Africa-Press – Uganda. A section of legislators have questioned the legality of the move by the new State Minister for Youths and Children Affairs, Mr Balaam Barugahara, in which he pledged to submit a list of incarcerated National Unity Platform (NUP) party supporters to the President for pardoning.
Giving his maiden speech in Parliament on Wednesday, Mr Barugahara faulted the NUP leadership, particularly the Leader of Opposition (LoP), Mr Joel Ssenyonyi for failing to provide him with the list of their arrested supporters, despite his earlier request for the same.
“When I was in the Appointments Committee, the Speaker Anita Among asked me to speak to the President to ensure that NUP supporters are released, and the President in his voice said, give me the list. I hope the Leader of Opposition, Joel Ssenyonyi, is here. I am yet to get it,” he said.
Although Mr Barugahara’s submission seemed to have irked Mr Ssenyonyi who in rebuttal referred to the former as an excited novice minister, a day after, the LoP heeded the request and tabled the lists of both missing and incarcerated party supporters.
“I seek your indulgence so that for the umpteenth time, I table those lists again so that there will be no excuse from anybody because there are people who are saying NUP isn’t availing these lists. All of a sudden, some people care so much about these people. It is good that they now agree with us that these people are simply being persecuted,” Mr Ssenyonyi told Parliament, chaired by the deputy speaker, Mr Thomas Tayebwa on Thursday.
However, the Buyaga West legislator, Mr Barnabas Tinkasimire queried the legal circumstances under which the LoP was required to submit prisoners’ lists to Mr Barugahara. He added that the law should be left to take its course if the suspects are being tried on legal grounds.
“We have the Amnesty law in this country when the lists are laid before Parliament as requested by [Mr] Balaam, are we handling some amnesty process? Because as far as I know, when you are suspected to [have] committed a crime, you are produced before courts of law and a due process is followed. It is those who choose to ask for amnesty and formally apply for it in the Amnesty Commission that are given the same,” he noted.
Speaking to the media last week, the NUP president, Mr Robert Kyagulanyi (Bobi Wine) disowned Masaka-based NUP councillor, Mr Ali Kateregga who requested President Museveni to pardon dozens of NUP supporters who are spread in various prisons across the country over petty crimes.
Mr Kyagulanyi reiterated that there is no need to beg President Museveni for the release of the party’s supporters because they are being prosecuted for their political affiliations with the opposition.
It is against this background that the Bugabula South legislator, Mr Maurice Kibalya on Thursday accused NUP leadership of politicizing the issues of their embattled supporters by attacking whoever volunteers for their justice.
“Even us who are in NRM, we feel for those people who are in custody, we request that when we get volunteers who are ready to intervene in this thing, let us put politics out of this and get people who are ready to help. But what happens on most occasions when somebody moves towards getting a solution, you see the party coming in trying to play politics here and there,” he said.
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