[UAH] HON KADAGA'S DECISION VS NRM///ABBEY

 

Abbey & others,

 

For the benefit of all, please shed some more light on how you interpreted the Speaker's explanation below (in part) as opposed to being in agreement with the president of UFA Beti Olive Kamya.

 

===========================================

 

Article 83 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda provides as follows
–

83. Tenure of office of members of Parliament.
(1) A member of Parliament shall vacate his or her seat in Parliament
—
(a) if he or she resigns his or her office in writing signed by him or her and addressed to the Speaker;

(b) if such circumstances arise that if that person were not a member of Parliament would cause that person to be disqualified for election as a member of Parliament under article 80 of this Constitution;

(c) subject to the provisions of this Constitution, upon dissolution of Parliament;

(d) if that person is absent from fifteen sittings of Parliament without permission in writing of the Speaker during any period when Parliament is continuously meeting and is unable to offer satisfactory explanation to the relevant parliamentary committee for his or her absence;

(e) if that person is found guilty by the appropriate tribunal of violation of the Leadership Code of Conduct and the punishment imposed is or includes the vacation of the office of a member of Parliament;

 

 

 

J.N Munyoganda

 

From: Abbey Semuwemba <abbeysemuwemba@gmail.com>
To: Arthur George Kamya <agkamya@hotmail.com>
Cc: "ufapresident@gmail.com" <ufapresident@gmail.com>; "lizgod@aol.com" <lizgod@aol.com>; "antheapaulaturwomwe@gmail.com" <antheapaulaturwomwe@gmail.com>; "a.turwomwe4@gmail.com" <a.turwomwe4@gmail.com>; danny angualia <dangualia@yahoo.com>; akim odong <akimodong@gmail.com>; akishuri bright <akishuri.bright@gmail.com>; BOB ALLAN <bballan9@gmail.com>; bosco nyeko <bosco_nyeko@hotmail.com>; Busuulwa Steven D <dunsteve@yahoo.com>; byanguye davie <davie256@gmail.com>; layet paska bitek <lateko2007@yahoo.co.uk>; CHARLES KIWANU <kaloli@btinternet.com>; Conrad Nkutu <conradnkutu@yahoo.co.uk>; "charlesokwir@yahoo.com" <charlesokwir@yahoo.com>; ssematimba cosmas Mukasa <ssematimbacosmas@yahoo.com>; Daudi Sendawula <sendawulad@yahoo.com>; DANIEL OPOLOT <danopolot@gmail.com>; Dick Nvule <dknvule@gmail.com>; HONEYWELL DICKENS <dickenshoneywell@gmail.com>; Lugobwa Daniel <lugdan2012@gmail.com>; Mitayo de Potosi <mitayopotojsi@hotmail.com>; Mubiru Deo UFA <mubirudeoufa@ymail.com>; omong deo <deograt2000@yahoo.com>; "kaddu.ugandan@hotmail.ca" <kaddu.ugandan@hotmail.ca>; Emmanuel Oseks <sam2osekz@gmail.com>; Emily Kaumba <kaumbae@gmail.com>; Eriku Martin <erikumartin@ymail.com>; Esther Kisubi <kisubiesther@yahoo.com>; Farouk Ssali <lonfarouk@yahoo.co.uk>; Fast Track Productions Ltd <fasttrackproductionsltd@yahoo.co.uk>; francis mwine <frankmwine22@yahoo.com>; Lugemwa FN <lugemwafn@yahoo.com>; Suzanne F Stevens <suzannefstevens@igniteexcellence.com>; Ugandans at Heart (UAH) Forum <ugandans-at-heart@googlegroups.com>; george okello <georgeokello_8@hotmail.com>; "g.ginah@yahoo.co.uk" <g.ginah@yahoo.co.uk>; Hannah Ogwapiti <hannahogwapiti@googlemail.com>; kasibante hassan <kasibante.hassan@yahoo.com>; kizza hakim <hakimkiz@yahoo.co.uk>; "hajatlynn2@yahoo.com" <hajatlynn2@yahoo.com>; "hmasinja@yahoo.com" <hmasinja@yahoo.com>; Kale Kayihura <kayihurakale1@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, 15 May 2013, 19:12
Subject: [UAH] MR.GEORGE KAMYA: WHICH KIND OF EXILE ARE YOU EXACTLY IN?

Mr. Arthur Kamya,

Thanks for yours below, but i would like to ask you something else: are you in a self imposed exile from Uganda politics or Uganda( as a country altogether)? If it is the later, i would like to inform you that we were recently given reassurances on this forum by none other than the IGP, Gen.Kayihura.......... that everything is ok back home and nothing would happen to any of the critics of the govt abroad once they set their feet in Uganda.

May be General Sejjusa will also qualify for this once he has stayed out of the country a bit longer? I dont know, but that's was the way i understood the message. So, if you fall in this category, then you probably better buy that 'ticket' soon............ God willing.

