It was a tense day in the Ugandan Parliament as Mr Mathias Mpuuga, the leader of the opposition, blocked Prime Minister Ms Robinah Nabbanja from presenting a statement on police brutality against Opposition Woman MPs from the previous week.
The atmosphere was charged with emotions and tempers flared as MPs from both sides of the house exchanged heated words.
Mpuuga demanded that the Ms Nabbanja discloses the whereabouts of Mr John Bosco Kibalama, a member of the National Unity Platform (NUP) who had been missing for two years.
Mr Kibalama’s is one f the NUP supporters whom the party has on several incidents indicated that he has been missing for more than two years now with no trace.
Early this year, Ms Nabbanja, while accounting for the NUP missing persons indicated that Kibalama had been arrested during the November 2020 election campaigns riots but this was quickly quashed by the opposition who indicated that Mr Kibalama had disappeared on June 3, 2018.
During the altercations with Mpuuga, Nabbanja retorted that she had no information on Kibalama’s whereabouts and that it was not relevant to the matter at hand. She accused the opposition of trying to deflect attention from the issue of police brutality yet she is serious because she has served the Country well and is patriotic.
The situation escalated quickly, and soon other MPs from both sides joined in, making the whole scene chaotic. The Speaker was forced to call for order, and security personnel were called in to restore calm.
Eventually, Hon. Mpuuga relented, and the Prime Minister was able to present her statement on police brutality against Opposition Woman MPs. However, the issue of Hon. Kibalama’s disappearance remained unresolved.
Hon. Mpuuga agreed to allow the Prime Minister to present her statement on police brutality, while the Prime Minister promised to make inquiries about the whereabouts of Hon. Kibalama and report back to the House.
The whole matter took the intervention of Ms Anita Among the Speaker of Parliament who asked the Prime Minister to present a clear report on the whereabouts of Kibalama.
“I would like to ask the Prime Minister to table the statement on missing persons tomorrow such that we can have this matter completed,” the speaker directed.
Close to three years Kibalama had disappeared, NUP reported several cases of some of their supporters being picked from their houses and on the roadsides by men wearing security uniforms. While presenting a list of more than 1300 persons in parliament,
Defense Minister Jejje Odong said that the people had been picked from various places following the melee that ensued on the Kampala streets where 54 people were killed by the army during the protested against the arrest of NUP Presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine in Luuka district during campaigns.
To date NUP says more than a dozen of their supporters have been missing and there is no accountability on their whereabouts.