MPs Shocked as Committee Report on Kasese Palace Raid Delays for a Year

MPs were on Thursday shocked to discover that a year later, the Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs is yet to compile a report on the raid in 2016 by armed forces on the palace of Obusinga bwa Rwenzururu (OBR) in Kasese district which resulted in the death of an estimated 150 people.

In November 2016, the Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga tasked the committee chaired by Mityana Woman MP, Judith Nabakooba to investigate and present a report within a period of 45 days.

Security at the time said the Omusinga (King) of Rwenzuru kingdom had trained and armed royal guards who prior to UPDF’s intervention had shot at and killed policemen leading to the closure of police posts in the area.

All heads of cultural institutions in Uganda are guarded by government security. However, the Rwenzururu cultural leader, Charles Wesley Mumbere had trained hundreds of royal guards and rejected goverment security.

Efforts to engage Mumbere led to no good results until UPDF intervened to stop what was considered an armed rebellion in pursuit of secessional agenda of Yiira State. The palace was raided and a part of it later burnt.

UPDF recovered ‘Yiira State’ currency from the palace and guns that had been used to murder the policemen. The King was arrested and arraigned before Courts of law.

Usually, Parliament committees are required to investigate and report to the House within one and half months and when a given committee cannot fulfill that requirement, the Chairperson writes to the Speaker seeking more time.

Following Busongora North MP William Nzoughu’s complaint to the House that the people in Kasese wanted to hold a memorial service but were blocked by security and had nowhere to complain, deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah asked for the committee report, which Vice Chairperson Kezekia Mbogo said, was ready.

However, after allocating space for presentation of the committee report on Kasese killings, the house discovered that the report has never been written, a year later.

Both Mbogo and Nabakooba were not available in the House and Oulanyah’s attempts to find out from the committee clerk revealed that not even a draft was about to be written.

Butambala MP who is also committee member, Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi said Mbogo had earlier misinformed Parliament that the report was ready for presentation.

But Kivumbi wondered how Parliament would conduct an investigation on a matter that was before the courts of law.

“I attended the meeting at State House Entebbe. The President in a tough tone wondered how Parliament would continue with investigations, fully aware of the case before court,” Kivumbi told the House.

“He [Museveni] said the matter was prejudicial to court and requested the Speaker to order the committee to stop work immediately. The meeting was then diverted into other issues including MPs asking favors from the President. So, there is not even a draft of that [Kasese killings] report,” Kivumbi said.

Oulanyah asked committee chairpersons to take their duties seriously to avoid delaying parliament business.

“Take it as your responsibility to finish matters that are before the committees in time. Complete the task so that Parliament can take a decision other than playing these kind of games,” Oulanyah said.