Back to Hon.Kamya's message, i kind of agree with her in almost everything she posted in regards to Kadaga's decision on rebel MPs. You see, multi-party politics is still in its infant stage in Uganda and we could easily kill it with rulings such as that made by the speaker.......Yet it needs the support of almost everyone regardless of our political affiliations. If someone is a member of a certain party, they surely must have some kind of loyalty attached to that membership, and this includes amongst many things, backing up the party position in parliament. What the 4 NRM amigos were doing was extra ordinary though their behaviour was welcomed by a lot of people in the opposition.

Beti Kamya is a living example of this 'rebellious' behavior when she was still in FDC. She surely rattled my feathers then and i remember we commited a lot of time here discussing her behaviour as an MP and a member of the party. I don't know how she was let to serve the remainder of her term since i'm not FDC, but i don't think it was right. It set a bad presciedent[sp] for multi party politics in parliament, and i dont think it was right. What Kadaga's ruling means is that rebels within parties have been given a free ticket to do anything they want against their parties and i dont agree with this.

Abbey

On Wed, May 15, 2013 at 8:34 AM, Arthur George Kamya <agkamya@hotmail.com> wrote:

Dear Beti:

I have been in self-imposed exile from Uganda politics since the last elections.  I am therefore not very familiar with the intricacies, the ins and outs of the Speaker's ruling and Joe's article which you address.  Suffice it to say, though, that from what I gather from your response, I respectfully disagree with you and take Joe/Speaker's side primarily based on two reasons.  Firstly, I think by your close reading of "Mutliparty" versus "Individual Merit" dispensations of the Ugandan Constitution, you fall into what I will call the fallacy of the fetishization of political parties that is the result of the confusion (dare I say obscurantism) unfortunately sown into our politics by Museveni since 1986.  Political parties are not an end in themselves.  They are merely a means, one of many, of institutional organization of politics. If one takes general practice the world over as a guide, one will find that in most parliaments, while rules of political parties might govern the front benches (government and opposition), they do not register much in terms of generally accepted rules of parliament that govern the conduct of back-bench Members of parliament as they go about their run of the mill parliamentary duties.  That is why many back-benchers are often denied the whip of a particular party in Westminster style parliaments--if, for example they have been found to have broken certain intra-party rules of discipline, yet remain Members of Parliament in good standing as far as the rules of parliament are concerned.  Similarly, while members of the front benches are often bound by rules of collective responsibility to speak with one voice and vote together, back-benchers are often allowed to introduce private member's bills which can be co-sponsored and voted on by any and all back-benchers irrespective of political party.  Secondly, I subscribe to the theory of representation articulated by the great Anglo-Irish statesman Edmund Burke who famously said "Your representative owes you, not his industry [or his political party loyalty--my addendum] only, but his judgement, and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion" 

Respectfully,

AGK  

Date: Wed, 15 May 2013 16:40:03 +0300
Subject:
From: ufapresident@gmail.com
To: agkamya@hotmail.com; lizgod@aol.com; antheapaulaturwomwe@gmail.com; a.turwomwe4@gmail.com; dangualia@yahoo.com; abbeysemuwemba@gmail.com; akimodong@gmail.com; akishuri.bright@gmail.com; bballan9@gmail.com; bosco_nyeko@hotmail.com; dunsteve@yahoo.com; davie256@gmail.com; lateko2007@yahoo.co.uk; kaloli@btinternet.com; conradnkutu@yahoo.co.uk; charlesokwir@yahoo.com; ssematimbacosmas@yahoo.com; sendawulad@yahoo.com; danopolot@gmail.com; dknvule@gmail.com; dickenshoneywell@gmail.com; lugdan2012@gmail.com; mitayopotojsi@hotmail.com; mubirudeoufa@ymail.com; deograt2000@yahoo.com; kaddu.ugandan@hotmail.ca; sam2osekz@gmail.com; kaumbae@gmail.com; erikumartin@ymail.com; kisubiesther@yahoo.com; lonfarouk@yahoo.co.uk; fasttrackproductionsltd@yahoo.co.uk; frankmwine22@yahoo.com; lugemwafn@yahoo.com; suzannefstevens@igniteexcellence.com; ugandans-at-heart@googlegroups.com; georgeokello_8@hotmail.com; g.ginah@yahoo.co.uk; hannahogwapiti@googlemail.com; kasibante.hassan@yahoo.com; hakimkiz@yahoo.co.uk; hajatlynn2@yahoo.com; hmasinja@yahoo.com; onoba@hotmail.com; haddieshillah@gmail.com; iosoro@ug.nationmedia.com; irenekunihira@yahoo.com; isemanyi@yahoo.com; itimos@yahoo.com; isaac.karwe@yahoo.com; isaacmwanda@yahoo.com; bnamutebi@ibrand.ug; info@waset.org; jmatovu2003@yahoo.com; mayanja2005@yahoo.com; musamyajulius@gmail.com; stuart.nahamya@gmail.com; okullojimmyfelex@yahoo.com; jovern6@yahoo.com; johnkizza2000@gmail.com; av.larok@ngoforum.or.ug; lawrencemary71@yahoo.com; mpangae@gmail.com; youngqadaffi@hotmail.com; unia.ed@gmail.com; williamnkata@yahoo.co.uk; nellyn33@yahoo.co.uk; upcnet@upcparty.net; politiksredpepper@gmail.com; pafuladito@gmail.com; patrickodoki@yahoo.co.uk; ssenkungupaddy@gmail.com; rhoniek87@yahoo.com; rmugisha@osiea.org; richard.mukasa@rocketmail.com; rmwanje@ug.nationmedia.com; sarahatim938@gmail.com; ugandafederalists@yahoo.com; sabitikk@hotmail.com; vabikora@gmail.com; vnatuhwera@ug.nationmedia.com; vincentmukiibi@hotmail.com; kyijomanyi@hotmail.com; walugembemss@yahoo.co.uk; wegulumk@yahoo.com; kf8482@gmail.com; ugandacom@yahoogroups.com; yssempogo@yahoo.com; ykayiteshonga@yahoo.fr; yusufkajura@gmail.com

