Betrayals that Breaks the Hearts of Fighters, as Mp Gaffa Mbwatekamwa withdraw Censure Motion of General Elly Tumwine

Hon Muwanga Kivumbi of Butambala is the one who moved the motion of censure against General Tumwine on the floor of Parliament and not Kasambya North MP, Gaffa Mbatekamwa.
What Mbwatekamwa did was to run to the Clerk ahead of Muwanga to file it. We didn’t find fault with that, so we let him be the mover. From the discussions about a report by the Committee on Human rights, Parliament had unanimously agreed that there was need to follow our rules of procedure to officially move the motion of censure against security Minister General Elly Tumwine.
According to our rules of procedure we had up to Monday next week for the motion to expire. Hon. Kasibante and Hon Allan Ssewanyana had volunteered to be whips and had intensified hunt for signatures.
I signed on Tuesday as number 23, but in the next twelve hours another 16 MPs had signed and a number of others had called to say that they were coming to sign today, Thursday when we expect a full house because of the debate on education.
On the other hand Hon. Bwatekamwa had disappeared from the team and even dodged the Press Conference that was held to brief journalists on the progress of the petition. So it took all of us by surprise to see Hon Mbwatekamwa at a Press Conference alone announcing for withdraw of the motion.
It’s true that the motion had not attracted many signatures yet not because it is a hopeless motion but because its addressing a very important matter in the Country. Only 39 MPs have so far signed the motion out of the150 required for the censure process to move to the next stage but the movers had intensified lobbying and the public had started putting their MPs on pressure to sign, so anything would have happened between yesterday and Monday.
It’s a pity that Honorable colleagues wants us to lobby them, kneel or even pay them to join the fight against illegal arrests, kidnaps, torturing and even killing Ugandans in safe houses. What took them that long to sign?
But even then, you don’t kill a patient just because you suspect he will die anyway. We are all perturbed to learn that a person who hijacked the motion from the mover, has already written to speaker Rebecca Kadaga notifying her of the intention to withdraw the motion! These colleagues of ours who are partly NRM turn out Interesting…they are very unpredictable….at times they present themselves as great supporters of change and do brave things against the junta. And at other times, they give us away at very crucial moments.
By the announcement of Mbwatekamwa, the censure motion has collapsed amidst confusion without a fight,no one can now give in his/her signature. It’s another opportunity we Members of Parliament have wasted in the fight for Democracy and Human rights in Uganda. We don’t fear to lose, everyone knows that we don’t have the numbers, but even losing can be planned well at least to send the message clearly….what we have now done, makes the situation even worse by boosting Tumwines ego.
The writer is Member of Parliament for Mukono Municipality Betty Nambooze Bakireke
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