Speaker Orders Probe On Mutale

By Okello Jabweli and Felix Osike THE Speaker of Parliament, Edward Ssekandi, has ordered the committee on presidential and foreign affairs to probe the operations and statements of special presidential adviser Maj. Roland Kakooza Mutale. Ssekandi’s directive follows Mutale’s allegations that ministers Sam Kutesa and Kahinda Otafiire were frustrating his efforts to combat crime in the city. The terms of reference for the probe have not been set. Samia Bugwe North MP Aggrey Awori yesterday raised the matter in Parliament. Awori wondered whether the Government concurred with Mutale’s assertion that the two ministers were abetting crime and protecting criminals. Both Kutesa and Otafiire were not in the House at the time. Ssekandi first hesitated to rule on the matter, saying Parliament was separate from the Executive and that Mutale was not under its jurisdiction. He said if the Government wished to react to Mutale’s allegations, it could do so at an appropriate time. Awori, however, insisted that since Mutale was a presidential adviser, Parliament had jurisdiction over him. “This (Mutale) is the same man who even attacked a Honourable member of this House, Hon. Kazoora, over privileged statements he made in this August House,” Awori said before Ssekandi referred the matter to the committee. The New Vision yesterday carried Mutale’s letter in which he decried Kazoora’s criticism of him and his operations in Parliament, a forum where he said he had no opportunity to defend himself. Felix Okot Ogong, the parliamentary affairs state minister, said prime minister Apolo Nsibambi would in due course make a statement about Mutale’s allegations on Kutesa and Otafire. The presidential and foreign affairs committee is chaired by Dr. Nsaba Buturo (Bufumbira East). It is not yet clear when the probe is to start. Mutale has increasingly been in the news since the presidential and parliamentary elections where he played a leading role through his Kalangala Action Plan with some politicians accusing him of orchestrating violence across the country. Mutale has for the last several years been engaged in political mobilisation and the arrest of suspected criminals and terrorists. He recently declined to take up a ministerial appointment, saying he preferred to continue with his present work. Ends