With the recent condemnation of the Speaker of Parliament by opposition politicians on the way suspended MPs were treated last week, Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda has defended Rebecca Kadaga for protecting her authority. He said that in the midst of open defiance to the Speaker’s instructions, she acted swiftly and wisely by asking security operatives to reign in.
The Prime Minister told a news conference on Wednesday that instead of frustrating a motion that had the support of the majority, opposition MPs ought to have followed legal and Parliamentary procedure.
“They acted in open defiance of the Speaker. I have never seen such defiance throughout the time I have been in Parliament,” Rugunda said.
Owing to the fracas that was propagated in the chamber by MPs on the opposition side on Wednesday last week, the Prime Minister said; “The Sargent at Arms was at liberty to call for reinforcement from other security agencies to ensure there was order”.
“We salute the Speaker and her Deputy for being extremely tolerant because their orders were defied and disrespected until they were overstretched and took necessary decision to restore calm.”
He hailed the security agencies for intervening to protect the Speaker and Parliament “which is an important institution in a democracy.
“When we have different views, we should solve them through rational discussions because it is such discourse that brings out what the people of Uganda want,” he said.
On her part, Ruth Nankabirwa the government chief whip said that Speaker Kadaga’s decisions were to rescue Parliament from an attempted coup, demonstrated from acts of Opposition MPs to prevent the Speaker from speaking.
