The Speaker of Parliament of Uganda, Annet Anita Among, has suspended 12 Members of Parliament (MPs) following a scuffle that ensued in the Parliament chambers on November 6, 2024.
During the plenary sitting, the Mityana Municipality MP, Francis Zaake, provoked Anthony Akol, the Kilak Member of Parliament who is also the Chairperson of the Acholi Parliamentary Group, by trying to push him over for taking up his seat in the chambers, which resulted in a serious physical altercation between the two legislators, causing chaos in the whole house.
However, some MPs have expressed their dismay at how the Parliamentary business is being managed by the speaker.
While addressing the media following the scuffle, The Leader of Opposition, Joel Ssenyonyi, protested the blocking of media coverage, tasking Speaker Anita to clarify if she gave such a directive and explain whether the media blockage was intended to conceal a crime that was going to be committed in the Chambers.
“When the media was taken away from here, the lights were switched off, the network was disconnected, and this place was raided by strangers, against Rule 237 of our Rules of Procedure. I want to believe that it was on your order that the media was thrown out, that people raided this House and beat up MPs, and yet as far as I am concerned, you are meant to protect us. But you ordered for us to be beaten today and in this House,” said Ssenyonyi.
“Members were beaten, brutalized, and all of us were being shoved around like little children, in our own House. They were stepping on these chairs, pushing and they picked up a couple of MPs while beating them up. Our colleagues were assaulted, including women, by men, whom we don’t know, they aren’t staff of Parliament, they don’t belong to the Sergeant at Arms office, and they are hooligans and “kanyamas” that came in, with a mission, to beat up MPs.”
According to Ssenyonyi, a couple of MPs were using their phones to record what was happening but their phones were grabbed as they were being beaten up.
He assured the Speaker that none of them was scared of being suspended from the house.
“You have suspended a couple of MPs, and you have said, you can suspend the whole House and so you know, none of us is scared of being suspended. What we want is to protect the sanctity of this House. Members can’t be bundled up, or beaten up in this House. The media was thrown out as if to say, you were prepared to commit a crime. Because the reason why proceedings of this House are public, it is because the public has got to follow whatever is happening here,” stated
Speaker Anita Among, in response, said she was also subjected to the same security checks, and emptying the building wouldn’t be possible because members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) are using the same building.
“We must be mindful that we have EALA seated in the same building. When we came in, I was subjected to checks and I am not immune to anything,” said Among.
Ssemujju Nganda (Kira Municipality) earlier raised concern over the high-security deployment at Parliament, asking the Speaker to empty the Chambers and subject all its occupants and offices around the Chambers checked to ensure that no guns had been brought inside the Chambers.
“I am raising a point of privilege for you to subject everybody and we empty the building because Parliament must be an atmosphere of free debate. We need to inspect all these rooms surrounding the chambers to make sure a free atmosphere for us to have the debate, exists,” said Ssemujju.
He added: “I have been here for a while, we have been subjected to humiliation by security as we were coming to Parliament, and this didn’t only affect Opposition MPs. We were removed from our vehicles and we were being stopped from parking. There are uniformed security personnel who are more than 530 MPs. In our Rules, you don’t carry guns past the main gate. I am not certain that there aren’t guns inside this building and I am raising this because some of us, have fallen victims before.”
