The National Resistance Movement (NRM) has strengthened its footprints on the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee after six Members of Parliament were designated to the committee.
Ruth Nankabirwa, Government Chief Whip took to the floor to designate new MPs to their respective committees, where the legal committee took the lion share.
The new members Robert Kasule Ssebunya, Prossy Akampulira, Taban Idi Amin, Rose Akello Lily, Asinde Suubi and Carolyn Kamusiime.
The new development follows an outcry made by Raphael Magyezi, the Igara West MP last month, where he accused the committee members of being biased against his bill and demanded to have the committee reconstituted.
At the start of scrutinising the Constitutional Amendment Bill No.2 of 2017, the legal committee comprised of 23 members, with the NRM having the majority of 13 MPs. Independents were second with six members while the Democratic Party and Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) had two MPs each.
Nankabirwa’s move rubbed FDC strongman, Opposition Chief Whip Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, the wrong way, prompting him to stand up in protest, demanding to know if Nankabirwa was in order to change the composition of the Committee just to get support of the controversial Presidential Age Limit Bill, yet the Speaker Rebecca Kadaga made an undertaking not to have the Committee composition changed.

Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah, who was chairing the plenary sitting, told Ssemujju that the new members came to parliament as a result of by elections and have rights to belong to committees like all their colleagues.

“There is nothing irregular about what Nankabirwa did,” Oulanyah said.

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Legislators on the Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs this morning questioned Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) officials over the brutal manner in which two civilian suspected killers of Assistant Inspector General of Police Andrew Felix Kaweesi were arrested.

Appearing before the committee, Colonel Bright Rwamirama, the State Minister for Veteran Affairs, was asked why Umar Maganda and Ahmed Ssenfuka were rearrested by plain-clothed officers attached to the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) after gaining freedom from Courts of law.

In response Col. Rwamirama said Maganda and Ssenfuka were rearrested for being members of ADF and would flee the country to join the rebel outfit and cause mayhem in public.

“If those people hadn’t been arrested, they would have fled the country to go join ADF,” Rwamirama said.

However, this response attracted more questions than answers from MPs with Theodore Ssekikubo, the Lwemiyaga County MP, wondering why CMI didn’t keep the suspects in custody, or amend the charge sheet instead of having them rearrested after getting their freedom.

Ssekikubo also questioned where CMI derived from the mandate to arrest suspects, saying the actions point at the Army taking over Police’s mandate.

“If you had this information about CMI, why didn’t you think of amending the charges when you still had them in custody? The way the operation was conducted, you appear disorganized, you let plain clothed men act as if they are robbers. That isn’t a streamlined way UPDF should be operating,” said Ssekikubo.

He also declined to comment why the suspects were kept in custody for 21 days without being paraded in court, as stipulated by the Constitution.

“I am not the one responsible for prosecution. Prosecutors were on strike, so our job was to arrest the suspects and pass them over to Police,” Rwamirama said, adding that the matter is before courts of law and he was uncomfortable discussing the matter.

Meanwhile, asked if there was an impasse among security agencies following the arrest of senior police allegedly involved in the abduction and forceful repatriation of Rwandan nationals opposed to the Kigali regime living in Uganda, Rwamirama said the assertions were a creation of the media.

“There is absolutely no impasse between security bodies. It is occasioned by some elements in the media. It is the media that created the impression that there is a standoff between UPDF and Police and it is regrettable. UPDF is operating well with sister security agencies,” the Minister said.

However, the identity behind the security agency that arrested the top Police officials became more obscure when the army denied having a hand in their arrest, rather saying it was police that arrested their own.

“It wasn’t CMI that arrested those Police officers; it was police that arrested their own and handed them over to CMI for investigation,” Rwamirama explained.

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Former Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) president Major General Gregory Mugisha Muntu has today said he respects the outcome of the party presidential elections, and pledged to work with his newly- elected successor Patrick Amuriat Obol.

Addressing a press conference at Hotel Africana, Gen. Muntu said he would focus his energies on strengthening party cohesion.

“Despite significant differences within the party which some members feel are irreconcilable, we intend to pursue a consultative process to talk about these differences and way of solving them because the FDC delegates meeting that climaxed with the election of party president was not a competition between individuals but a competition between strategies and ideologies,” Gen. Muntu said.

“There are certain dynamics that are developing in this country and we need to critically examine them; we want to make an informed decision through carefully considered decisions,” Gen. Muntu said, adding that  there is need for parties to concentrate on building a new political culture in order to rejuvenate politics in the country.

Meanwhile, despite many saying Gen. Muntu would form a new party after losing the FDC presidential elections, he emphasized his allegiance to both the party and new FDC leader.

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