Speaker Among Quashes Opposition Move to Sack Mapenduzi.
Speaker of Parliament Anita Among has foiled a decision of the Opposition in parliament to drop the Badege-Layibi Division MP Martin Ojara Mapenduuzi from the position of the chairperson for the Public Accounts Committee in charge of Local government before the end of his two and a half tenure of office.
Yesterday the leader of the opposition made a mini reshuffle in the shadow cabinet in which he fired Martin Ojara Mapenduuzi from the chairperson of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee – Local Government. Mapenduuzi is accused of championing a motion that censured the only opposition’s back bench commissioner Francis Zaake from sitting on the parliamentary commission.
However parliament approved the changes yesterday, as the speaker said that she had not been formally informed of the changes. In her communication to the parliamentary sitting today, the speaker Anita Among told the house that although she had received the communication from the chief opposition whip replacing Mapenduuzi with Gilbert Olanya, there was a precedent set by the 10th parliament against such changes of committee leadership in the middle of committee business.
She instead guided the opposition that re-designation can only be done by moving a formal motion approved by one third of the voting members of the house after the committee finishes its business.
The guidance did not go well with opposition as the Leader of opposition Mathias Mpuuga straight away protested it; saying parliamentary rules of procedure provide for the changes they made. Mpuuga put the speaker on notice that the issue should be settled administratively.
Opposition legislators have also expressed disappointment with the parliamentary decision to foil their attempt to drop Mapeduuzi.
However members of the Local Govt Public Accounts Committee have welcomed the guidance of the speaker saying the change of leadership at this time will interfere with the smooth running of the committee that is undertaking several probes currently across the country.
