Senior legislator Cecilia Ogwal has said she will never forgive the security minister, Gen. Elly Tumwine, for assaulting and humiliating her.
She made the declaration yesterday while interacting with the parliamentary committee on rules, privileges, and discipline, probing a case, where Gen Tumwiine is accused of insulting Speaker Rebeccah Kadaga and Ogwal.
Committee member and Bugweri County MP Abdul Katuntu, in reference to a Hansard extract that quoted Elly Tumwine in last week’s plenary session apologising to the legislators for any would have been misbehavior, asked the Dokolo Woman MP on whether she found it courteous and prudent to forgive a colleague and bury the hatchet for that matter.
“I do not think I would record to the committee that I have ignored and therefore forgiven Gen Tumwine for what he did on Tuesday last week. The way he threatened me in public confirmed that he does not respect the institution of Parliament,” she said.
Ogwal, the main complainant, yesterday appeared before the parliamentary committee for the first time to give her account of the events.
She says it all started when Bukonzo West MP Atkins Katushabe, tabled a matter concerning statements made by Tumwine that belittled the Speaker of Parliament and the institution of Parliament on the floor of Parliament.
“Who is the Speaker? Who is she? What is Parliament? The Speaker rules over Parliament, not Uganda. This country was liberated by our army not Parliament,” Tumwine was quoted as saying.
Ogwal went on to point out to the legislators that it could have been her remarks on Katusabe’s statements that angered Tumwiine. In one of the statements, Ogwal said,
“Do you remember when you and I were in the Speaker’s dining room when you actually pointed a pistol at me and I reported you to the sergeant-at-arms during the debate on the use of DDT in fighting malaria in the Seventh Parliament?”
Ogwal went on to disclose to the committee how Tumwine later followed her up to one of the lobbies.
“He approached and insulted me like I was his small daughter.”
“Gen. Tumwine came and spoke to me with bitterness saying, ‘You are lying I never pulled a pistol at you’, at some point I thought he was going to poke a finger at me,” she said.
The senior legislator added: “One time, Gen Tumwiine went physical with the Deputy Speaker, Jacob Oulanyah, back in the Seventh Parliament when the latter was the chairperson of Parliament’s legal committee. This clearly confirmed that his character is unparliamentary.
” Ogwal, however, expressed her dissatisfaction with the CCTV footage that was tabled before the committee yesterday.
“I am not surprised that the footage has been tampered with. Gen. Tumwine being the security minister, could have ordered for the tampering of the footage,”
Cecilia asserted.
The committee chairperson responded Ogwal saying, “You should not be conclusive in this matter. This is our job.” Gen Tumwine is slated to appear before the committee today to give his defense to the accusations against him.