NUP legislators snub committee meeting in Buhweju NRM house
The Buhweju District NRM House which NUP legislators rejected as a venue for a committee on Tuesday. PHOTO / ZADOCK AMANYISA
What you need to know:
- Her Rubaga South counterpart, Mr Aloysius Talton Mukasa, said they had come for parliamentary business, but were disappointed to be hosted in an NRM house.
The National Unity Platform (NUP) legislators on the Parliamentary Equal Opportunities Committee on Tuesday boycotted a meeting at the National Resistance Movement (NRM) house in Buhweju District, saying it is not a neutral venue.
“We found that the building was painted yellow with photos of President Museveni and all posters showing NRM, and the chairs were all yellow. We could not accept to stay in the meeting because we don’t belong to NRM and the issues we came to discuss were not for NRM but of national importance,” Dr Christine Ndiwalana, the Bukomansimbi North, MP said.
Her Rubaga South counterpart, Mr Aloysius Talton Mukasa, said they had come for parliamentary business, but were disappointed to be hosted in an NRM house.
“We were supposed to go to the district headquarters but we ended up in NRM house. When we come for parliamentary business, we are supposed to be non-partisan,” he said.
Mr Mukasa said their chairperson should have asked for another venue.
“We decided to move out. We expected the committee chairperson to protect us or suggest another venue, which was not done,” he said.
Efforts by the committee vice chairperson, Ms Dorcus Acen, to convince the MPs to stay were futile as they maintained that they were not in a party meeting.
The Sheema Woman MP, Ms Rosemary Nyakikongoro, criticised her NUP counterparts, saying their decision was uncalled for.
“As an MP, colours don’t matter, especially when we are serving the people of Uganda. You have been delegated by the Speaker to listen to the people of Buhweju. Our colleagues should change this mindset of thinking that everything they are handling should be in red and NUP,” she said.
Buhweju leaders, who attended the meeting, raised issues of inequality in the district since its inception in 2010.
The Buhweju West MP, Mr Ephraim Biraaro Ganshanga, said the district still lags behind in education and development. “We have always said it though it is taken lightly but other areas have tertiary institutions such as colleges and universities and Buhweju’s highest institution of learning is a secondary school. We have only three schools with Advanced Level ,” Mr Biraaro said.
He added: “There is no way we can compete with others because we are missing a lot of equal opportunities. Here, whoever finishes Senior Four and lacks money stops there.”
The district chairperson, Mr Deo Atuhaire, told the committee that they also face salary disparities, huge wage bill deficit, poor road and communication network and poor health service delivery. The committee chairperson, who is also the Kole District Woman MP, Ms Judith Alyek, said they were in the district to access key challenges and how government programmes were being handled.
