THE National Assembly has disowned Members of Parliament (MPs) on Civic United Front (CUF) whose seats were lost over dismissal from the party.
The House said it doesn’t recognise the
eight MPs on the opposition CUF. Clerk of the National Assembly Stephen
Kigaigai admitted to have received a CUF letter, informing him about the
High Court of Tanzania verdict that nullified the dismissal of the
eight members of the opposition party.
CUF National Chairman Prof Ibrahim
Lipumba in July stripped the eight MPs of their party membership,
accusing them of gross misconduct. The fired MPs on special seats were
Severina Silvanus Mwijage, Saum Heri Sakala,Salma Mohamed Mwassa and
Riziki Shahari Ngwali.
Other evictees are Raisa Abdallah Mussa,
Miza Bakari Haji, Hadja Salum Ally and Halima Ali Mohamed. The
parliamentary stance follows CUF letter to the Clerk, requiring him to
inform Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr Job Ndugai about the High
Court ruling.
According to the letter that CUF wrote
to the Clerk, the Speaker ought to reinstate the eight legislators whom
the party described as “Legitimate MPs.” Speaking to Habari Leo, the
Daily News’ sister newspaper, Mr Kigaigai admitted receiving the CUF
letter but insisted that parliament will not recognise the judiciary
backed legislators who lost their seats after being stripped of their
memberships.
“Yes, I have received the letter from
CUF and I have started working on it... but, let me tell you in short
that the House does not recognize them. We only know the new MPs who
were sworn in in September after receiving their names from the National
Electoral Commission (NEC),” Mr Kigaigai insisted.
He said the parliament works on the
lists of legislators from the electoral body and not from their
respective political parties. “Until now we have not received any new
names from NEC legitimising the former list of eight CUF politicians as
legitimate MPs,” he added.
After the eight MPs lost their seats in
parliament after being stripped of their party membership mid July, NEC
released a replacement list of eight legislators who were sworn in in
September.
In the new list are Alfredina Apolinary
Kahigi, Kiaza Hussein Mayeye, Nuru Awadhi Bafadhili, Rukia Ahmed Kassim,
Shamsia Aziz Mtamba, Sonia Jumaa Magogo and Zainab Mndolwa Amir.
According to information availed to
media by CUF official Riziki Mngwali on November 10, the High Court had
ordered CUF not to involve in any discussion on the membership of the
eight members.
The High Court also nullified the
decision to strip them of their membership. “Such legal decision means
that we are all bona fide CUF members and we deserve to continue serving
as MPs,” she said, adding that on November 20, they had written the
Clerk, asking him to pass the verdict information to the Speaker.
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