Aston Kajara, the State Minister for Investment is in trouble over lying to parliament last week during a debate on the current power crisis in the country.
On Thursday, Kajara caused controversy in the house when he said that parliament was reaping what it sowed. Kajara, who is also MP for Mwenge South, reportedly made the comments to journalists at parliament.
The statement by Kajara followed the numerous power black outs at parliament, which forced the house to adjourn abruptly on at least three different occasions. MPs complained that the private power generators were blackmailing parliament to pass the 207 billion shillings to subsidize their operations.
But when asked to substantiate what he meant when he said MPs were reaping what they sowed, Kajara vehemently denied having said so. His denial and exchanges in the house with other MPs forced Speaker Rebecca Kadaga to direct a clerk to parliament to monitor the recording of the minister’s comments on one of the TV stations.
Now, MPs from the ruling party and a number from the opposition who watched and confirmed that Kajara had made the statement have vowed to censure him when parliament resumes. They have demanded that he apologizes, resigns or faces the censure.
Kampala Central MP, Muhammad Nsereko, who is drafting the censure motion, says some of them have come to the house to clean it of lack of integrity and corruption. He says he has given Kajara up to this week to apologize.
Nsereko also says that Kajara, being a minister, is a representative of government who should always live by example and not tell lies, especially on the floor of parliament.
Nsereko’s views of disciplining Kajara are supported by Gabriel Aridru, the MP for Arua Municipality, who has said that he only wants to hear the minister apologize so that the matter is left off. Aridru told Uganda Radio Network on Tuesday that he has not yet thought of endorsing the move to censure Kajara arguing that such a suggestion is still too far away.
When contacted, Kajara said he is ready to defend himself if the matter comes up on the floor of parliament for debate. He clarified that his statement that MPs were reaping what they sowed was in reference to the delay to build Bujagali power dam, which was blamed on the 6th parliament and not the 9th.
Parliament is still on recess and is expected to re-open for debate within the next two weeks.
