Details have emerged that the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) and its officials on two occasions tried to negotiate for the lifeline of MP Francis as a Parliament Commissioner, but their pleas landed on infertile soil.
According to reports, Nile Post has learnt that the NUP negotiation team was led by their Secretary General Lewis David Rubongoya and it focused on several meetings with people they thought had Zaake’s fate in their hands.
These also included Members of Parliament and certain officials from the Deputy Speaker’s office.
While Nile Post can not verify the members NUP met on behalf of the Deputy Speaker, we can ably confirm that NUP officials also met Gulu West MP Ojara Martin Mapenduzi who engineered Zaake’s troubles.
Nile Post also understands that Zaake personally apologized to the Deputy Speaker on the advice of his NUP colleagues.
Speaking during a talk show on NBS TV’s Morning Breeze show, Butambala legislator and NUP official Muwanga Kivumbi confirmed that indeed, there were meetings to avert Zaake’s situation.
“I met Hon. Mapenduzi on a one-on-one about the issue of Hon. Francis Zaake, the Secretary-General Lewis Rubongoya, also met him, and he agreed to drop the issue. He betrayed us,” Kivumbi confirmed.
“Hon. Francis Zaake actually said sorry to the Deputy Speaker, but his issue was he was also hurt by the words of Deputy Speaker Anita Among. What she said was below the belt,” he added.
However, Kivumbi was defiant adding that the NUP will reinstate Zaake’s name to the commission and will not allow impunity. He said that they will not let Zaake apologize publicly.
“There is going to be no apology whatsoever. We decided that we shall send back his (Zaake) name. We have to defeat that impunity mentality.”
Last week, Zaake was defenestrated from his office as Commissioner of Parliament following a complaint raised by MP Ojara Martin Mampenduzi that Zaake undermined the integrity and decorum of the House.
155 MPs voted for Zaake’s removal from office while only Four (4) insisted Zaake did not do any wrong.
In his address to the media, the Leader of Opposition in Parliament Mathias Mpuuga said Zaake’s removal flouted the rules of natural justice and would be challenged in the courts of law.
Notwithstanding, Mapenduzi the mover of the motion to censure Zaake was appointed by the NUP to head the Local Government’s Committee in parliament.
This was not the first time Mapenduzi was coming at loggerheads with his bosses in parliament, accusing them in February of tribalism when they caused a stir following Oulanyah’s transfer to the USA on a chattered Uganda Airlines’ flight for treatment.