Why call legislators back from recess?

One of the reasons he gave was that they want to tell the President to stop abusing them and they want the Executive to respect the Legislature.

Listening to MPs Gerald Karuhanga and David Bahati on a radio talk show left me convinced that these honourable members should continue with their recess. I have been asking myself why the Executive was against recalling Parliament until I listened to Mr Karuhanga give reasons as to why he supports the recall.

One of the reasons he gave was that they want to tell the President to stop abusing them and they want the Executive to respect the Legislature.
I watched that press conference on NTV but I did not hear the President calling the entire Parliament names. He only referred to people who were saying the government had killed MP Cerinah Nebanda .

At first, I thought these MPs were right but when I read the President’s statement, I failed to pin him on their allegations. In fact, in his speech, the word parliament or parliamentarians came after he talked about how minister Rose Namayanja was brought to NRM by Lt. Kasigazi from the Democratic Party.

Karuhanga also questioned why the President had said Speaker Rebecca Kadaga should be questioned by police. At the press conference, I remember the President said the Speaker would tell the police if she knew anything that killed MP Nebanda and I quote “If [Speaker of Parliament Rebecca] Kadaga knows who killed Nebanda, then she will tell the Police, and the coroner will ask her if she knows what we don’t know. It’s a duty, not option”. Mr Karuhanga on went on to say that they want the President to apologise to parliamentarians for abusing them.

With due respect to Mr Karuhanga and other honourable members, do we need a parliamentary recall just because of the above mentioned issues?
A friend of mine said maybe parliamentarians have spent a lot of money during the festive season, and are now seeking for allowances.
Ugandans are already paying a lot of money to our huge Parliament although little is got back from them.

Instead of recalling Parliament for more important issues things such as unemployment, corruption, lack or poor health facilities, poor roads, our MPs are busy collecting signatures because they think they were abused by the President!

Therefore, if what Mr Karuhanga said are the only reasons for them to urgently meet, I, as a taxpayer, concur with the State that it is not necessary to recall Parliament. I think it is an unnecessary expenditure on the side of the taxpayer.

Godfrey Kayitarama,
kayitarama@gmail.com