The parlaiment has informed the president about their plan to censure the State Minister for Housing, Ms. Persis Namuganza. After over half of lawmakers signed the motion to condemn the minister, Mr. Thomas Tayebwa, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, informed lawmakers last Friday that he would write to the President about the situation.
According to a State House source who asked to remain anonymous and who spoke to this publication yesterday, the President was informed via a letter the Deputy Speaker sent to him on December 23.
“Mr Tayebwa wrote to the President on the same day (December 23) and informed the President of the House’s intention to censure Ms Namuganza based on their [Parliament’s] Rules of Procedure,” the source said. “His [President’s] response on the matter is yet to be known,” the source added.
Mr. Tayebwa used Rule 109.8 of the Rules of Procedure to inform the President that the House intended to censure Namuganza (Bukono County).
“The petition of censure having been moved, the Speaker shall forward the text of the motion, the supporting grounds, particulars and the supporting documents to the President within seventy-two hours of moving of the motion, for onward transmission of the same to the concerned Minister,” the rule reads.
Rule 109 (9) then states that the Speaker shall appoint a select committee to which the motion and all supporting documents shall be referred, and the committee shall, among other things, examine and identify evidence to the allegations, fourteen days after the date of transmission of the Motion to the President.
The select committee’s chair will then present a report on their findings to the House before the Speaker invites the chief petitioner to start a discussion on the motion, which will then be followed by a minister’s defense. If the motion is withdrawn for a specific cause, the debate may not continue.
But if the debate proceeds, Rule 109 (13) states; “the House shall vote on the Motion and if carried by more than half of all the voting Members of Parliament, the Speaker shall inform the President of this fact within 24 hours from the time the Motion was voted upon.”