As emotions continue to run high over debate on the controversial National Coffee (Amendment) Bill, 2024, the speaker of Parliament has suspended 12 MPs from the House following a scuffle in the chambers during plenary session on Wednesday morning.
A fight broke out between Kilak North MP Anthony Akol and his Mityana Municipality counterpart, Francis Zaake after the latter tried to shove the former off a seat he had momentarily vacated to make a point of order on the floor.
In his presentation, Mr Zaake had expressed concern over safety of members in the chambers, arguing that some individuals who are not MPs had entered the House with guns.
The Speaker, however, said the person Mr Zaake was referring to is her bodyguard. She then asked the sergeant at arms to subject her bodyguard to a body search and later told the members that there was no gun.
When Zaake turned to take up his seat, he found Mr Akol occupying it before he attempted to shove him off.
In response, Mr Akol stood up and punched Mr Zaake severally to the ground before chaos broke out as the Speaker fled the chambers.
Moments later, Zaake was seen being wheeled into a waiting ambulance to be evacuated to hospital for treatment.
When the Speaker returned moments later, she read a list of 12 MPs she said would not be allowed to attend plenary for three consecutive sittings because of misconduct.
The MPs are; Akol, Zaake, Wakayima Musoke, Aloysius Mukasa, Charles Tebandeke., Isaiah Ssasaga, Asinansi Nyakato, Derrick Nyeko, Frank Kabuye, Ronald Evan Kanyike, Susan Mugabi and Shamim Malende.
“I am proceeding to name the MPs and suspend these members for three consecutive sittings from this House. The Members are suspended with immediate effect from the House. I am also evoking Rule 88(2) to order the above MPs to withdraw immediately from the House and accordingly order the Sargent at Arms that they vacate the Chambers and therefore, suspend the House for 15 minutes,” the Speaker ruled.
Earlier, Ms Among evoked Rule 9 and declared a free sitting, given the huge numbers of MPs in the Chambers today.
Meanwhile, security has been tightened in and around Parliament premises with MPs subjected to thorough security checks before entering the chambers.
This prompted Kira Municipality MP Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda to raise concern over the high security deployment at Parliament, asking Speaker to empty the Chambers and subject all its occupants and offices around the Chambers to a check to ensure that no guns had been brought inside the Chambers ahead of the anticipated heated debate on the National Coffee (Amendment) Bill.
“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 that a free atmosphere for us to have the debate exists. 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, we were being stopped from parking. There are uniformed security personnel who are more than the 530MPs. 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,” Mr Ssemujju said.
In response, the Speaker said the security was to ensure safety of the members.
“We must be mindful that we have EALA seated in the same building. When we came in, personally, I was subjected to check and I am not immune to anything,” Ms Among said.
Watch the video below:
Source: monitor.co.ug
