Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga has rejected two of the three leaders appointed by the Forum for Democratic Change as the leading opposition party.
Kadaga informed Parliament on Tuesday during the State of the Nation Address at the Kampala Serena, that FDC’s appointed Leader of Opposition and the Chief Whip had been given the wrong titles.
FDC last week announced that they had appointed Hon Winnie Kizza as Leader of Opposition, Hon Semujju Nganda as the opposition Chief Whip and Cecilia Ogwal as the Parliamentary Clerk.
Mafabi’s letter to Speaker Kadaga
However, in a letter introducing the trio to the Speaker of Parliament by the FDC Secretary General Nandala Mafabi dated May 17th, he named Hon Winnie Kizza as the “Leader of the Minority” and Semujju Nganda as the Party (FDC) Chief whip instead of the “Opposition Chief Whip.
Kadaga today told Parliament that this was against Constitution of the Republic of Uganda and Parliament’s Rules of Procedure.
“Hon Members today intended to introduce to you the 10th Parliament’s Leader of Opposition…but when FDC’s Secretary General wrote to me last week, he said the party has appointed the ‘Leader of the Minority,’ which office is not recognized by our rules of procedure,” said Kadaga.
As such, she revealed that she had written back to the Hon Mafabi, asking him to clarify on the titles of the two leaders and that thereafter, Winnie Kizza and Semujju Nganda would be officially introduced to Parliament.