AG KIWANUKA RUSHES TO FIX FINANCIAL CRISIS ABROAD
Untold secrets as to why president Yoweri Museveni on Thursday summoned the NRM caucus over the Anti-gay bill have emerged. At the end of the sitting at Kololo, it was resolved that the president doesn’t assent to the bill but instead, be thrown back to parliament for further study. By pushing it back, it leaves parliament with two options, either to throw it back to him again in it’s present form or agree to put it into limbo for now! Our Inspectors have however, landed on important clues why Gen. Museveni rejected the bill.
HERE WE GO!
When Rt. Hon. Rebecca Kadaga was the speaker of parliament, a similar bill championed by Ndorwa west MP David Bahati was brought to parliament.
The bill got support from people of all walks of life but only failed to remain part of Ugandan laws after court annulled it on technical grounds related to the way it was passed.
The court said the bill was passed without quorum, a matter which current speaker Rt. Hon. Anita Among vowed to address when a new bill was to be passed by her current parliament.
Anita even decreed that the bill would be passed through open voting for members to show their stand. Not only did Anita decree that way but also mobilized clergies to turn up in big numbers on the D-Day which was indeed the case.
With the bill having been unanimously passed by 379 legislators who turned up (save for Fox Odoi), it was sent to Gen. Yoweri for endorsement so as to become part of our laws.
Inspectors said that whereas Rt. Hon. Among and her MPs could have made a noble job, back in State House, it was a different issue.
The president was allegedly bitter that it was passed without his input as was the case with Rt. Hon. Rebecca Kadaga when she chaired a similar bill.
Apparently, in the 9th parliament when Bahati brought the bill, Ugandans welcomed it and the same pressure on parliament and governmnent was locally mounted to have it passed.
But before passing it, secret high-level internal consultations were made on how to balance local political support visa Viz the international support in form of funds. The donors have always warned against passing the law.
We were informed that a skillful Kadaga coined a move where the bill would be passed but also left a serious gap for it to be quashed even when Museveni had ascented to it.
In this move, Kadaga allegedly informed Gen. Museveni that herself she was going to play her part tactically and so was Museveni on the same.
“She brought the bill at a time when there were less numbers in parliament and it was passed. Premier Amama Mbabazi protested in parliament citing quorum and all this was meant to tell donors that the law was impotent. Kadaga sent it to Yoweri who also gladly ‘signed’ it into law. But at the back of their mind was the fact that the bill was going to be quashed by court since it had technical issues related to quorum as raised by Amama” explained an inspector.
In so doing, both Kadaga and Museveni smilingly scored locally as having done their part but knew it well that the law couldn’t stand if taken to court.
Indeed, following Museveni’s signature on the same, Fox Odoi rushed to court and eventually the law was put aside on technical grounds but not on its merit!
“This was never the case for Rt. Hon. Among. It seems she didn’t know the politics involved. The bill was passed without any gap for the courts to exploit if the president signed it. She tied his hands and he has nowhere to begin from since it was overwhelmingly passed” said an inspector.
We’re told having seen that his hands were allegedly tied up by the house, this is the very reason he immediately summoned a special sitting of parliament at Kololo to put the speaker on notice that he wasn’t consulted before the bill was passed. Museveni even told the house that he was going to hold a discussion with the members to express his opinion on that bill.
Inspectors said that ever since the bill was passed, the president has allegedly been under pressure from all corners especially the west with reports suggesting that some of the international financial bodies were allegedly threatening to tighten their taps against governmnent.
“Even loans that had been approved haven’t been released. This explains why governmnent is currently cash-straped. We’re only relying on local revenue which isn’t enough. The bill has put governmnent on financial tenterhooks” said an inspector.
In fact, inspectors said that for the past two weeks Gen. Museveni has dispatched his team led by AG Kiwanuka Kiryowa to meet the west and world financial bodies explaining his position on the bill. The team was supposed to assure them that the president hadn’t assented to the bill and was determined not to sign it. The move was meant to restore hope in them that parliament acted on its own and he never approved the move.
To prove that he was serious about not signing the bill, this was the reason the deputy AG Kafuuzi hurriedly penned a legal opinion to Gen. Museveni asking him not to assent to the bill. The Kafuuzi legal opinion was meant to lay ground for his hitherto intended meeting with NRM caucus and also assure donors of the executive’s official position.
The existence of such a legal opinion was brought to the attention of parliament on Tuesday by Among’s right hand man and commissioner MP Solomon Silwanyi.
In the meantime, since the donors seem to be determined to keep governmnent on alleged financial drip, that’s why Gen. Museveni personally summoned the NRM caucus to Kololo on Thursday and it is here that the whole deal against the bill was harmered.
In a dramatic turn of events, the NRM MPs who were singing (speaker) Anita Among ‘abeewo’, backtracked and sided with Gen. Museveni to reject the bill and throw it back to parliament!
We’re yet to see what is in stock for Rt. Hon. Among as her supposed troops have since defected.
“This is the time for the public to know whether you’re for homosexuality or against it. And we’re going to vote by show of hands so that the people can know the quality of their leaders” speaker Among said prior to the passing of the bill championed by oppositon MP Asuman Basalirwa.
Locally, the same bill allegedly created political animosity for Museveni as it had put pressure on him from across the country with everyone asking him to sign the bill. In fact, this is the reason his internal trips appear in bits and yet speaker freely traverses the country as a heroin whenever MPs invite her to their constituencies. Now that it has been thrown back to parliament, inspectors said the heat has allegedly been reduced on him.
Watch this space!
