Days after vowing to punish People Power pressure group leader and Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine for labelling the Shs20m given to each lawmaker to fight the spread of Covid19 disease a bribe, Speaker Rebecca Kadaga seems to be pointing her guns elsewhere in her attempts to clean Parliament’s image and make peace within the House she leads.
Last month, Kadaga threatened to ensure that Bobi Wine does not make statements likely to cast Parliament in bad way and get away with it.
“People will have to answer. So the members who are indisciplined we are going to take action. The honourable Kyagulanyi after making a statement he will have to go to the rules committee for bringing the house into disrepute,” Kadaga had threatened during plenary.
Her threats to Bobi had been prompted by MPs such as Bunyole West’s James Waluswaka who had complained: “Right Honorable Speaker, one of our own, honourable Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, returned the money as per the directives of the clerk to parliament but on the deposit slip, he said he has returned a bribe. Honourable Kyagulanyi should come and explain to the house and country who gave the bribe and why, and the person who gave the bribe, and who has taken should be arrested. So he must be put to order and explain because, madam speaker, people now think that this house can be bribed to do its mandated duty of appropriation.”
However, Bobi stuck to his guns: “I called it a bribe and I continue calling it a bribe. I am ready to face it [a Parliamentary Disciplinary Committee]. I will tell them what I am telling you now.”
But while Kadaga was still trying to devise better ways of punishing the singer-turned-politician, the House got preoccupied with President Museveni’s condemnation of the Shs10bn Covid allocation for MPs which he called a trap he had warned Kadaga against.
The Speaker and MPs swung into action to express their anger against the President. Some National Resistance Movement (NRM) MPs said Museveni had used them and was now planning to dump them. Kadaga even called an emergency press conference to tell the media and the public to also follow up on the expenditure of money allocated to the presidency and the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) which she said had procured rotten beans and expired milk for the vulnerable poor in Kampala and Wakiso.
Clearly diverted to defending Parliament from real and imagined enemies of the legislature such as the executive and the judicial arms of government, Kadaga, for the moment, halted her plan to show Bobi Wine where the real power lies.
Desperate to save her name and clean Parliament’s already tainted image, Kadaga seems to be trying to exploit any opportunity to reach out to more possible allies in fighting off ‘enemies.’ That is how she ended up visiting Mityana Municipality MP Francis Zaake, the People Power Youth League leader and close ally of Bobi Wine.
Zaake was days ago transferred from Kiruddu Hospital to Lubaga Hospital after court refused to formally charge him on April 27, citing his poor health condition. He had been arrested on April 19 for reportedly distributing relief food contrary to President Museveni’s directive stopping all politicians from distributing relief food. He is likely to face charges of doing a negligent act likely to spread an infection or disease contrary to Section 171 of the Penal Code Act, and disobedience of lawful orders contrary to section 117 of the Penal Code Act, according to police sources.
When she visited Zaake, Kadaga said she was “saddened to hear about acts of torture that continue to be meted on some Ugandans.”
“It’s sad that this was reportedly inflicted upon an MP. When Zaake was arrested, he seemed to cooperate and walked himself to a van; it was shocking to see him days later being carried to court on a stretcher writhing in pain,” she added.
She then wore the “strong advocate against human rights abuse” cap and revealed her intentions “to take up [Zaake’s matter] with relevant authorities.”
While Kadaga would, under almost all circumstances, visit sick MPs in hospital (after all she visited ailing Lubaga South MP Kato Lubwama on the same day she checked on Zaake), some analysts are reading more into her visit to Bobi Wine’s ally. Some have been wondering why it took the Speaker 12 days to pick interest in Zaake’s case. Why didn’t she vehemently condemn his arrest and push for his release? Why didn’t she check on him at the Iran-Uganda Hospital in Naguru Kampala where he was first admitted since her visit would have given more prominence to his story?
It should be remembered that around the time Zaake was arrested, Kadaga was still puzzled about how to handle the whole Shs10bn scandal: she had not met Museveni who had expressed disappointment in the Speaker over the controversial allocation during a stormy cabinet meeting. Her supporters argue that she was so preoccupied with how to find the way out of the trap that she could not find time for Zaake. That’s why she visited both Zaake and Lubwama when the matter seemed to have been finally resolved, her supporters further argue.
But some critics have argued that the Speaker, aware of Bobi’s popularity, realised that her threats to him would easily backfire. She therefore looked for a way to make peace with him: and what better way than showing sympathy for his ally and promising to deal with those who reportedly tortured him during his detention at the Kireka-based Special Investigations Unit (SIU)!
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