Ministers defend themselves Over House Absenteeism

Kampala: A number of ministers have defended themselves after Speaker of Parliament Anita Annet Among adjourned the House prematurely yesterday over what she called chronic absenteeism by ministers.

Among expressed disappointment after it came to her knowledge that none of the 83 ministers was present in the parliament to respond to queries of the day.

She was particularly angered that despite persistent calls made to the ministers to attend plenary, they still didn’t show up.

“As you see, this is one of the abandoned houses and we are wondering whether we still have Ministers! How do we handle the house, MPs have issues, how do we handle the house without Ministers, how?” a disappointed Among posed.

“I am not sure we are going to continue like this, I think I need to talk to the Executive, We are going to talk to the Executive on this matter,” she added.

However, Defence and Veteran Affairs Minister Vincent Ssempijja blamed the traffic jam for his late arrival at parliament.

“I can’t speak for everybody but I want to talk for myself. I started moving from Mbuya at 1pm but the road had a lot of traffic jam. The roads are being worked on, you have to wait. Even with the sirens, you cannot push your way through the traffic jam”, Ssempijja told Country Radio.

On his part, the state minister for defence Huda Oleru explains that the workload on ministers’ desks sometimes compels them to get in the plenary sittings late.

Rukia Nakadama, the 3rd Deputy Prime Minister explained that she reached just two minutes after plenary had started and then the Speaker Among adjourned the House.

The Speaker who has been a long-term crusader against absenteeism in the House now says she will bring the matter to the immediate attention of the Head of the Executive, President Museveni.