Minister Namuganza snubs parliament’s select committee again

The state minister for Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Persis Princess Namuganza has once again snubbed the select committee of parliament which had summoned her to defend herself against a censure motion. 

Namuganza was summoned by the committee chairperson Mwine Mpaka Rwamirama (Mbarara City South) to appear at 10:00 am in 102B North Wing Room to defend herself. But she instead sent a representative, Norman Pande, a lawyer from Mwanja & Company Advocates.

Pande confirmed to the committee that their client received the letter inviting her to the meeting to defend herself against allegations of misconduct contained in the motion. However, he argued the attachments to the letter only refer to allegations of media publications which were not attached.

Pande presented a letter dated January 12, 2023, addressed to the speaker, deputy speaker, clerk to parliament and the select committee citing subjudice, short notice and lack of evidence of the allegations levied against the minister indicating that she’s unable to file her defence.

“Justice hurried is justice buried that is my submission…the concern we’re talking about here is sometimes we’re given one day, the motion had issues to do with requesting social media and requesting media houses to authenticate those allegations [but] they are not availed to the client…two, we have said this matter is subjudice,” said Pande. 

Mpaka agreed to give the minister more time to appear before the committee to defend herself. His attempt to ‘transmit’ the evidence to Namuganza through the representative fell on deaf ears as Pande vehemently denied taking on such responsibility.

“Since you’re here, we need you [Pande] to give the evidence that we collected yesterday [Thursday] so that you help us and transmit it to your client [Namuganza]. We’re going to transmit the evidence we received yesterday to the honourable minister, and we’re also going to give you more time like you have requested and we’ll give the benefit of the doubt and you write to your client asking her to come and defend herself,” said Mpaka. 

Mpaka adjourned the meeting to Tuesday next week, deliberately skipping Monday, which is normally a day for the meeting of cabinet ministers with the president. The select committee has until January 23 to present its report on the floor of parliament for subsequent steps.

Yesterday, the committee met several legislators including John Amos Okot (Agago North), the mover of the censure motion and Dan Kimosho (Kazo County) who presented various pieces of evidence.

The evidence included Daily Monitor articles and video footage that aired on NTV and NBS news bulletins where Namuganza, who doubles as the Bukono County MP, Namutumba district allegedly made offensive statements degrading parliament and speaker Anita Among.

Namuganza’s trouble stems from an investigation report of an ad-hoc committee set up by parliament to investigate her involvement in the giveaway of Nakawa-Naguru land to some investors.

She is accused of falsifying the president’s letter directing Uganda Land Commission (ULC) to allocate the disputed land. During the committee probe, the minister walked out of the meeting and later described the committee as powerless to investigate her. She also questioned the integrity of the deputy speaker, Thomas Tayebwa who set up the committee in July, 2022 to investigate her.