The deputy publicity secretary of Democratic Party (DP) Alex Waiswa has dragged speaker Rebecca Kadaga to court, saying the manner in which opposition MPs were dragged out of parliament leading to the consequential tabling of age limit bill was illegal.
Waiswa, during a phone interview with Matooke Republic, said that Kadaga breached several rules that govern how parliament should be run, which means that whatever followed after the eviction of these MPs was illegal.
“She did not follow the right procedure. Rule 16 of the Parliamentary Rules of Procedure tells the methodology of how you can proceed as parliament minus following the rules of procedure to the latter, but that must come in form of a motion. You must bring a motion that guides you on how to suspend the rule.
“There are rules you cant suspend in parliament. Those are called entrenched rules. These are rule 5, rule 4 and rule 3. These basically talk about how parliament is formed and the leadership of parliament like the speaker and others. Those are called entrenched rules,” Waiswa said.
He added that Kadaga proceeded minus any MP bringing that particular motion to legalise preceeding with parliamentary sittings which he said was an error.
“It was erroneous because once you don’t follow those procedures to the latter, it means whatever you have discussed is invalid,” he explained.
He said that now, they are seeking for declaration to restrain the speaker from taking any disciplinary action against those MPs.
“We are seeking for a declaration that whatever thing they [opposition MPs did on September 26 was right because article 3 of the constitution talks about how you can defend the constitution. Singing the national anthem because the constitution was being abrogated was not a crime,” Waiswa concluded.
