Pray for sick ministers, says Kadaga
Speaker Rebecca Kadaga. File photo
PARLIAMENT
The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, has asked Members of Parliament (MPs) to pray for the ministers and MPs who are ill.
“I want to inform you that as we close the ninth Parliament, a number of our colleagues are not with us. A number of them have been hospitalised; others are abroad. I want you to pray for them,” Ms Kadaga said during plenary on Tuesday, May 3.
According to Ms Kadaga, minsters Dr Crispus Kiyonga (Defense), John Nasasira (ICT), Adolf Mwesige (Local government), Alex Onzima (local government), Peter Omolo (Soroti county MP), Issa Kikungwe (Kyadondo South MP) and Kaddu Mukasa Ssozi (Mityana South MP) are indisposed.
Ms Kadaga did not say what is ailing the officials she named.
She also did not say how their absence from Parliament, where ministers like Dr Kiyonga, Nasasira, Mwesige and Onzima once in a while show up to explain certain government policies, is affecting House business.
Now that Parliament is busy with budgeting for fiscal year 2016/17, ministers are expected to turn up to defend their departments' ministerial policy statements.
A fortnight ago, Moses Ali, the Third Deputy Prime Minister, told the House that in the absence of Mwesige and Onzima, respectively the minister and the state minister for Local Government, Ms Sezi Mbaguta, the State minister for Public Service, would hold the fort.
The term of the Ninth Parliament will end mid this month.
