Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, the Member of Parliament for Kira Municipality, has raised a question regarding the Speaker of Parliament's lack of action against the First Lady Janet Kataaha Museveni.
He claimed that the First Lady has never attended a single meeting and instead the Speaker engages in disputes with other ministers who are also absent from plenary sessions.
Ssemujju made these remarks during his appearance on the NBS Frontline show on Thursday night.
"Whenever the issue of attendance is raised in Parliament, I have asked either Speaker [Anita Annet Among] or her deputy [Thomas Tayebwa] to account for Janet Kataaha, who underwent vetting on Zoom. She has never attended a single meeting," he expressed.
Ssemujju expressed his confusion as to why the two speakers have not taken any action regarding Kataaha's absence from Parliament, yet they make noise about other ministers who fail to attend.
"I heard the speaker say that Kataaha is attending through the iPod. Why do they quarrel with other ministers who are not attending if she is attending via Zoom? Perhaps they are also attending through the iPod. If she participates in the plenary on her iPod, she can answer questions on her iPod," he suggested.
He emphasised that they have informed the speakers that the issues between the opposition and the government are not between them and the opposition but between the opposition and the government itself, and they need the government to be held accountable for the missing persons.
In April of this year, Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa expressed dissatisfaction with the absence of ministers from plenary sessions, deeming it a "shame" for ministers whose items were listed on the Order Paper to fail to show up.
Tayebwa suggested the need to engage the appointing authority regarding the issue of absent ministers, which has become a growing concern in Parliament.
He assigned the Government Chief Whip, Hamson Obua, the responsibility of reprimanding them, urging Obua to publicly name and shame the ministers who do not attend plenary sittings, both as Members of Parliament and as ministers.
"I don't know which words to use here, but this is embarrassing. I believe this is a matter we will have to raise with the appointing authority again so that we can clarify whether ministers are supposed to come here or not," he said.
Recently, Among issued further instructions to the Clerk of Parliament to prevent MPs who boycott plenary sittings from participating in committees and traveling abroad.
She reminded legislators of their responsibilities and emphasized that attacking her would not resolve any issues.
However, Leader of the Opposition Mathias Mpuuga maintained that the ongoing boycott of plenary proceedings by the Opposition will continue until all demands regarding gross human rights violations, including an explanation for the whereabouts of the 18 missing persons, receive a proper response.
During a press conference at Parliament on Friday, the Leader of the Opposition referred to the directives issued by Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon. Anita Among during the previous day's plenary sittings as a diversion.