The government chief whip, Hon. Ruth Nankabirwa has sternly blamed Hon. Ssemuju Nganda together with his other opposition members of Parliament for assuming a lot of importance and playing the role of the Speaker.
While appearing at the Frontline talk show on NBS TV, Hon. Nankabirwa who was filled with a lot of fury expressed her resentment towards the opposition leaders for the ‘street hooliganism’ they exhibited in parliament by making noise and jumbling plenary.
Hon. Nankabirwa further blamed Hon. Ssemuju and other opposition members for taking advantage of the speaker’s earlier ruling by saying that the speaker ruled that she will only make amendments to change the constitution in the early days of parliament and now NRM members are pushing her to the wall so that she can go against her word.
She also claims that refusing a bill to be brought to parliament is playing the speaker’s role which is intolerable. ‘Why are you speaking for the speaker? She said she will not let any motions in the house to amend the constitution.
However, she accepted motions connected to amendment of the constitution. Who are you to refuse a Member of Parliament then? Why are you even talking for the speaker when she is quiet?’ she bickered.
Hon. Nankabirwa further secured her actions of presenting the motion before the cabinet members by claiming that it is her role as the government chief whip to present proposed motions to cabinet members and therefore no one is allowed to throw tantrums at her for performing her duty.
Much more, she told off allegations from Nganda about bribing cabinet member to support the motion. ‘My duty is to always bring Cabinet on board on what is happening in Parliament and that is what I did.’ She said.
Following yesterday’s plenary gathering, Hon. Nankabirwa advised the opposition members and the entire public to allow Hon. Magyezi to seek leave and draft the bill because they cannot claim that it targeting Museveni yet they have no idea about what it entails.
She also informed the public that Hon. Magyezi has the right to move a private member’s bill as accepted by the law and therefore the public should respect his right. Hon. Nankabirwa further cautions opposition members against making claims that they successfully failed the motion to be tabled in parliament because it was initially not on the order paper.