Published on 30/11/2023
Nov 30, The Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LoP), Mathias Mpuuga, has been granted up to Tuesday, December 4, 2023, to prepare a response to the Government’s statement on the opposition issues, including accountability for the alleged 18 missing Ugandans, most of them supporters of the National Unity Platform (NUP) party.
Mpuuga, who led his members of the opposition back to plenary sittings of the House on Wednesday afternoon, pleaded with Speaker Anita Among to allow his team to retreat to respond to each of the points presented by State Minister for Internal Affairs, General David Muhoozi.
While appreciating the attempt by the government to respond to the six issues the opposition had laid down when deciding to boycott plenary sittings, Mpuuga wondered why it would take 40 days to prepare a statement and promised to return on Tuesday with a rejoinder.
The power of the people is resident in this House of Parliament and the power to sustain it is domiciled in Parliament and therefore, nobody can repurpose the power of Parliament to sustain, maintain and assure the power of the people. We appreciate the attempt to respond to this. It should never take anybody with any power 40 days to respond to the needs of the people especially when it is about rights, said Mpuuga.
He added that Parliament will be presented with a challenge to make decisions on the prayers he will make in the rejoinder because it will tackle each of the responses made by the Minister in his statement.
Now that we have received this, I would like to ask of your indulgence to allow me and my team make a rejoinder to this stamen and this rejoinder will place each one of us in the philosophy of Leo (Tolstoy, Russian philosopher) whether we are actually alive or indeed we are humans. I don’t need 40 days; I will be back on Tuesday to make a rejoinder and in that rejoinder, I will make very particularized prayers for which this Parliament will be on test, he added.
Speaker Anita Among granted the LoP’s request to return next week with a rejoinder on the grounds that the statement by the Government had been supplied late.
The report came a little late and we expect a rejoinder from the opposition and it is just prudent enough that we give the Leader of Opposition to bring his rejoinder on Tuesday at 2pm and then we will take a decision on that day on what we will do, she ruled.
The report
The statement presented by Gen Muhoozi was signed off by his senior Minister Kahinda Otafiire and Parliament will still expect more information later on if the commitment made by Vice President Jessica Alupo on Tuesday is to be relied on. The Speaker had granted presentation of the partial report after Alupo informed Parliament that during the Cabinet meeting on Monday, President Yoweri Museveni had directed relevant Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) to expedite the process of handling the alleged human rights issues so that the government can inform Parliament and the general public.
Gen Muhoozi, while presenting the report, informed Parliament that the government is not able to account for the alleged missing persons because most cases have been reported to the police such that they are declared missing as per the law.
This can only be done with the police, which was not done, and which is still being resisted by the people approached, Muhoozi said.
He added that some cases where the opposition attributed alleged disappearances to security operatives had been reported earlier by the relatives of these people as unwitnessed disappearances.
About the largely publicized disappearance of John Bosco Kibalama in 2020, the Minister said the government’s investigations reveal that his vehicle was reportedly found abandoned along the road, and all the belongings that he had at the time, were intact in the vehicle, including a mobile phone, laptop and an iPad. He also added that there were other unwitnessed disappearances like in the cases of Kasumba George and Kisembo Godfrey whose relatives had reported to police earlier before even the Mpuuga made their case to Parliament.
Gen Muhoozi said that the government is aware that the opposition is using a smear campaign against President Yoweri Museveni’s administration before the international community and such allegations of missing persons are key factors.
It has also been established that there is a well-orchestrated smear campaign of aiding people who seek to go abroad in search of livelihood opportunities to claim political persecution and or persecution for belonging to sexual minorities. These false and mendacious claims against the government, are, unfortunately, sometimes believed by those in the host countries, who are gullible to take these claims as true without verification, he stated.
He gave the example of Onzima Godfrey alias Tower and Kikomeko alias Yekolera, the suspects who had evaded appearing in Court for allegedly assaulting Kamuntu alias Majambere and fled the country.
The Minister also reported that there are inconsistencies in the numbers and the testimonies in various claims of reported disappearances as presented variously by the Uganda Human Rights Commission and the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, and the latest statement by the LoP.
The next of kin of the reported persons did not cooperate with the police investigators and those police had to hold out as members of a Non-Governmental Organisation in order to interview these people, he added.
Other issues
On the issue of alleged victimization of Muslims and claims that there are more Muslims in detention than any other denomination in criminal matters, it was the government’s response that again the opposition did not have the real facts at hand.
The statistics from the Uganda Prison Service as of 30th September 2023, indicate that Muslims constitute only 16.4 percent of the inmates in all Uganda Prisons. They fall behind Catholics who are 43. 1 percent and Protestants at 29.5 percent respectively. It is therefore clearly not true that the number of Muslims in prisons is bigger than that of the other denominations. It is also equally not true, that because the Catholics and Protestants are more in the statistics given by Uganda Prisons Service, they are therefore targeted on account of their faith, the Minister noted.
Responding to the opposition issue of alleged human rights violations in fishing communities, Gen Muhoozi told Parliament that, indeed there have been complaints about misconduct of some of the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) soldiers deployed on the lakes to deal with irregular fishing.
He said that, however, most of the complaints of torture by soldiers on fishermen have been dealt with and the culprits punished.
Another issue that needed the response of the government before the opposition returned to Parliament concerns the alleged political prisoners in custody by security agencies. On this, the Minister insisted that Uganda is a democratic country under multiparty dispensation adding that the government of Uganda doesn’t arrest people because of their political inclination.
People are arrested and charged for suspicion of commission of crimes that are clearly prescribed under the law. The people reportedly held in custody, were charged with various offenses, and the courts will determine their cases. If there are complaints about the conduct of these cases, there are remedies within the law, which can be invoked by the complainants. Agencies and institutions of Government are not above the law. The General Court Martial’s jurisdiction, which is being challenged in LOP’s statement, is a lawful court and has jurisdiction over the trial of civilians, where such civilians are charged with offenses of the nature that brings them under the ambit of the jurisdiction of this Court, said Gen Muhoozi
The country, however, will be focusing on Parliament on Tuesday next week to see what resolutions will be made after debating both the government statement and rejoinder by the Leader of the Opposition.
