Supreme Court: ‘Rebel’ MPs Must Stay In Parliament
Justice George Kanyeihamba (L) and the expelled MPs.
The Ugandan Supreme Court sitting at Kololo, Kampala on Wednesday quashed the decision of the country’s Constitutional Court that barred the ruling party’s National Resistance Movement (NRM) ‘rebel’ MPs from accessing Parliament pending a decision on the main petition.
The lawmakers include; Theodore Ssekikubo (Lwemiyaga County) Barnabas Tinkasimire (Buyaga County), Muhammad Nsereko (Kampala Central) and Ndorwa East’s Wilfred Niwagaba.
The four were expelled from the ruling NRM for alleged indiscipline early this year by the party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC). It was chaired President Yoweri Museveni who is also NRM party chairperson.
Wednesday’s decision was reached by a 6-1 majority. Justices Benjamin Odoki, Galdino Moro Okello, Bart Magunda Katureebe, Christine Kitunga, Jotham Tumwesigye and John Wilson Ssekoko.
However, Esther Mayambala Kisakye disagreed with them.
The Constitutional Court ruling that barred them from accessing parliament ruling was a result an application filed by the ruling party seeking to eject the MPs from parliament. It came after Rebecca Kadaga, the Speaker of Parliament rejected a request by the the NRM Secretary General Amama Mbabazi, to eject the MPs.
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I still stand to be educated on some of these constitutional matters in regard to how powers are really vested in a political party to expel people’s reps. from parliament!
Eh, eh, muganda wange oli bubi. You need the abc’s. First of all the politicians entered Parliament on the Political Party ticket. The voters of this particular political party voted them because of their membership of the political party. There are rules and norms to follow in a political party, like in all organizations. This is not the rule of the jungle where it is a situation of free for all. I hope that throws some light, or have I complicated it even further for you?
Actually the only light you have thrown is that you do not have a full comprehension about this issue.
Although politicians will contest elections as political party candidates, the voters will elect them for various reasons;
a. They are voting for the party;
b. They hate the other parties;
c. They like the candidate personally;
d. They have been paid by the party in question;
e. They did not vote for the candidate but the result went his/her way anyway because the elections were rigged.
The above is not an exhaustive list but is an example of the more obvious reasons a person is elected.
Once elected the MP have to swear an oath of allegiance as follows:-
Oath of Allegiance.
I, _______________________________________ , swear in the name of the Almighty God/solemnly affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the Republic of Uganda and that I will preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. [So help me God.]
You will note that under the constitution, from which I extracted the oath, an MP’s primary obligation is to Uganda and its Constitution. Anything else is secondary, including allegiance to and/or support of the party and its rules and regulations.
In terms this means that an MP is free to vote, if his/her conscience so dictates, against the wishes of the party leaders. It is because of this freedom of choice in parliament (that cannot be fettered by party bosses) that there is the position of the chief whip in each party. The role of the chief whip is to get party members to vote in a particular way, if they seem to be wavering or undecided.
The short point is that once in parliament, MPs are not to be treated like kids who should do as they are told or else…! As long as they act in accordance with the rules governing parliament, the party leaders cannot LEGALLY touch them.
Just to tie up a potential loose end. Parliament is not the place to try and discipline errant party members.
NB
“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.” – George Bernard Shaw
Unless u mean the pythagorean theorem, but I at least know from one of those documents related to law that: A member of parliament can lose their seat when they cross from one party to another, get incapacitated by either disease, indispline or get recalled by the constituents but not having a devergent view from the party. Give me some Bwiino on this I here NRM sucking…
hahahah i like the way m7 plays his cards all is to defeat Mbabazi over Kadaga because idont think OdOKI nd his fellos made such decision with out consulting the uganda’s only eye.big up to kadaga sofar its 2:0 goals scored by kadaga watch the space