The Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among, has rejected the National Unity Platform’s request to recall Parliamentary Commissioner, Mathias Mpuuga, from the much coveted commission.
In response to NUP’s letter dated March 18, 2024, Among cited legal limitations and procedural deficiencies.
She explained that commissioners, once elected by Parliament, serve the entire body and can only vacate their position or be removed by the law.
Among revealed that a parliamentary commissioner can only be removed from the commission if he or she can not perform duties due to reasons like infirmity, misconduct, or incompetence.
“Parties do not possess the necessary legal authority to recall a commissioner once elected by Parliament,” she said.
She said that NUP’s letter did not meet the requirements stipulated in rule 110 of the Rules of Procedure.
NUP Fires Back
Responding to the speaker, NUP said in its communication to Parliament and decision to withdraw the mandate they had given Mpuuga to represent the party as a Commissioner, they were aware that “Ms. Anita Among would seek to protect him like she has previously done.”
Adding, “In any case, Ms. Among chaired the Parliamentary Commission meeting that illegally and immorally allocated the 500 million shillings to Hon. Mpuuga.”
The party explained that their communication, and decision intended to achieve three objectives:
- To be on record and officially communicate to Parliament our disapproval of corruption and abuse of office;
- To reaffirm that given the facts available now, Hon. Zaake Francis remains the legitimate representative on the Parliamentary Commission as he was unconstitutionally removed from that role; and
- To ensure that when the Parliamentary Commission engages in more forms of corruption as it surely will, no wrongdoing shall be imputed on the National Unity Platform. At least for now, the nation knows that Hon. Mpuuga no longer represents us on the Parliamentary Commission.
NUP’s Letter
In the letter, NUP Secretary General David Lewis Rubongoya notified the Speaker of the Party’s decision to withdraw the nomination of Mathias Mpuuga as Commissioner of Parliament, replacing him with MP Francis Zaake.
“If Hon. Mathias Mpuuga remains in the Parliamentary Commission as a Member, he will do so without the mandate of the Party and the opposition platform,” the letter from Rubongoya read.
The Party accused Mpuuga of engaging in acts of corruption and abuse of office when he, along with other members of the Parliamentary Commission, irregularly allocated themselves shs 1.7 billion as “service award”.