9th Parliament dissolved: How will it be remembered?

The five-year term of the 9th Parliament, filled with the good, the bad and the ugly, officially ended on Wednesday, paving way for a fresh Parliament yet faced with a monumental task ahead of transforming Uganda from a low income nation to a middle income country by 2020.

The 10th Parliament starts its five-year journey on May 19, with the election of the Speaker and the deputy. The election and swearing-in of the new Speaker and Deputy Speaker will be presided over by Chief Justice Bart Katureebe.

As the country welcomes a new Parliament with about 80 per cent new members, how will the first women-led legislature in the history of Uganda be remembered? And if there was any event that would define business in the 9th Parliament, what would be it?

Would it be the confrontation between the Executive and the Legislative branch of the government, the media and Parliament or the multitude of loan requests that MPs passed? Would it be censuring of the ministers or the contentious supplementary budgets and Bills approved?

A bag of good beans and weevils
According to Mr Julius Kapwepwe Mishambi, a director at Uganda Debt Network, the 9th Parliament will be remembered as “a mixed bag of good beans and weevils.”
“They passed good and critical laws for Uganda’s petroleum industry, Public Finance Management Act, Anti-Money Laundering law, Economic Free Zones law and others, to improve debt management and other public resources, if implemented,” Mr Mishambi said.

However, Mr Mishambi and other political analysts insist that the 9th Parliament performed less than 50 per cent yet MPs received more than 200 per cent due payments through computations of up to Shs100m for each MP ahead of the general election, trips, consultations on the Marriage and Divorce Bill and made attempts to dodge income tax.

“They proved that they were bribable and their initial public interest posture was soon demystified.

They passed unprecedented recurrent spending-oriented supplementary budgets, while plunging the country into increased low performing loans and hastily approved borrowing. Except for about 30 MPs, Ugandans won’t miss much of the 9th Parliament,” he added.

As for Mr Daniel Kalinaki, a journalist, “the MPs in the 9th Parliament did exactly what a Parliament under the circumstances can do, not much, and got paid well for it. “A decent gig if you can get it,” he says.
To some Ugandans, as well as the MPs who talked to Sunday Monitor, the 9th Parliament beats the 8th Parliament in most of the aspects.

The 9th Parliament tried to deliver on its mandate in the circumstances, though to some of the independent-minded MPs, including Mr Mathias Mpuuga (Masaka Municipality), it “left a lot to be desired, especially in the conduct of public affairs verses President Museveni desires,” and concluded “the legacy of the 9th Parliament is cowardice.”

According to Mr Mpuuga and Ms Cissy Kagaba of Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda, Parliament will not be granted independence. It should instead assert its independence given through the supreme law of the land. “The legacy of the 9th Parliament is cowardice on the part of many members to pursue common good, in preference for appeasement polity,” Mr Mpuuga said.

Cowed by authorities for fear of losing seats, Mr Mpuuga said most of the MPs in the 9th Parliament “sacrificed common good for expediency,” but insisted that “there is no collective culpability in Parliament. Individuals are held accountable on their stand on key issues” and that this explains the wrath of voters in the just concluded parliamentary elections.

But Ms Kagaba said: “They passed the amendments to anti-corruption law and they were able to censure some ministers, including Ms Syda Bumba, Mr Khiddu Makubuya and forced Ms Kabakumba Matsiko out of office. But overall, they failed to detach themselves from the Executive. More or less they postured as an extended arm of the Executive.”

Key Achievements
Ms Rebecca Kadaga (Kamuli Woman) and Jacob Oulanyah (Omoro) were elected Speaker and Deputy Speaker, respectively, in May 2011, on a wave of optimism and high expectation. At home and abroad, the new Speaker was seen as the woman who would put an end to what the former Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Mr Nandala Mafabi, called, “the disastrous decisions” of her predecessor, now Vice President Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi and restore the pride and independence of Parliament.

Defending her achievements, Ms Kadaga insists that she added a 6th floor to the Parliament building, passed more than 70 Bills, established the women’s day-care facility in Parliament and protected the independence of the institution, particularly when she liberated MPs who were “in hands” of the Executive, mainly the Prime Minister [Amama Mbabazi] and rejected the decision to expel the “rebel MPs”.

