The new Government Chief Whip, Thomas Tayebwa has revealed that President Yoweri Museveni tasked him to eliminate transactional politics and warned that no ruling party legislator will be bribed to pass any Bills sponsored by Government.
Tayebwa made the statement shortly after receiving a handover report from Ruth Nankabirwa, the outgoing Chief Whip at the Office of Prime Minister. Nankabirwa was in the recent Cabinet reshuffle appointed as Minister of Energy and Mineral Development.
The Government Chief Whip is mandated to support the Prime Minister to lead government business in Parliament, ensure effective implementation of government business in Parliament and coordinate activities of the Presidential Advisory Committee on budget.
The ruling National Resistance Movement –NRM has majority representation in parliament. Out of a total of 529 members in the Eleventh Parliament, the party has 336 MPs. “We are going to ensure that we fight corruption, the President has specifically called me on that issue. why should MPs be paid to pass a Government bill? Sometimes, the way we conduct ourselves makes it as if we need to be paid to do work. Someone can challenge me on that, I have never received any payment from Nankabirwa to support a government position and I don’t need to,” said Tayebwa in part.
Tayebwa appealed to NRM MPs to desist from transactional politics and instead defend party positions in parliament.
Tayebwa promised to serve with fairness and break camps in Parliament which he says was another assignment specifically given to him by President Museveni.
Before his appointment, Tayebwa sought to serve as Deputy Speaker of Parliament by the NRM party-backed Bukedea Woman MP Anita Among. Media reports then indicated that Tayebwa was pondering on running for the office as an Independent only to pull out before the election.
“The President told me, he doesn’t want to hear about camps in Parliament. A camp of Tayebwa, a camp of Kadaga, a camp of Oulanyah, those camps, he says he doesn’t want to hear of any in Parliament. And I request, if there is any of us still having those camps where you are saying you are making WhatsApp groups, kindly turn them off for the better of our government and for the ease of performing Government business,” said Tayebwa.
He said that whatever deployment of members in parliament shall be done fairly and based on competence.
Tayebwa also pledged to ensure that NRM members participate during debates on the floor of parliament by consistently interfacing with members to ascertain their challenges as Government Chief Whip and also build their capacity to debate and take on opposing views.
“It isn’t a mean achievement to come from the backbench to this position, I am going to be the first one to achieve that and I am going to ensure that I protect that decision so that more backbenchers in the future can be picked from backbench to cabinet position. My task has been made simple by Nankabirwa who has left me with the blueprint because I have been learning from what she has been doing,” said Tayebwa.
He pledged to focus on having government business timely handled in parliament and also ensure that Ministers and MPs attend plenary sittings. “MPs should attend plenary, sometimes I would see Hon. Nankabirwa running around, we were voted to attend to people’s business, why should the chief whip run after us in the corridors to come and attend plenary. That one, we shall sit in-house and agree on how best to deal with it. We have to ensure we attend and we are disciplined in our attendance,” he added.
Ruth Nankabirwa, the outgoing Government Chief Whip said that the handover is very important because it is going to help her successor get priorities. “I will not go through this report, but I am going to give it to you to read. The office you are entering is a very important office. Tracking all transactions in parliament requires a vigilant and vibrant staff. We started with very little staff but we have expanded the structure, I would like to recommend that you expand the structure to accommodate the new incoming challenges where Ministers are supposed to be tracked and helped with regards to research. So you will need more researchers,” said Nankabirwa.
Nankabirwa also tipped the new Government Chief Whip to always coordinate and negotiate on the business of House with the Prime Minister who doubles as Leader of Government Business.
Nankabirwa also tipped Tayebwa on appointing Committee leadership in Parliament.
