Suspended MPs vow to defy; We can force ourselves back

Update:

Suspended legislators decide to move out of parliament, contrary to their earlier statements that they will defy the speakers ruling.

 

The Six Members of Parliament who have been suspended from Parliament sittings for masterminding chaos as the House resumed debate on the proposal to amend the presidential age limit, have vowed to return for the next session.

The MPs, suspended by the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga; are Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, Allan Ssewanyana, Gerald Karuhanga, Jonathan Odur, Akol Anthony and Mubarak Manyangwa.

"I am not going to respect Kadaga’s suspension because this is not her parliament. I am here to represent my people just like her. Reasoning with the speaker on procure does not tantamount to being suspended. She was coached to do it, she came predetermined to suspend us, we wont allow it,” Ssewanyana said.

“The speaker suspended us after adjourning the house, we shall discuss this with our chief whip but do not rule out the fact that we can force ourselves back,” Munyagwa said.

“I find the ruling of the speaker weird, she adjourned the house and then suspended us. She had ceased being the speaker,” Karuhanga said.

“What has been happening since morning is criminality, the speaker interpreting rules as if she did not even go to a nursery school. Even the suspension is criminality,” Ssemujju said.

Meanwhile Medard Lubega Ssegona urged the suspended members to return to the House.

“As far as I know, they are not suspended, you can not suspend speakers from the corridors of parliament. That was corridor talk,” he said.

This is the second time in a space of less than three months that Ssewanyana and Odur are suspended from the house. They were last suspended in September as part of a group of 25 legislators accused of paralyzing parliament business, on the day Igara West MP Raphael Magyezi was expected to table a motion for a private members bill seeking to, among others, amend the presidential age limit.

The September 27, suspension resulted in chaos when plain-clothed security personnel raided the Chambers to eject them forcefully.

Sewanyana and Odur will stay away from parliament for seven sittings. The others; Ssemujju, Karuhanga, Akol and Munyagwa, who are suspended for the first time, will miss the next three sittings of Parliament, according to the Rules of Procedure.

Earlier, Kadaga had warned that members who breach rules of Procedure would face tougher sanctions.