two were seen engaging in heated discussion inside the VIP lounge and when they resumed, Kadaga briefly instructed that the motion by Kibalya be expunged from the official House record.

 

On May 7, Kira Municipality MP Ssemujju Nganda moved Parliament to adopt a motion of displeasure against President Museveni for describing the decision of the Parliamentary Commission to allocate MPs sh20m each from the COVID-19 supplementary budget, as "morally reprehensive".

During the debate, Kibalya amended Ssemujju's motion to include a rebuke of Oulanyah for returning the sh20m to the COVID-19 district taskforce as instructed by the President.

"We took the guidelines that were given to us about the money from the Parliamentary Commission. When a member of the commission, takes it back and says, according to the directive of the President and not the Parliamentary Commission, of which he is a member, it is a betrayal of the highest order.

"I would like to add in the amendment that we are equally disappointed with the member of the commission who gave us money, but he betrayed us and took money back on the directive of the President. Madam Speaker, I can only answer when you say I should answer," Kibalya said in a copy of the Hansard seen by New Vision.

In response, Kadaga told Kibalya: "But it is public secret, mention him," to which Kibalya retorted: "The person who returned the money, was seen by everybody. The media ran the story and this is nobody else, but the Deputy Speaker of Parliament who is one of the two heads of this institution. " Oulanyah said on learning of the matter through posts made on Parliament and Kadaga's social media platforms, he wrote to the Speaker on May 12, pointing out that the motion did  not follow the House rules and requested that it be expunged from the record, a request she agreed to.

 

"You should ask them, did it have to take the Deputy Speaker's insistence and coming to the House for you to expunge such a record. I did not go to the press as much as I was deeply disturbed but simply wrote to the clerk on May 12, to give me documents that I felt were necessary to make my case. I asked for the order paper for that day. I asked for Hon. Ssemujju Nganda's motion as moved and the said motion as passed by Parliament. I asked for the Hansard and list of MPs present on that day."

On May 15, Kadaga wrote that "as you have requested, I will instruct the Clerk to Parliament to expunge that motion of Hon. Kibalya making reference to you in his submission off the record of Parliament, according to rule 226". However, Oulanyah said that was never done, even when he raised it before a meeting of the Parliamentary Commission last week.

"Today they are proroguing Parliament. So, I sat there waiting for the communication of the chair in the morning, but the communication went without any mention about expunging the record. That is when I went to the House, when she saw me, she knew that that was the matter that had brought me. If you noticed, towards the end of the morning session, I stood up to go and address the House on that matter, but she said no, that it was going to be in her first communication when we return in the afternoon. When this was done I had to move out. Why would it take all these days?" Oulanyah wondered.

"This should have been a formal motion brought with notice. Members should have copies of it and it should be on the order paper because you are going to discuss the President for heaven's sake. But you allow this and then mid-way you also allow a similar motion against the Deputy Speaker.

Rule 106 is what allows you discuss the President, rule 107 the Speakers, 108 is to discuss ministers, and to remove parliamentary commissioners is rule 109. You don't drag them jokingly and insult them because these are protected offices," the Deputy Speaker said.