Parliament Rejects Removal Of Abed Bwanika as Chair of Committee on Government Assurances

Parliament has rejected the dropping of Abed Bwanika and Joyce Bagala as Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Government Assurance.

The firing of the Kimanya-Kibonero MP and his Mityana District Women counterpart was proposed by Opposition Chief Whip John Baptist Nambeshe.

This was during the 3rd sitting of the 1st meeting of the 4th session of the 11th Parliament on Wednesday, June 19th.During plenary, the top agenda was the designation of MPs to sectoral Committees. This follows the National Resistance Movement’s Central Executive Committee’s decision to drop all their Committee heads.

After the Government Chief Whip Hamson Obua was done with designating NRM MPs to Committees, Nambeshe followed suit with the opposition lists.

Following designation, Hon Nambeshe also announced the decision to drop fellow party members Abed Bwanika and Joyce Bagala.

In accordance with Rule 196 of our rules of procedure, I withdraw Abed Bwanika and Joyce Bagala as Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of the Committee on Government Assurance.

Nambeshe

He then re-designated Hon Ssewungu Joseph of Kalungu West as the Committee’s Chairperson. Wakiso District Woman MP Betty Esther Naluyima was designated to assist Ssewungu.

However, Hon Elijah Okupa of Kasilo County questioned why the chief whip was rushing to standing Committees before the house was done with sectoral Committees.

The Speaker later guided, and Hon Nambeshe had his floor after the designation of sectoral Committees was done.

But Nambeshe would face a stiff task as Maurice Kibalya of Bugabula South tasked him to explain why NUP was dropping the two MPs.

Nambeshe stuck to Rule 196, which doesn’t require the Whip to give a reason for dropping an MP.However, Leader of Opposition in Parliament Joel Ssenyonyi cited the dormancy of the Abed Bwanika-led committee as a reason

All the Committees that we head have been meeting severally, but this isn’t the case for the Committee on Government Assurance. We need this committee to meet regularly so that it can check the Government’s promises

Joel Ssenyonyi

However, the NUP didn’t have its way as MPs voted against the motion to drop the duo.

Sour relationship

Hon Abed Bwanika and Joyce Bagala have been at loggerheads with the leadership of the party, NUP.

This sour relationship was sparked by the party’s decision to fire Deputy President Mathias Mpuuga.

Mpuuga, alongside the other three Parliamentary Commissioners, is under fire for reportedly allocating themselves shs1.7 billion without Parliament’s authorisation.