Uganda cannot dictate on Zziwa case - minister

Dec 01, 2014

Uganda as a state cannot direct the East African Legislative Assembly on the suspended Speaker Margaret Zziwa, the Minister of East Africa Community Affairs Shem Bageine has said.

By Mary Karugaba

Uganda as a state cannot direct the East African Legislative Assembly on the suspended Speaker Margaret Zziwa, the Minister of East Africa Community Affairs Shem Bageine has said.


Quoting the East African Community Treaty, Bageine said the Assembly is independent and cannot be directed on any matter by any member state.

Speaking on phone, Bageine said, any problem in the assembly is supposed to be resolved by the Assembly itself using the rules of procedures or taken to the East African Court of Justice for interpretation.

"People should understand the working of the community. This is not a Uganda matter and therefore we cannot direct the Assembly on what to do. As an independent organ of the community, they are mechanisms on how issues are resolved using the rules of procedure," he said.

"Imagine if each state directed the assembly on issues that affects it, how would it operate? Whereas we can directly participate in Bills, questions, we cannot direct on the suspension of the Speaker," he added.

Last week, EALA Members of Parliament passed a resolution to suspend Zziwa, for 21 days pending investigations into her conduct. she is accused  of abuse of office, incompetence and intimidation.

The resolution was arrived at during a special sitting presided over by Chris Opoka-Okumu, a Ugandan, which also saw the committee on legal affairs called upon to handle the investigations.

32 of the 44  EALA members, sponsored  the motion for suspension  of Zziwa,  which is more the required two-thirds.
But Zziwa protested the suspension saying it was illegal. "I do not accept what was done. It was outside the law," Zziwa said last week.

Contacted again yesterday, Zziwa said, "I am thinking of legal redress on the matter. I am going to consult  different Attorney Generals on the matter  and then seek legal redress," she commented.

Meanwhile the East African Community Heads of State summit  which had been  scheduled to take place yesterday in Nairobi  was postponed to next year.

Edith Mwanje, the Permanent secretary ministry of East Africa Community Affairs said the summit was postponed because the Tanzanian Head of State Jakaya Kikwete was unwell.  "Kenya is supposed to hand over the chairmanship to Tanzania. But since the Head of state was not around, the secretariat decided to postpone the summit to another date most probably early next year," Mwanje said.

The summit was scheduled to consider among others; Annual Report of the Council of Ministers for the period December 2013 to November 2014, report of selected priority matters.

Other issues on the agenda were  negotiations for the Admission of the Republic of South Sudan into the EAC, verification of the application of Somalia to join the Community, initiation of a Constitution-making process and a road map for the EAC Political Federation and progress towards the establishment of a one area telephone network for East Africa.

 

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