13 suspended MPs’ bond cancelled

CID spokesperson Vincent Ssekate

Kampala. Police have cancelled the release bonds for 13 MPs who were thrown out of Parliament on the Speaker’s order during the chaos that marred the House last Wednesday.
The police cancelled the bonds after the suspended legislators failed to show up at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations in Kibuli on Friday as per earlier conditions of their release.
The MPs are opposed to the amendment of Article 102b of the Constitution to remove presidential age limit of 75.
The group was arrested last week shortly after they were bundled out of Parliament by plain-clothed security officers and later charged with inciting violence and assaulting police officers.
They are: Nathan Nandala Mafabi (Budadiri West), Jonathan Odur (Erute South), Mathias Mpuuga (Masaka Municipality), Gerald Karuhanga (Ntungamo Municipality), Muhammad Nsereko (Kampala Central) and William Nzoghu (Busongora North).
Others are: Barnabas Tinkasimire (Buyaga County), Robert Kyagulanyi (Kyadondo East), Theodore Ssekikubo (Lwemiyiga County) and Joy Atim (Lira District Woman MP).
“We expected them on Friday at 2pm. They didn’t show up. They later sent Mr Abdu Katuntu [Bugweri MP] , who told us that they were unable to appear because one of their colleagues, Mr Mpuuga, had lost his father and they had gone to attend the burial. We told him to put it in writing, but by close of the day no formal communication had been made,” Mr Vincent Ssekate, the CID spokesperson, said yesterday.
Mr Katuntu told the deputy director of CID, Mr William Kototyo, that the MPs would report on Wednesday this week.
Mr Ssekate said without a formal communication, it means the MPs have violated the terms of the police bond. He added that they are supposed to be arrested on sight but the decision on whether to do so had not been made by press time.