Parliament Speaker Among Condemns Police For Teargassing LoP Ssenyonyi In Lubigi

The speaker of Parliament Anita Among has condemned the Uganda Police Force (UPF) for teargassing the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Parliament while performing his constitutional “oversight role.”

Delivering her communication from the chair remarks yesterday during a less-than-hour session that was held to designate MPs to sectoral committees under rules 187 and 188 of the parliament’s rules of procedure, Among said Monday morning’s teargassing of Ssenyonyi and his team “unfortunate.”

“LoP had gone to do his oversight role around Nansana [on] Hoima road and his team was teargassed,” the speaker said, “I feel that was unfortunate.”

She blamed NEMA for allowing people to settle and build in wetlands and then turn around to demolish their houses after long-time encroachment.

“Much as we are not supposed to interfere with enforcement bodies [like NEMA], but by the time somebody settles and builds in a place for years and NEMA was not able to know, that this is a gazetted area for NEMA, then there is a problem,” she said.

She decried NEMA’s selective application of the law where their enforcement operations often affect the poor yet the rich are left to freely use wetlands, urging Government to explain the discrimination.

“We have malls that are built in wetlands. If somebody is going to check and see the people in that area and you are teargassing him, where shall we ever get refugee? I want to hear from the government because it was not called for.”

She asserted, “our [MPs’] work is to support our citizens and in supporting our citizens we are supposed to know what they are going through. And in the process of understanding what they are going through, allow us to do our work. And I must thank you [LoP] for going to check on our people.”

In response, Ssenyonyi appreciated the Speaker for raising the matter related to the demolition of houses in the Lubigi wetland.

“These people [victims] reached out to me severally through the petition, but I didn’t want to speak out of the knowledge gap thus a decision to visit them, but it was unfortunate, we were met with teargas, live ammunition etc, but we had not gone there to fight not even stopping evictions because we don’t have those powers, but to listen to the people.”

Ssenyonyi reechoed the Speaker’s call on the Government’s need to explain what he termed as “double standards.”

“There is a police station and a fuel station but these were not demolished. Government needs to help us understand why they are applying the law selectively.”

People in their 1000s were left stranded after the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) demolished their houses in what is reported to be an operation to reclaim the Lubigi wetland of Nansana-Ganda in Wakiso district.