NRM CEC: How M7 grilled Whip Obua over parliament commissioner jobs

On Friday, 1^st March, President Museveni who also doubles as the National Chairman of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) met the members of the party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) at State House, Entebbe.

This is the party’s top decision making organ.

Details of the meeting have been scanty.

But through highly placed sources, this publication has landed on them.

Many topics were discussed (as we shall subsequently report) but today we are restricting ourselves to the issue of parliamentary commissioners.

Rule 11 of the Parliamentary Rules of Procedure states the composition of the Commission to include the Speaker, who shall be Chairperson;

the Deputy Speaker; the Leader of Government Business or his or her nominee; the Minister holding the Portfolio of Finance; the Leader of Opposition or his or her nominee; and four Members of Parliament one of whom shall come from the opposition and none of whom shall be a Minister.

Rule 11(6) says the four backbench commissioners shall hold office for two and a half years and shall be eligible for re-election.

The NRM has three slots on this commission and opposition one.

The current commissioners on the NRM side are Prossy Akampurira (Rubanda District), Solomon Silwany (Bukooli Central) and Esther Afoyochan (Zombo District).

Opposition is represented by Mathias Mpuuga who is currently under pressure from mother party NUP, to resign following the Shs 500 million ‘Service Award’ saga when he was the Leader of Opposition.

However, their term ended in December last year and over 280 NRM Mps had applied to replace them.

Curiously, the three commissioners are still serving.

We are told this stalled appointment of new commissioners has infuriated NRM Mps who want the same positions.

During the CEC meeting this matter came up members reportedly pointed fingers at the Speaker of Parliament Anita Among.

Members expressed displeasure and discomfort with the designations of commissioners of parliament that were made without the input of CEC.

This, they say, contravened the rules of procedure for the NRM parliamentary caucus.

Museveni, who is never in a hurry to judge and make conclusions (a gift many contemporary leaders lack), tasked the Speaker to defend herself.

However, the Speaker instead told the President that she was on the receiving end of the tirade and instead he should ask the Chief Whip, Hon. Hamson Obua to explain.

When the President asked the Chief Whip, he told him he too was stuck with the overwhelming interest in the few positions by over 280 MPs who applied for the limited positions.

We are told many CEC members who were earlier furious with the Speaker just ducked their tails and murmured in hushed voices regretting why they were after all blaming her for something beyond her control.

“The President instead asked them to defer the matter to a later date and instead concentrate on the party elections which are around the corner,” the source revealed to us.

Initially, commissioners were appointed by CEC before the NRM caucus rejected the move and demanded that they are elected for effective leadership accountability.

The Clerk to Parliament is Secretary to the Commission, whose functions include to exercise disciplinary control over staff; and to make recommendations on the allowances payable and privileges available to the Speaker, Deputy Speaker and Members of Parliament, among others.

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