NRM Drops Tumukunde Woman from Parliamentary Leadership
Tororo North MP, Annet Nyakecho, has, at last, paid the price for working against the interests of NRM party chairman, President Yoweri Museveni.
Nyakecho, an Independent MP had been known as a pro-government MP until March this year when she identified herself as a close associate of former Security Minister, Lt. Gen. Henry Tumukunde who had just declared his 2021 presidential ambition.
The ruling party has now dropped her from the lucrative leadership position of Parliament’s Committee on Information, Communication and Technology Committee (ICT) that she has headed as chairperson for the past three years.
Government Chief Whip, Ruth Nankabirwa (Kiboga Woman) informed Parliament that Dokolo North MP, Paul Amoru, who seconded the 2017 Constitutional Amendment Bill (Age Limit) that scrapped age limits for presidential contenders, will now chair the committee.
To punish Nakecho, NRM used the opening for the renewal of the composition of the 16 sectoral committees. While the composition of sectoral committees changes every year as per Rule 183 of the Parliamentary Rules of Procedure, Nankabirwa had maintained Nyakecho in the leadership of the ICT committee over the past three years.
Amoru who has previously been serving as Nyakecho’s deputy will be deputized by Luwero Woman MP Lillian Nakate.
Nyakecho is among the people who were arrested alongside Gen. Tumukunde when security forces raided his residence in Kampala’s upscale neighbourhood.
She later made an emotional statement to Parliament, urging parliamentarians to speak out against the abuse of the rights of Ugandans in detention.
“The treatment that I got while I was behind bars was not good, Madam Speaker. There is a lot of abuse of human rights. There are many people who are in jail and they are there and nobody is bothered when they will ever come out of jail,” Nyakecho told Parliament at the time.
