Re: Oulanyah blocks motion to re-open Daily Monitor. *...........others like Jack Wamai Wamanga praised Gen Ssejusa for speaking out yet Mr Julius Maganda (Indep, Samia Bugwe South) said: “Gen Ssejusa wrote that letter in good faith and he spoke on behalf of the cowards in the army.”*
*What kind of Uganda's MP that utters this trash?* ***Does "Take No Prisoner Operation" in Acholi, and other crimes against our people, show this Tinyefunza thug to be some kind of patriot or what?* *Our MP's, at least, should use their brains.* *Mass crimes were committed. * Parliament- Lawmakers calling themselves “friends of independent media” Wednesday castigated the decision of the deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah to block a key motion that sought among others to force government to re-open the closed media houses. After an emotional debate in the House that ended at about 9:30pm on Wednesday, Busiro East MP Medard Ssegona (DP) and Buyaga MP Barnabas Tinkasiimire (Buyaga West) moved a motion seeking for a resolution of parliament to reopen Daily Monitor, Kfm, Dembe FM and Red Pepper ‘forthwith’ but was blocked by Mr Oulanyah through unclear circumstance. In his wisdom, the deputy Speaker told the members who accused the government of muzzling free speech and freedom of the press-- the epitome of democracy, that Parliament does not have any powers to direct the government to reopen the closed media houses before he asked the friends of independent media to “get serious”. Mr Oulanyah also advised the aggrieved members to seek legal redress in the Constitutional Court. When members pushed the deputy speaker to allow them amend the motion so that parliament can condemn the state clamp down on independent media, Mr Oulanyah said: “It’s the decision of the court, we [parliament] don’t want to interfere with the [on-going] police investigations. That motion will bring parliament into disrepute.” The police authorities have since defied the court order directing them to vacate the Monitor Publications premises they seized since Monday. On Thursday, instead of opening the gates to allow employees to access their offices, police deployed more officers. The lawmakers yesterday brought this to the attention of the deputy speaker but nothing was done to assist jobless employees and the affected businesses. Trouble started after the lawmakers rejected a statement from Internal Affairs Minister Eng Hillary Onek on what they called the illegal closure of media house as “useless” and “ludicrous”. “Gen David Sejusa is an MP and a senior serving army officer, a member of High Command. The Minister must account for the whereabouts of Gen Ssejusa to provide the information about the letter. I have not seen any complaint from him denying the letter The Monitor published. He is the author of the letter not Daily Monitor which you have declared a scene of crime,” Ms Ann Nankabirwa (NRM, Kyankwanzi said. The lawmakers led by Theodore Ssekikubo (Lwemiyaga), Gerald Karuhanga (Youth Western) and Ibrahim Ssemuju Nganda (Kyadondo East) wondered whether the police search warrant from court necessitated closure of the media houses. They also asked the police to look for Gen Ssejusa and stop harassing journalists. Others like Jack Wamai Wamanga praised Gen Ssejusa for speaking out yet Mr Julius Maganda (Indep, Samia Bugwe South) said: “Gen Ssejusa wrote that letter in good faith and he spoke on behalf of the cowards in the army. We would like to know as parliament whether Gen Ssejusa is in exile or he simply extended his stay in the UK?” Earlier parliament compelled Eng Onek to produce the search warrant on which police based their action against the independent media. Eng Onek tabled two letters from Executive Director Uganda Communications Commission Godfrey Mutabazi dated May 20th which the lawmakers suspected to have been backdated. This explains why Mr Ssegona has moved a motion that the appropriate committee of parliament investigates the purported letters from UCC. Explaining the closure of independent media houses, Eng Onek said: “This is a sad period for our country. The letter gave an impression of a divided government with a divided army which is not the case.” The minister promised to convey members concerns to authorities in government for corrective measures. The minister also explained that at the beginning of the investigations, the police interest was to establish the authenticity of Gen Ssejusa’s letter published by Daily Monitor and that police had received prior information that Daily Monitor was about to publish additional information related to Gen Ssejusa’s letter. But in what the lawmakers called political semantics intended to hoodwink Ugandans and the international community, the minister said the newspapers and the radio stations have not been closed but have been told to halt operations.
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