Uganda's Speaker Rebecca Kadaga receives President Yoweri Museveni at Serena Hotel. PHOTO | NMG
Speaker of Uganda’s parliament Rebecca Kadaga has come under
heavy criticism in the wake of the falling out from the passage of the
age limit Bill, which allows President Yoweri Museveni to be a candidate
in the next general election.
Critics say she found
herself between a rock and a hard place by the ruling National
Resistance Movement that supported her for the seat while opposition
legislators accuse her of breaching the standing orders of the House
during debate on the Bill.
“The Speaker was threatened
with removal from the office because they said that she cannot be a
speaker from NRM who cannot do the things NRM wants. There were silent
moves to pass a vote of no confidence, but now she remains hanging on,”
said Opposition Chief Whip Semujju Ibrahim Nganda.
A
senior member of NRM Mike Mukula, who is the party’s vice chairman for
Eastern Uganda, however, denied that the party intimidated the speaker
over the Bill.
“The Speaker cannot undermine her
integrity and that of parliament. I have seen her stand her ground even
in the middle of stern pressure. We know she was in the middle of
pressure from both the pro and anti-age limit removal sides,” Capt
Mukula said.
Parliament also defended Ms Kadaga,
saying she handled the debate in line with rules and dismisses claims of
her job being put on the line as “simple politicking.”
“The
same rules they quote give authority to the speaker and her ruling is
final, but challengeable. What is clear is that the speaker did
everything as provided for by the rules of procedure,” he said.
Succession debate
Analysts,
however, see the scrutiny the speaker has been put under as part of the
intrigues surrounding the succession question within NRM and the
country. Since she became speaker in 2016, Ms Kadaga has won friends
across the political divide for her non-partisan handling of
parliamentary business.
Ms Kadaga has also built a
formidable constituency within parliament including opposition MPs, a
network that affords her access to any part of the country through the
legislators. Outside parliament, as NRM vice chairperson, Ms Kadaga has
been the chief guest at many public and private events.
Ms
Kadaga, a lawyer, has held several positions in the government over the
past three decades, serving twice as a deputy and as a speaker. Her
defence of citizen rights has on occasion put her on a collision course
with the executive and the judiciary.
Source said her
profile has not gone well with a section of the top party leadership and
there have been attempts to undermine her. They said the age limit Bill
offered the party an opportunity to kill several birds with one stone:
Cast the speaker differently in the eyes of the public and the
opposition and clear the path for President Museveni, effectively
leaving him in control of the NRM succession.
Proponents
of the conspiracy theory point to the fact that Ms Kadaga had eschewed
confrontation with the executive and the party on passage of
controversial legislation by opting to have her deputy Jacob Oulanyah
preside during such sittings.
They even talk of a
meeting with party bigwigs on September 21, the last of several, where
it was decided that she would preside during the debate on the
Constitutional Amendment 2017 Bill — commonly referred to as the Magyezi
Bill after sponsor Raphael Magyezi.
The Bill seeks to
amend Article 102 (b) of the Constitution to remove the requirement
that a presidential candidate should be younger than 75 years. President
Museveni, 73, would have been ineligible to vie in the next election in
2021. The passage of the Bill which President Museveni is expected to
assent to later this month means that that hurdle has been removed.
Breaching house rules
“She
was in a difficult position. She was caught up between toeing the party
line as vice chairperson and herself,” said Abdu Katuntu, a legislator
from the opposition party Forum for Democratic Change.
Ms
Kadaga is accused of breaching house rules during the debate when she
suspended six legislators who alerted her of the breaches, overruling
concerns of the debate being sub judice in view of court challenges
including at the East African Court of Justice.
However,
there were no court injunctions. She also allowed voting on three
matters despite noting that they were not part of the original Bill.
“In
the committee report [Legal and Parliamentary Affairs] there are three
matters that were not part of the Bill. These include issues of term
limit, and adjusting tenure of the president and parliament. How did
they come to be part of the Bill and to whom are they addressed?” she
asked. The clauses proposed the term of the president and parliament be
extended to seven years, from five years.
Ms Kadaga is
also accused of allowing members to enter the chambers while voting was
going on against the rule that there should be no movement in and out of
the House. There were also questions why she did not task the Legal
Affairs Committee chairman Jacob Oboth-Oboth to explain why the report
was being debated on tabling instead of waiting for three days as
parliamentary procedure demands.
The debate came on
the back of tense caucus meetings and constituency consultations where
several legislators faced hostility from their voters opposed to age
limit removal. Members of Parliament opposed to the removal were also
accosted by the police during some consultations.
“If
the Bill is assented to; It might be legal but not legitimate because
the whole process was fraudulent,” said leader of opposition in
parliament Winnie Kiiza.
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