Minister fails to produce S.Sudan letter seeking UPDF intervention
Deputy Attorney General Fred Ruhindi (L) and junior Defence minister Jeje Odongo at Parliament yesterday. Photo by Geoffrey Sseruyange
What you need to know:
Gen Jeje Odong says if the committee wants the letter, it should write to the President and ask for it.
PARLIAMENT- The State minister for Defence, Gen Jeje Odong, yesterday said he could not present a letter the government claims was written by South Sudan president Salva Kiir to his Ugandan counterpart, requesting for military assistance.
On January 14, Defence Minister Crispus Kiyonga told Parliament that Mr Kiir wrote to President Museveni, inviting the UPDF to “help stabilise the situation”. The government was making a case for retrospective approval of UPDF deployment in South Sudan.
Those claims prompted the Defence and Internal Affairs Committee to summon Defence ministry officials to shed more light on the said. However, when Gen Odong represented Mr Kiyonga yesterday, he never turned up with the letter, insisting he was not privy to it.
In a January 21 invitation letter to the Defence ministry, the committee had indicated that the letter would be at the gist of the proceedings.
“It was privileged communication between two presidents which was not copied to me. Do you want me to go to the President and say; ‘give me the letter’? If the committee wants this letter, let it write to the President and ask for it?” Gen Odong, sounding irritated, retorted as MPs threatened to detain him.
“Whose work are you doing here? It is your responsibility to ask your boss to give you instruments that enable you to do your work,” Mr Simon Mulongo (Bubulo East), the lead counsel, shot back. By press time, MPs were still locked up in a closed-door meeting to chart a way forward about the letter.
Presidential spokesman Tamale Mirundi could not be reached for comment as his mobile phone was switched off while Foreign Affairs spokesman Fred Opolot said he could comment on the issue.
The committee is expected to present a report about the status of the UPDF deployment when Parliament resumes on February 18.
However, it could be an uphill task for the committee to beat that deadline as its proceedings have been marred by bickering between the legislators. Yesterday, like happened on two of the previous sessions, MPs haggled for hours with the committee chairperson, Ms Benny Namugwanya Bugembe, over whether to hold closed or open proceedings.
MPs then raised wide-ranging issues regarding the Status of Forces Agreement that was entered into by the Uganda and South Sudanese governments, with the minister providing no answers and instead requesting for more time.
