Sejusa ordered to appear Tuesday

By Joyce Namutebi and Cyprian Musoke

The matter of Gen. David Sejusa aka Tinyefuza is not about to end. The Chairperson of the Parliamentary committee on Rules, privileges and discipline has written to the renegade General, to appear before the committee tomorrow Tuesday.

Fox Odoi told New Vision that he had dispatched the summons through Sejusa's official email dsejusa@parliament.go.ug, dropped it in his pigeon hole, and copied to his known legal representatives Luzige, Lubega, Kavuma and company advocates on Friday.

The committee has been given two weeks and will report back on 10th October. When contacted, Joseph Luzige, Sejusa's lawyer confirmed receiving the summons which he had forwarded to his client. "He will tell us how to proceed and by the end of today we will have a written document from him. But he made it clear he is not contesting the Speaker's ruling on the matter,” Luzige said.

Asked whether Sejusa will appear in person, he said that the Speaker had not provided requested protection to his client in terms of immunity from arrest yet it was within her powers since he is an MP.      

In his letter to Sejusa, Odoi wrote; "The Rt. Hon. Speaker on 26th September 2013 in accordance with Rule 101 (8) directed the committee to investigate your conduct and report back to the House before the 10th October 2013."

"The referral was occasioned by your continued absence without permission inspite of the Speaker's warning given you on 16th September requiring you to attend the House in the next sitting," Odoi wrote in his letter obtained by New Vision.

He yesterday said that if the General gives no reasonable excuse for his continued absence, the committee will its report recommend his expulsion to the House. “But the committee can also find him faultless and absolve him," Odoi said.

Kadaga on Sept 16 communicated to Parliament about the continued absence from the sittings of Parliament by Sejusa and informing the House that she had written to him requesting him to attend the subsequent sitting.

"To-date he has neither complied with the request to attend sittings of this House nor has he made any communication to me with regard to the same. In the circumstances and in accordance with rule 101(8) of the Rules of Procedure of Parliament of Uganda, I refer this matter to the committee on rules, privileges and discipline to discuss and investigate the member's conduct," Kadaga said.

Sejusa fled to self-imposed exile in the UK after he made statements about President Yoweri Museveni's succession plans.

Declared Absent Without Official Leave (AWOL) by the Chief of Defence Forces Gen. Katumba Wamala recently, Wamala however affirmed in a recent press interviews that Sejusa is still in the UPDF and considered a deserter facing arrest any time soon.