Speaker Anita Among (pictured) has directed Parliament’s Legal Department to sue Observer Newspaper, accusing the organization of sowing seeds of hatred in order for Ugandans to hate Parliament, citing the media house’s recent reporting that some MPs received bribes from agencies in order to block the move by Government to mainstream their functions into their mother Ministries.
“These allegations of saying MPs were bribed must stop, nobody was bribed people did legislation on their own, how can you bribe the whole House who are willing to even put up their hands to vote? I am going to ask our legal officer to take up this case because you can’t tarnish the integrity of my members, because no member was bribed to fail any RAPEX bill. Whatever didn’t go through, it was a consensus,” said Among.
The Speaker issued the directive in her communication during today’s plenary sitting where she revealed that some of the agencies cited in the media reports included Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA), National Information and Technology Authority (NIRA), Uganda Coffee Development Authority and Cotton Development Authority. However, Speaker denied accusations brought against MPs saying all the decisions taken in Parliament on RAPEX bills were done to serve the interest of Ugandans.
“And I want to tell the Executive and whoever is alleging this, MPs legislated for their constituencies, for their people. Like yesterday UNRA, it was a consensus, we even had the Minister concede, even the Minister of Public Service, Muruli Mukasa conceded. So why should we be blamed for what we are doing? We are here to legislate for our people. I am going to ask my people to take it up, let them tell us, who was machinery in this and how it came about. Because when you read the heading, the heading is alarming, when you look at inside, there is nothing. So, what do they want to achieve? They want the public to hate Parliament,” said Among, adding: “There is no way you would see Jonathan Odur (Erute South) say let Cotton Development Authority go then tomorrow when he goes to Lango, they will ask him, what did you do? Would you see Lutamaguzi Ssemakula (Nakaseke South) say, let Coffee Authority go?”
