The special session of parliament that was called to debate the Oil sector ended on Tuesday with a firm resolution made by the over 200 legislators for government to follow.
At the end of it, over 11 resolutions were made.
But behind the open debates were more interesting and in some cases shocking revelations that came out during the two days of a stormy debate that extended deep into the nights.
The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, though in firm control, had a rough time presiding over a house that was united against actions by some ministers and government and decided to shed away their political party differences and focus on the Oil debate.
But by the end of the session, the MPs across the political divide stood up in ovation for the manner in which she steered the house.
On Tuesday, the interesting moments included a stand off between the MPs and the first lady Janet Museveni who refused to withdraw her statement that had labeled the MPs’ deliberations as useless. For 10 minutes, as Janet stood at her microphone transfixed and speechless, 11 MPs from the opposition and six from the NRM party, shouted down and heckled at the president’s wife, demanding that she withdraws what the MPs termed an insult to their effort of returning to Kampala from their constituencies for a special debate.
While some shouted her to sit down and others stood up on a point of order and of procedure, it was interesting to watch the over 40 ministers present visibly embarrassed at the president’s wife being shouted at.
Barnabas Tinkasiimire, the NRM MP for Buyaga even moved a motion under Rule 66 of the Parliamentary rules of procedure, to stop the first lady from speaking again on the debate. Janet was only saved by other members who said that was excessive and demanded that she only withdraws the word useless and the debate goes on.
The Karamoja minister later complied with the demand in accordance with the rules and was allowed to contribute.
Janet said she was not happy that MPs were over shouting at each other instead of listening to the important debate in the house. She later walked out of the plenary before the debate ended.
By evening on Tuesday, it was apparent there was bound to be more drama.
One such drama came from the Deputy Leader of Government Business in parliament, Gen. Moses Ali who took to the microphone and accused NRM MPs of merging with the opposition to oppose government. But when points of order were raised against him Ali defiantly refused to leave the microphone, attracting booing and heckling from both sides.
Ali dared the MPs to shout louder than him as he refused to let go of the microphone for the mover of the motion, Theodore Ssekikubo who was standing on a point of order against the retired General.
Ali angered the MPs more when he accused them of behaving as if this was the first time they were starting the war against corruption. He controversially told them that even if they set up the investigations, nobody was going to implement it apart from government.
By the time the house ended the two-day business, the leader of government business, Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, had been silenced and could not stand up to oppose any of the suggestions moved by the petitioners. He had accused the Speaker of not giving him enough time, drawing the fury and tongue lashing by Kadaga against him, who ruled him out of order because he had been given adequate time to speak for government but had chosen to instead use the time to defend himself.
Parliament returns for the second session of the 9th parliament on October 25th, and it will be interesting to see how they deal with the oil bribery allegations and the officials implicated.
