On MPs Ssenyonyi, Kabanda spat and Cosase Uganda Airlines probe

The public has in recent days been treated to a social media spat between MPs Joel Ssenyonyi (NUP, Nakawa West) and David Kabanda (NRM, Kasambya County), which transcended the boundaries of policy discourse to the petty and personal, dragging down the  honour of the House with them in the process.

For two colleagues who enjoy collegial relations and proximity which would allow them to address their differences with decorum, it doesn’t help both themselves and the House that they are taking their disagreement to social media, degrading the esteem in which their voters hold them and in effect denigrating the public standing of Parliament.  

As our leaders, the bar is always high, and Speaker Anita Among, together with the Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa, have always enjoined Members to have the image of the House in mind when conducting both public and personal affairs.

Similarly, MP Ssenyonyi-who chairs the important Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase), has taken to social media to pre-empt an official report of Parliament, and is attempting to deride the Speaker by suggesting she’s frustrating the inclusion of a Uganda Airlines probe on the order paper.

The Hon Ssenyonyi is clearly on a destructive path. He forgets that the position of Chairperson,  Cosase,  is an official Parliament position and that reports generated from enquiries conducted thereunder are not personal, but belong to the House. By insisting on the tabling of a public report that will ultimately be debated anyway, he raises suspicion on what personal interests he could have vested in the inquiry.

It’s also critical that under the Rules of Procedure, there’s the Business Committee, where he actually sits, which determines the order paper.

Given the angling for political positions in the House, his unfounded and unfortunately populist stance can only be seen to be calculated to give him a favourable standing in the eyes of his appointing authority for possible elevation, and therefore underhand methods including adopting a hostile posture against the leadership of the House, however baseless, is in this respect ‘good politics’.

Cosase is part of Parliament’s vast accountability apparatus and has enjoyed unflinching support of the House leadership, and therefore it gets suspicious when all of a sudden, the Hon Ssenyonyi is creating the false impression that the report on Uganda Airlines won’t be discussed, as though all accountability reports have been disposed of, except the Cosase report which he wants to be accorded special status, which brings his motives into question.

The office of Chairperson, Cosase, being an important public office, the Hon Ssenyonyi must accept to exercise its functions with fidelity to the Rules of Procedure and in keeping with the House traditions and decorum.

Now that he has chosen to hold a public office, for which he should be held accountable, he should respect his reporting mechanism through the Speaker of Parliament.

This is to assure the public that as is tradition, Parliament will thoroughly and effectively exercise its oversight role over all institutions and holders of public office in Uganda and while at it, will be indifferent to the shenanigans we have been treated to, by senior officials of Parliament who have elected to execute their sacred responsibilities in the gallery, while actually pandering to it.

The arduous task of building institutions takes time. It can be disenchanting and at times frustrating, but it is the difficult path we have chosen to tread, so we must develop the requisite tough skin necessary to navigate that path.

What separates holders of public office from the public who owe a duty of diligent service, is that the law created platforms and avenues for top-tier interactions, so that we only return to the public with solutions detailing the steps we are taking to address their challenges.

To sidestep those avenues and instead choose to compete with the population in an unbounded social media rancour is a betrayal of the cloak of leadership with which citizens have clothed office bearers.

Mr Obore is the Director Communication and Public Affairs, Parliament of Uganda.