Members of Parliament (MP) in the opposition have today highlighted a number of reasons that have kept them from attending the event for the 2018/19 budget reading.
Addressing the media at Parliament, the Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LOP), Winnie Kiiza said that they feel that their security is compromised following threats from President Yoweri Museveni.
In his speech at the burial of the late Ibrahim Abiriga, the President accused the opposition noting that the death of the legislator could have been as a result of his commitment to the NRM ideology.
Kiiza told the media that the President’s utterances were an unbearable insult to the opposition and that it has already started impacting on them. She said that this is partly explained by the arrest of Mukono Municiplaity MP Betty Nambooze yesterday.
In the same manner, the Obongi county MP, Kaps Hassan Fungaroo still remains at large as President Museveni directed for his arrest on allegations that he incited violence among the mourners in Arua Municipality.
Winnie Kiiza told reporters that the crackdown on the opposition MPs is worrying and creating fear with in them hence they could not simply show up at a budget function where they are not sure of their security as they fear to be arrested.
“The country must know that you can’t keep calling me a killer and then invite me to your house expecting me to turn up. What if something happens to him in the house and they think it is us who have killed him,” Kiiza said.
“The public should know that we are dissatisfied with his actions, you can’t call us killers and you walk away with it. This shows how democratic we are because we know all his men are out there looking for who to arrest,” Kiiza said.
Kiiza however said that the witch hunt of the opposition by government opposition over Abiriga’s death is simply to divert attention of Ugandans from the real killers, as well as letting President Museveni evade his duty of securing Ugandans.
“President Museveni knows that Ugandans will follow the story to the later hence diverting the attention by arresting legislators and this will not work,” she added.
