MPs hold secret meet as recall efforts stall

Amid allegations of forgery in the process to recall the House, Mr Karuhanga denied foul play and accused the pro-government MPs of peddling lies.

Lawmakers pushing for Parliament’s recall to discuss the political storm between the Executive and Legislature spent the weekend reportedly struggling to salvage the petition from collapsing.
Those who talked to this newspaper admitted that the petition had hit a snag after Prisons authorities reportedly seized one of the sheets with 10 names.
“It’s true, we had hit a snag but this does not mean we have failed to raise the required signatures,” Youth MP Gerald Karuhanga said. “There was a setback when the people in prisons confiscated our list but members have signed afresh.”
Amid allegations of forgery in the process to recall the House, Mr Karuhanga denied foul play and accused the pro-government MPs of peddling lies.

“How can we forge signatures for our colleagues? This is rubbish. All those are diversionary tactics by government. The same people are spreading lies that we want the signatures to impeach the President.”
In the last minute-effort to rescue the petition, the Daily Monitor understands that Lwemiyaga MP Theodore Ssekikubo, one of the four MPs wanted by police over comments on Nebanda, came out of hiding and joined the group. Last evening, the MPs were holed up in a crisis meeting at an undisclosed place in Kampala trying to tally the available signatures.

Sources within the group said the tallying was expected at 9pm.

Undisclosed numbers
While the members behind the petition had told a news conference last week that they had surpassed the required 125 signatures needed for the recall, the exact number of available signatures is unknown.

“There is no turning back. There are people who are spending sleepless nights to see that the House is not recalled but they won’t succeed,” Mr Ssekikubo said.

The Daily Monitor understands that the members had planned to submit the petition to the Speaker today but Ms Rebecca Kadaga is reportedly out of the country. She travelled after a closed-door meeting with President Museveni at State House, Entebbe. Her office yesterday said although she is supposed to travel to Kamuli for constituency work, she will wait for the petition from the members before travelling.

The MPs behind the petition want Parliament recalled to discuss the arrest of their colleagues over their comments on the death of Buteleja Woman MP Cerinah Nebanda, as well as the fate of Ms Kadaga, who could face questioning for rejecting the government’s postmortem and toxicology report that linked the MP’s death to narcotic drugs.

The MPs also want the President to apologise and withdraw his derogatory comments, in which he described as “idiots” and “fools”, those who had accused the government of killing Nebanda.

Details from a Saturday State House meeting between the President and other top government officials were scanty, with the acting Government Chief Whip, Ms Rose Namayanja, issuing a statement, saying different political leaders had been tasked to ensure “maximum harmony in the country prevails”.

The meeting was a follow-up to one on New Year eve, where the President reportedly threatened that the House could only be recalled over his “dead body”.

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