Zaake to MPs: Anita Among should be facing disciplinary

The Mityana Municipality legislator, Mr Francis Zaake, has said the deputy Speaker of Parliament, Ms Anita Among, should be the one appearing before the House Committee on Rules, Privileges and Discipline, and not him.

Mr Zaake, also a National Unity Platform (NUP) party member, made the remarks yesterday while appearing before the committee that is investigating him over allegations of misconduct following his alleged abusive tweets directed towards Ms Among.

Mr Zaake posted the tweets on February 9. They have since been deleted.

“If you were me, you would understand how hard it is for me not to think that she should be the one appearing before this committee, but not me,” he partly said.

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“Nevertheless, I forgive her. I forgive her not just for making fun of my plight, but also for the mob [action] she is about to preside over me,” he added.

During the proceedings, Mr Zaake was represented by lawyers Eron Kizza and Benjamin Katana, who responded and made clarifications on the matter. 

Among the Members of Parliament (MP) who attended the proceedings but are not members of the rules committee are Mr Medard Lubega Sseggona (Busiro East), Ms Joyce Bagala (Mityana Woman), Ms Flavia Kalule Nabagabe, (Kassanda Woman) and Mr Frank Kabuye (Kassanda South).

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On behalf of his client, Mr Kizza was against the suggestion of the House handling the matter.

“We strongly object to the suggestion that this committee or any other of Parliament has jurisdiction to entertain a matter regarding social media allegations of a Member of Parliament,” he stated.

For this reason, Mr Kizza requested that in the interest of fairness, they should be offered the opportunity as lawyers to put in a written submission on the matter.

Mr Abdu Katuntu, the chairperson of the Committee, obliged and urged them to return with the submission on Wednesday. 

Abridged version of Zaake’s statement before committee

Honourable chairperson and colleagues,

With respect, let it be known from the onset that I challenge this  committee’s jurisdiction to investigate matters alleged to have happened outside the precincts of Parliament. As such, I am here only out of the respect I have for you my colleagues and this institution, but not necessarily to defend myself.

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Nevertheless, and only for record purposes, may it also be known that I consider the allegations against me to be malicious, unfounded and in bad faith. Similarly, these particular proceedings are unfair to me because they are borne out of an incurable conflict of interest. To understand why I say so, please consider this context:

On February 8, 2022, I was shocked and deeply hurt when the Deputy Speaker made a very cruel joke about me as a torture victim. That day as she presided over a debate about the rampant torture of citizens by security forces, Rt. Hon. Among stated that,

“Much as (Hon. Zaake) was tortured -as you have said- he was able to win a gold medal in athletics with a broken leg.”
Mr chairperson, those comments are on the Hansard. The deputy speaker made them in reference to the recent East African Parliamentary games during which I won a gold medal.

Even when listened to objectively, those comments suggested that either the deputy speaker thinks that:
a)     I have been lying about being tortured; or
b)     That I exaggerated the extent of injuries I suffered on each of the five (5) times I have been mercilessly tortured in the last 4 years; or
c)      That torture is a blessing in disguise for its victims and is as such a trivial matter I this country.
Mr chairperson, some social media comments allegedly responding to the speaker’s insensitive joke have been attributed to me in recent days, although without any technical proof that I made them.
It is on account of that alleged but unproven social media response that the same deputy speaker who made fun of my pain and humiliation referred to this committee for “trial.”

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It is also on account of that alleged response that my honourable colleagues, especially from the ruling party, are now mobilising themselves into a vicious mob to lynch me, on the floor of Parliament, in a session presided over by the same deputy speaker, regardless of the outcome of these proceedings. To them, apparently, the alleged response claimed to have been made by me is worse than the several occasions I was left lying on the cold floor in a pool of my own blood after a session of torture.

So, I hope you understand when I say that I believe these proceedings are not intended to establish the truth. Their purpose is to knot the rope with which the mob, after lynching me, will hang me to fit the narrative that I committed suicide.

As a member of the political opposition in this country, that is a narrative I have painfully borne on more occasions than any law-abiding citizen would wish to. So, how soon they lynch me is up to their conscience, for I have made peace with that fate; and my conscience is clear.

After all, I was already found guilty of these allegations even before the matter first came up on the floor of Parliament: On February 11, my security detail, to which I am entitled as a commissioner of Parliament, was unceremoniously withdrawn without any explanation. That was my first punishment, Mr  chairperson.

Mr chairperson and colleagues, I was already a Member of Parliament on all the occasions that I have been tortured by national security officers. On three of those occasions, I was tortured by members of the Special Forces Command (SFC) [gives details]. ...

So, Mr chairperson and colleagues, if you were the victims of this repeated torture, as I am, you would understand how hurt and furious I felt watching my speaker making a mockery of the life-threatening torture that I have repeatedly suffered without justice....

The multiple incidents of torture have left me with haunting post-traumatic stress disorder. I can no longer fall asleep with lights off, let alone without music playing...

 I have spent several agonising weeks in hospital undergoing treatment after being tortured which has traumatised my wife and children.

Despite going through all that, I constantly get cruel remarks from government officials and security spokespersons asserting that I faked the torture. The last person I expected such cruelty from was the Speaker of Parliament because she is a wife, a mother, and the head of an institution that should be doing everything possible to rehabilitate me instead of victimizing me further.

If you were me, you would understand how hard it is for me not to think that she should be the one appearing before this Committee, but not me. Nevertheless, I forgive her. I forgive her not just for making fun of my plight, but also for the mob justice she is about to preside over against me.