Yesterday’s Parliamentary session was at some extent an exchange of legal jargons, some insults, and a show off of power as the Members of Parliament debated the Shs10 billion that they allocated to themselves as they passed the Shs304 Supplementary Budget last week.
The exchanges were between Attorney General William Byaruhanga in one corner, and Speaker Rebecca Kadaga and some MPs in the other corner.
The Attorney General’s purpose was to give his legal counsel to the House regarding the money that has already been transferred to the MPs, saying that the Court Order that was issued by the High Court to halt the transfer until April 29, 2020 is still legally binding, even though it came after the money had been already transferred, saying that, “any money spent (by MPs) after the April 21, 2020 amounts to contempt of court.”
The Speaker disagreed with the Attorney General, saying that “By interfering with the Shs10 billion, the judge is interfering with the whole supplementary of Shs304 billion. That means it is all under injunction. It was all in one bill.”
According to former legislator and Cabinet Minister Miria Matembe, the Speaker’s behaviour towards the Attorney General in Parliament yesterday was filled with ‘unnecessary anger.’
“Rebecca Kadaga, seeing the unnecessary anger with which you shut down the Attorney General and called colleague MPs stupid; while denying the powers of Court over Parliament, one wonders who is more stupid than the other,” Matembe tweeted.
It should be noted that the contested Shs10 billion was advanced to MPs last week (Shs20 million each) to help them fight COVID-19 in the country, and according to Kadaga, they will be incorporated into the district COVID-19 Taskforce and provide accountability of this money.