Tayebwa hits back at Otafiire for criticising size of Parliament, accuses him of hypocrisy
Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa has questioned the motives behind Minister of Internal Affairs Kahinda Otafiire questioning the size of parliament and its relevance, saying the bush war general is a selfish and hypocritical person.
On Monday this week, Otafiire questioned the size of parliament and its relevance. He said it had not performed yet the country was bedevilled with many problems like abductions of citizens.
However, Tayebwa reminded Otafiire that he is one of the beneficiaries of the small constituencies created by parliament that led to its present size.
Tayebwa asked journalists to question the hypocrisy and selfishness of Gen Otafiire and other senior leaders.
He described Gen Otafiire and other senior NRM leaders questioning the ideological commitment of young people in influential leadership positions as selfish and hypocritical.
Tayebwa made the remarks during the 2022 Uganda National Journalism Awards organized by African Centre for Media Excellence (Acme) on December 13.
Tayebwa reminded the likes of Otafiire that the biggest crisis in Uganda is not a crisis of ideology of political parties, it's a question of unemployment, poverty, rising cost of food and cost of living and these challenges cannot be solved by going to Kyankwanzi for training.
"I saw some senior leaders in parliament questioning the size of parliament yet they are the recent beneficiaries of these small constituencies. The questions of 1986 when some people came from the bush might be the questions of today but the answers are totally different," Tayebwa. said.
''The answers to the current problems are not those where you have to remind us that you came from the bush, you have the guns, not at all... the narrative is totally different,“ he added.
The Deputy Speaker recalled his conversation with some of the bush-war leaders who were dragging him into their 1986 disagreements.
"I told them if you had your disagreements, I was born on November 10th 1980, I wasn't part of your disagreements... as young people we have our disagreements today,“ he said.
He said: "If I am a speaker of parliament, I must address the challenges of my generation. People like Otafiire can't keep taking us back to 1986 solutions. You can't say because revolutionaries are no longer at the forefront, therefore parliament is dead. Who told you?”
Tayebwa asked journalists to challenge hypocritical senior leaders whose preoccupation is to drag the young people occupying key leadership positions into the mud.
While Otafiire criticised parliament leadership for limiting the time for members' contributions on the floor to only three minutes, Tayebwa reminded him that in the British Parliament, lawmakers speak for one minute.
"In the Uganda parliament, some senior leaders want 15 minutes because they are repeating themselves.... people are just somersaulting, “ Tayebwa claimed.
