I'll engage higher gear as LoP, says Ssenyonyi as he takes over from Mpuuga

Mr Joel Ssenyonyi, Member of Parliament for Nakawa West, has assumed office as the newly elected Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Uganda's parliament.

He was ushered into office by his predecessor, Mr Mathias Mpuuga, the Nyendo-Mukungwe Member of Parliament who had served for two and a half years. 

While addressing journalists at Parliament after the handover ceremony on January 10, Mr Ssenyonyi committed to continuously address the issue of missing opposition supporters, an uphill task that was initiated by Mr Mpuuga.

“The issues that we have been focused on that are important are not going to stop. If anything, we just want to engage in a higher gear,” Mr Ssenyonyi said.

He added; “By the time we broke off [for Christmas last year], we were following up on the issue of missing persons, and at that time, there was a meeting between the Speaker, the Right Honorable Mathias Mpuuga, and Madam Mariam Wangadya the human rights commission rights chairperson. Unfortunately, she came along for the meeting and was told….to show up [at a later date] with the entire commission.”

Mr Ssenyonyi told journalists that “parliament [later] resolved that there should be a thorough inquiry on the [issue] of missing persons and we are going to raise that reminder to Parliament because it was a resolution that was passed and that inquiry should happen soon.” 

Questions relating to missing opposition supporters began surfacing before and continued during and after the 2021 elections, resulting in continuous blame games between the government and the Opposition.

Though the government later came out and explained the puzzle of missing persons last year on November 29, the unsatisfied opposition continues to demand more answers.

This dissatisfaction was further fueled by the remarks Ms Wangadya made before the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Parliament on January 8 casting doubts over missing opposition supporters by stating that they simply do not exist.

“I am hoping one of these days I will be in a meeting where Madam Wangadya is. I want to understand this person properly. You know sometimes we judge people before fully understanding them. Today she says this, tomorrow she says that..things that are not coordinated. So, I don’t know what the problem with her is,” Mr Ssenyonyi said.

He then added: “Not long ago, she said that she even fears sitting in her commission meetings because while there some of her commissioners are carrying guns, so, she lives in fear. I don’t know whether this living in fear is what destabilises her as an individual. Hopefully, I will get to understand her.”

Mr Ssenyonyi also took the time to address the issue of Mityana Municipality legislator Mr Francis Zaake getting blocked from serving as deputy Opposition chief whip. This was after Speaker Anita Among on Tuesday during a plenary sitting said there was no such position because it does not exist within the House Rules of Procedure.

“Not everything will be in the law books,” Mr Ssenyonyi said, adding, “For our ease of work, there are responsibilities that we create hence the office of the deputy chief opposition whip. The position has not just started. It was there even in the last Parliament. So, the position might not be known within the structures of Parliament, but that is okay. We created the responsibility and in the same way, we might also create others so that work gets to move,” he said.

The official communication at Parliament of the change of guard for the position of LoP was made on January 9 following a statement made last year in December by the National Unity Platform (NUP) party leader, Mr Robert Kyagulanyu alias Bobi Wine that Mr Ssenyonyi would take over from Mr Mpuuga.  

Ms Among on Tuesday committed to work together with Mr Ssenyonyi but said Parliament is for intellectual debates, not flexing muscles.

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