And on corruption, Speaker Kadaga once again insists the Executive had failed to get evidence needed to prosecute pension suspects but when the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Mr Mike Chibita wrote to her, the 9th Parliament gave him the evidence through the Public Accounts Committee report on the pension scam. The case has since been reinstated and its being heard.

But the Speaker and the deputy have different views on the performance of the 9th Parliament. While Ms Kadaga praises the achievements of the 9th Parliament under her watch as outstanding, his deputy, who wanted her job in the 10th Parliament, seems to read from a different page, particularly on the number of Bills passed by the institution in five years and insisted that independence of Parliament does not mean quarrelling with Executive.

“There are issues with the way the administration of Parliament…how can we pride ourselves for passing 92 Bills or 70 whatever in the five years? I was in New Zealand in 2014. They passed 23 Bills one day and here, we are celebrating 70 Bills in five years. There is a structural problem…” Mr Oulanyah told a local newspaper in a recent interview.

Platform for politics
Other political commentators say Parliament has become a platform for politics, not lawmaking. That a counter-parliamentary culture has developed in Parliament where the Opposition and the NRM majority disrupt proceedings in what Mr Siraje Nsanja, a Political Science don at Kampala University, called “endless filibustering”.

“It’s not surprising that they passed less than 100 Bills in five years because much of the lawmaking time was spent shouting and sloganeering,” Mr Nsanja said.

“The Opposition tried but a lot left to be desired perhaps because of NRM majority. For instance, many accountability committee reports were not discussed yet the committee did its part. The business committee of the 10th Parliament and the new Opposition leadership in Parliament should prioritise accountability committee reports because their recommendations are critical in the fight against corruption.”

He added: “Absenteeism has been a big problem in the 9th Parliament. There are members such as Cecilia Ogwal, Ruth Nankabirwa, Nandala Mafabi, Wafula Ogutu, Ibrahim Ssemuju Nganda, David Bahati, Lulume Bayiga, Joseph Ssewungu and others who tried to be consistent in the House but the truth is that majority were not consistent and this is the reason why the 9th Parliament left pending business.”

The drama and theatrics

For the drama and theatrics, the five-year term had its fair share on offer and Deputy Jacob Oulanyah will certainly not forget events in August 2015, when shadow finance minister Geofrey Ekanya attempted to strangle himself with a necktie on the floor of Parliament, protesting government refusal to give his Tororo Constituency a district status.

There was also tension in the House in 2013 when Aruu MP Odonga Otto grabbed the list of MPs during the roll call from Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah and ripped it into threads. The MPs was protesting the passing of the Public Order Management Bill. Mr Oulanyah later suspended three MPs (Mr Ibrahim Ssemuju, Theodore Ssekikubo and Mr Otto) over accusations of indiscipline.

Ms Kadaga also had her share in the drama that engulfed the 9th Parliament. From the Anti-Homosexuality Bill to the botched expulsion of the four NRM MPs and from the disputed appointment of the late Gen Aronda Nyakairima to the Internal Affairs docket without resigning from the army, to the insistent quarrel with Parliamentary journalists. All these and more happened in the 9th Parliament.
Interestingly, in the drama that ensured following the death of the Butalejja Woman MP Cerinah Nebanda in December 2012, in January 2013, some MPs were summoned to police, some went into hiding and others arrested over allegations of inciting violence, following the mysterious death of their colleague.

Ms Kadaga was also threatened with police summons but did not record any statement. In the end, Mr Oulanyah, who has since confessed that the tribute to Nebanda was one of the difficult sessions he has ever chaired, was forced to adjourn the House over disagreements and finger-pointing on the floor and as a result of the drama, Nebanda’s body was laid in state twice.

Opposition party leaders, for their part, blamed the inadequacies in the 9th Parliament on NRM’s obstructionist and domineering tendencies.

“Initially, they looked promising and firebrand but dissipated towards the end. We largely face political challenges as a country but they failed to pass crucial legislations to address the political questions of the day. They grossed over electoral reforms and these issues will continue to haunt us for the next five years” said Mr Asuman Basalirwa, the president of Jeema party.