Parliament spending questioned because of anti-gay law, says Among
Speaker Anita Among during plenary session.
What you need to know:
- Adjumani Woman MP, Ms Jessica Ababiku, like Speaker Among reasoned that the matter raised was carried on social media and therefore, not befitting of Parliament mode of operation.
Speaker of Parliament, Ms Anita Among on Friday said media reports of mismanagement of the House was a campaign championed to attack her and the 11th Parliament because of her stance against homosexuality.
“I will never give you answer based on hearsay on rumormongering. And we aren’t going to run this House on rumormongering. Me to answer you on hearsay? On things you have cooked on social media because I have said no to b** shafting (homosexuality), I will not,” Ms Among said during plenary sitting Friday mid-morning to mainly receive Ministerial Policy Statements as key documents towards the timely processing of the 2024/205 National Budget.
This followed the instance of the Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LoP), Mr Joel Ssenyonyi and the National Resistance Movement (NRM)-leaning MP, Mr Theodore Ssekikubo of Lwmiyaga county, who asked the Speaker not to brush off reports of abuse of taxpayers’ money and unnecessary extravagance of the 11th Parliament that have currently dominated social media debate under the #UgandaParliamentExhibition campaign on X (formerly Twitter).
“There has been deafening silence from this institution regarding the issues raised by the people and like we are saying, we are a people-centered Parliament. I have seen the Spokesperson of this Parliament on some TV and Radio stations confirming some, saying some [reports] are partially correct, others are exaggerated," Mr Ssenyonyi said.
He added: "But this institution, which is a people-centered Parliament hasn’t come out comprehensively, unequivocally, to explain itself to the people, to account to the people of Uganda."
His submission was however, interrupted by the Adjumani Woman MP, Ms Jessica Ababiku, who, like Speaker Among reasoned that the matter raised was carried on social media and therefore, not befitting of Parliament mode of operation.
“Whether this Parliament is right to depend on media reports because the LoP was raising issues which were on media, I thought we have been operating on issues which are officially brought to this House,” Ms Ababiku said.
He added: “Therefore, I am seeking for your guidance on whether we are going to proceed, handling matters on the floor of Parliament based on media reports.”
The Speaker reminded the House of previous scenarios where similar positions demanded that debate in the House be premised on evidence tabled before Parliament as opposed to re-stating information carried on social media platforms.
“We want to debate in anticipation. Matters of the media, we agreed as this House that we should have evidence based debates and that is what we are saying, bring evidence, lay on table and after we have laid any evidence on table, then we debate on it and I need it authenticated,” Ms Among said.
She added: “The Leader of Opposition wrote a letter to me on the same issues and asked that we should discuss the same issues in the Commission. I replied, we will have the Commission meeting and we will discuss those issues and we will have a solution and we will report back on those findings. We are going to have the Commission meeting.”
Mr Ssnyonyi was, however, not about to quit as he told the House that he had authored a letter to Speaker requiring that the Parliamentary commission be convened to handle the same but the reply to his letter showed that the commission would likely convene in July.
“You wrote back to me regarding the Commission meeting and said, the earliest the Commission meeting can sit is June 30, 2024, that is the letter you wrote to me. June 30, 2024 is months away and these issues keep piling up and that is why I am saying, as a people-centered Parliament, it is important that we respond to these issues.”
Rallying behind Mr Ssenyonyi was Mr Ssekikubo who insisted Parliament reacts to the grave allegations.
“We are having a big problem; we can’t sit here as if nothing wrong has happened. I was amazed that in your communication, you didn’t make a mention of the grave allegations against the institution of Parliament where I belong as a member. I am here as MP and once this House is tarnished the way it is, I can’t sit comfortably here and say we move to other items,” said Mr Ssekikuubo.
He added “Can we have a clarification about the allegations in the media so that we take a corrective decision and clean ourselves. We are taking oversight role on other arms and other institutions of Government, but when it comes to us, we want to hide it under the carpet and it is a shame to this House. What happened?”
This is when the Bukedea Woman MP assured the House that she would not respond to what she termed as rumors peddled on social media. The Friday plenary sitting was consequently adjourned to March 28 when the LoP is expected to present the alternative police statement.
