The house sitting today turned rowdy, after a video in which Zaake was heard badmouthing Rakai District Woman MP Juliet Kinyamatama Ssuubi in her constituency. It was brought to the attention of parliament by Kinyamatama herself who rose on the point of procedure.
Parliament chaired by Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa has referred Mityana Municipality MP Francis Zaake (NUP) to the Rules, Privileges and Discipline Committee over allegations of insulting Rakai Woman MP Juliet Suubi Kinyamatama after a dramatic sitting that was called off prematurely.
Kinyamatama tabled the video clip before parliament and demanded that the video be played to parliament, a proposal that faced resistance from the opposition.
It then ascended into a tug of war on the house floor on whether the video clip should be played until the matter was put to the vote and the ayes had it.
The environment on the floor heated up and the deputy speaker suspended the sitting for 10 minutes which escalated into 50 minutes. During this time Tayebwa convened a closed-door meeting with the complainant and the leadership of both the opposition and the government.
The house later reconvened and the video was played on the screens erected in the chambers after another set of resistance from the opposition which wanted a statement from the government apologizing for the recent wanton arrests of opposition leaders and supporters to come first.
The speaker referred the matter to the rules committee of parliament to investigate it and bring a report to parliament in 45 days.
As drama unfolded on the floor, the opposition which was returning to the house after two days’ boycott looked puzzled in an ambush, as the statement from the government was not forthcoming.
As the minister of state for internal affairs Gen David Muhoozi started reading the opposition statement. Another set of drama clopped up by Kinyamatama who wanted to go physical with the Mityana municipality legislator which forced the presiding officer to adjourn the sitting prematurely to Tuesday next week.
Opposition legislators felt cheated and accused NRM of staging drama to deny them a chance to receive a statement from the government over the recent attack on opposition leaders.
