Parliament has summoned Mityana Municipality MP Francis Zaake over defamatory statements against Rakai District Woman representative Juliet Ssubi Kinyamatama.
Kinyamatama alleges that while addressing a rally in Rakai on October 9, 2023, Zaake made demeaning statements before her constituents. She said the words are so shaming that she can’t repeat them. Speaker Thomas Tayebwa referred the matter to the Committee on Rules, Discipline, and Privileges for scrutiny.
“The committee has resumed consideration of the matter and invites you to the meeting with the witnesses on Wednesday, February 7, 2023, in committee room number 102B, north wing parliament building,” reads in part of the letter written by Agatha Akankunda, the clerk to parliament.
“Please be reminded that you have a right to cross-examine the witnesses in any matter arising from any interaction, and you will be granted the opportunity,” the clerk said.
Later, Kinyamatama demanded that Zaake not be allowed back in the House because his conduct is not deserving of a person representing constituents. “Whether we go to the rules [the committee] or what, we don’t want Zaake anymore in our house. He is not worthy of being a full representative of human beings and a Member of Parliament,” she charged.
This is the third time Zaake will be appearing before the Committee on Rules, Discipline, and Privileges since the 11th Parliament was sworn in about two and a half years ago. In November 2022, the deputy Speaker referred Zaake to the Committee for investigations over misconduct when he refused to heed guidance from the presiding officer during the plenary sitting of Parliament.
The legislator had risen to seek a resolution of Parliament concerning the alleged abduction of former presidential candidate Joseph Kabuleta and deputy leader of the Tabliq Muslim sect, Sheikh Ramadhan Mwanja, on November 28, 2023.
Tayebwa accused the Mityana legislator of disrespecting him when he grabbed the microphone to speak without permission from the presiding officer.
Tayebwa said that Zaake had been missing the sittings of the House without permission from the Speaker’s office, which is contrary to the Rules of Procedure, but had been left to go unpunished and given a second chance.
On March 10, 2022, the Committee, in its report to Parliament, found him guilty of misconduct following a probe into his social media attack on Speaker Anita Among while she was still serving as deputy Speaker. As a result of this report, an amendment to the motion was moved to have Zaake removed as a Commissioner of Parliament, a decision he successfully challenged in the Constitutional Court.
In a lead judgement written by Justice Irene Mulyagonja, the Constitutional Court on September 28, 2023, quashed the decision of Parliament on grounds that there was no requisite quorum at the time of passing the censure motion, the deputy Speaker then presiding over a matter to which she was a conflicted party, and passing a resolution on an amended motion without giving Zaake a fair hearing.
Also, in the 10th Parliament, then Speaker Rebecca Kadaga referred Zaake to the same committee on November 7, 2019, after accusing him of behaving dishonorably during the inquiry into the Makerere University students strike. Zaake was accused of insulting Makerere University Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe, when he appeared before the Committee on Education and Sports on November 6, 2019. The education committee was investigating the circumstances surrounding the strike at Uganda’s oldest and leading university.
