Mityana Municipality MP Francis Zaake Butebi is no longer Parliament Commissioner. This follows a vote in Parliament which ensured the National Unity Platform’s representative on the Parliamentary Commission is out.
155 MPs voted in favour of a motion, presided over by the Deputy Speaker Anita Among who is at the same time the complainant in the case Zaake is accused of insulting the ‘integrity of parliament’. It is alleged that Zaake used offensive language while addressing Ms Anita Among who has ridiculed his injuries.
Speaker Anita imputed, according to Zaake that he had faked his injuries after suffering state brutality several times. Zaake nevertheless participated in athletics representing Uganda parliament in Arusha Tanzania and won gold.
Zaake reportedly responded on his social media pages, equally ridiculing Ms Anita Among who took offense of the remarks and referred the matter to the Rules Committee.
Communications regulator, Uganda Communications Commission, said It didn’t have capacity to tell the pages used to post about Deputy Speaker where indeed Hon Francis Zaake’s. Zaake himself denied he authored the said words. In his defense ran on this website, Zaake spoke about the human rights abuses he has undergone at the hands of the state machinery and the office of the speaker never came out to condemn the perpetrators. He wondered how he could be summoned over flimsy reasons.
Despite efforts to reach out the Deputy Speaker, the Ayes took the day, as expected. Only four people were against the motion, and two were invalid, during the Thursday night secret vote.
“We ask the Opposition to give us another name,” said the Deputy Speaker who also demanded that Mr Zaake should apologise before the House within one week. It is not clear what the Speaker will do in case he doesn’t, however, observers say, Zaake could even lose his seat in parliament.
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