Friday 10 May, 2013

 

 

The Editor,

The New Vision.

 

 

As a student of the Constitution of Uganda (hereafter to be called The Constitution) and believer in organized (multiparty) as opposed to disorganised (individual merit) politics, I am provoked to respond to Prof Oloka Onyango's opinion titled "NRM Wrong on Speaker" published in The New Vision of 8 May, 2013.

 

Quoting the Constitution extensively, Prof Onyango defends Speaker Kadaga's ruling on the (no)relationship between MPs and political parties that sponsor them, once in Parliament. In my view, his powerful arguments sound like a skilled defense lawyer's, than an academic analyzing the Constitution.

 

Article 1 of the Constitution says "All power belongs to the people who shall exercise their sovereignty in accordance with this Constitution". Article 1(4) mandates the people to exercise their will on HOW they wish to be governed through referenda, hence, there is only one way in which the people can express their will on HOW they wish to be governed, i.e. through referenda.

 

Through the 2005 referendum, the people chose to be governed under the multiparty system, making multiparty democracy the apex principle of governance in Uganda, anything less being contemptuous of the people's will.

 

In a multiparty system, people who subscribe to political parties are bound by the respective parties' constitutions and rules, duly registered under appropriate laws. Those who do not wish to be regulated by parties do not join them, and seek election as independents. One cannot be sponsored by a party, then once in parliament, claim the benefits of independents, because you cannot eat your cake and have it. It was in cognizant of this that Article 83(3) provides for recall of MPs by the electorate only during the Movement System where MPs get elected on individual merit, with accountability only to the electorate, so the electorate regulates them directly. It is in the same spirit that Article 83(g) requires an MP who "leaves the political party for which s(he) stood as a candidate to vacate the seat…." and seek fresh mandate because the electorate would have elected the MP knowing her / his political ideology, party manifesto and team-mates. When the MP "leaves" her/his party, regardless of the exit method, the electorate are left with no clear knowledge of whom they are dealing with. Article 83(g) is an entitlement of the electorate for the MP to redefine her/himself so that they know who they are dealing with. It is also a source of accountability to the electorate, who should not be taken for granted, because they know exactly whom they originally sent to Parliament. The much acclaimed "speaking for the people" by the rebel MPs is a fallacy because the people decided through the 2005 referendum that anybody wishing to speak for them must do so under the multiparty system, and under Article 255(3), "…. the results (of the referendum) shall be binding on all organs (including parliament) and agencies of the State, and on all persons (including the Speaker) and organizations in Uganda".

 

Once the People speak (through referenda), their will must be reflected through laws, practices and policies that govern organs, organizations and individuals. The challenge at hand is to strengthen internal party democracy in order to derive inhouse consensus, instead of destroying multipartism when MPs fight their parties under the patronage of parliament.

 

I find it hard to concur with Prof Onyango (and Speaker Kadaga's) insinuation that the Constitution of Uganda feigns ignorance of political parties' interests in Parliament and the need to protect them or deems them irrelevant and inconsequential, in a multiparty dispensation.

 

Beti Kamya-Turwomwe

President

Uganda Federal Alliance

E mail: ufapresident@gmail.com

Tel: 0783 438 201

--

Abbey Kibirige  Semuwemba

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'"The three separate branches of government were developed as a check and balance for one another. It is within the court's duty to ensure that power is never condense[d] into a single branch of government." - Judge Anna Diggs Taylor

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