Goats, cows ‘hit’ Parliament as Kayihura snub irks MPs

Goats. Cows. Shs10b. You could be forgiven for thinking that we are talking matters livestock but cows and goats precisely sum up the goings on in Parliament this week.
Ugandans, long indifferent to countless episodes about graft, were particularly baffled by revelations from Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) that Burahya County MP Margaret Muhanga had sold cows and goats to raise a staggering Shs10b to buy 23 acres of prime land from Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC).

Ms Muhanga’s revelation, that she paid the Shs10b in cash, baffled all and sundry, triggering hashtags and memes on social media poking fun at the controversy.

The hashtag #HowMuhangaGot10Bn, sent the digital world guessing over how she sold the cows and goats. Some tweeps wondered how you can make such a quick buck with the #WhenYouWantaQuick10b hashtag.
At some point, Muhanga joined the fray and tweeted that: “U shd move to rabbits coz u can sell from its urine to teeth on intl mkt [international market]”. The tweet was sort of inexplicable. Was she saying that rabbit urine is as lucrative as her goats and cows on the international market?

Old story
Suffice to note that the story of UBC irregularly selling off its prime land is an old story but resurfaced because the committee is re-opening old wounds in all government agencies as part of a comprehensive audit.

And that’s where the problem with Parliament’s Accountability Committees lies. Overwhelmed by backlog, they ultimately gobble up taxpayers’ money in a wild goose chase of audits overtaken by events which ultimately vanish into thin air.

And MPs are not to blame for this. In most cases, it’s a chain of failed systems where reports end up in Parliament later than planned.

Resolving the dilemma of how to deal with audit queries in old accountability reports is an Achille’s heel that must be addressed when the 10th Parliament sets about on amending the Rules of Procedure.

For the Muhanga-UBC land saga, the committee intriguingly did not address itself to the 2015 Supreme Court judgement, upholding a High Court ruling that cancelled land transactions that UBC engaged in, including Shs10b deal for the Burahya MP.

To put the matter to rest, Ms Muhanga basically wants her money. When she was expelled from the Committee meeting on Tuesday [she is a member and had to be out to avoid conflicting interests], she followed the proceedings from a distance. She angrily gesticulated that she wants her Shs10b back. The committee wants to interest itself in where the land title is.
This matter is likely to feature when plenary resumes next week.

With Parliament committees just holding their inaugural meetings, Kampala Central MP Nsereko Muhammad, who chairs the Equal Opportunities Committee, keen to bank on the uproar triggered by the Shs1.3 trillion bailout to some distressed companies, told Nation TV that he had summoned all the companies to explain their plight.

Mr Nsereko should have known better that the plight of distressed companies is outside the ambit of his Committee, a matter that was well explained by Kalungu West MP Joseph Ssewungu.

As the drama over Ms Muhanga and her goats and cows was slowly ebbing away, dust was being raised over MPs who are distrustful over the relationship their committee chairperson enjoys with her former employers and in a particular, a powerful General.

When the appointments of Committee Chairpersons were announced last month, the nomination of Mityana Woman MP Judith Nabakooba as the chairperson for the Defence and Internal Affairs Committee was particularly intriguing.

For starters, Nabakooba is a former police spokesperson and deputy police political commissar and the police is one of the regular witnesses in the Defence Committee.

How on earth was she going to put to task her former bosses? Isn’t it natural that she wouldn’t have the objectivity required for such a position? Questions kept swirling. Some gave her the benefit of the doubt while sceptics insisted her choice was dead on arrival.

For her first meeting with her erstwhile bosses, she did little to banish the scepticism. If first impressions matter, she clearly set herself on a collision course with her members as her Committee registered the first walk-out of the 10th Parliament.

The bone of contention was why the Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, was not appearing before the Committee.

Butambala County MP Muwanga Kivumbi said he had heard Ms Nabakooba on Radio Simba announcing that Gen Kayihura would not appear before the Committee because the matters of police brutality are being handled by court. She did this without bothering to first inform her members.

When Gen Kayihura did not attend, his deputy Okoth Ochola told the committee that the General had travelled to Nairobi for a security meeting. Nabakooba was saying this and Ochola that. Whom should we believe? a furious Kivumbi asked. He said the meeting should be called off to a date when the General will be physically present.

Ms Nabakooba shot back. She accused Mr Kivumbi of “lying”. After a closed-door meeting, five Opposition MPs walked out in protest at the Committee proceeding in the General’s absence.

After the walkout, Mr Kivumbi told journalists that police authorities could even have bankrolled Nabakooba’s campaigns and she could not be trusted to pass a judgment on the police. Though she insists she has the balance of mind to do an objective job, she has armed her doubters with enough ammunition. She would have done herself favours by disqualifying herself from proceedings of the committee on grounds of conflict of interest.

If the worst comes to the worst, she faces a censure motion under rule 184 that allows MPs to move a censure motion – supported by two thirds of all members – against the chairperson on grounds of incompetence, misconduct or misbehaviour and failure or refusal without justifiable reason to execute the duties of the Committee.

If, as expected, Gen Kayihura shows up at the next Committee meeting with police, the writing is on the wall that she will face a torrid time watching her ex-boss grilled. Watch this space.

Committee Activity

Committee on Equal Opportunities discussed how to protect the economic interests of citizens against foreigners.

Government agencies like Rural Electrification Agency (REA) and the Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (UETCL) appeared before the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises and detailed of how they are struggling under the weight of choking debts.

To offset the debts triggered by land compensation Bills, REA wants government to amend the laws to make land for power transmission lines free of charge.
Natural Resources Committee hosted Uganda National Council for Science and Technology which detailed plans to develop five regional science parks in Namanve, Gulu, Busitema, Mbarara universities.

UNCST also told the Committee that Uganda is now a leading research hub on HIV/Aids, cancer, malaria, TB, ecological, agriculture.