Heated Exchange: LOP Joel Ssenyonyi Clashes With PM Robinah Nabbanja Over Kibalama & Medical Interns

Quintans are professionals like anybody else. If they don't have money even for accommodation, if they don't have money for feeding, how shall we expect them to show up even without transport to take care of us including us in this place and our constituents out there? Right speaker, I would like to urge and entreat government to with immediacy drop this problematic policy. Right speaker, I join you to welcome colleagues who have joined us in ex-official capacity. Um, we have been waiting for them on our end. Uh, we hope right speaker that they'll be present in the house. We have had battles previously where the house convenes and there's two or three ministers. A number of times the presiding officer has had to suspend the house because there are no ministers. Now that you're 80 plus, please be present for the business of this house.

Right honorable speaker, you have uh indicated that uh you don't know yet the shadow cabinet ministers. I am here to inform you of the same. Right speaker, but do allow me and I seek your indulgence right speaker to raise uh just two critical issues before I notify you of the shadow cabinet. Two critical issues now that colleagues on this side are here. Speaker, the media has been awash and I've seen some communication from government officials about a critical concern of medical interns in this our country. Medical interns they form the cracks of the medical infrastructure of our country. They literally run government hospitals and government health centers in all our constituencies. Sometimes they work 36 hours. Other times they work 48 hours nonstop to take care of the people of Uganda. Government has historically facilitated them to do this work. They have finished the training and then they do the one-year internship of work. But we understand government is now mooting a policy to cease facilitating medical interns, to cease paying them for the work, the laborious work that they do. That's a bad right honorable speaker. It's a bad because we are going to have a challenge. These medical interns are professionals like anybody else. If they don't have money even for accommodation, if they don't have money for feeding, how shall we expect them to show up even without transport to take care of us including us in this place and our constituents out there? Right speaker, I would like to urge and entreat government to with immediacy drop this problematic policy.

And the question of the lack of resources does not arise. Government recently suspended public holiday functions to save money. We had already as parliament passed that entire budget and so that money is available and about 24 billion shillings is going to be saved. Now that those national functions are not going to happen beginning with yesterday Heroes Day, why don't we channel that money to the medical interns? In other words, available government, let's find this money so that we can pay medical interns. Do you want to ask the leader of government business to respond to your? Certainly, let me finish it in a minute right honorable and then she'll come through with the response. So I am urging her to marshal her cabinet to find resources for medical interns. And I was emphasizing honorable speaker this is not one of those political issues that we should be debating NRM opposition and so on. This is a matter of concern to all of us. So I hope that government is going to find resources for that. Finally, right honorable speaker for the response of the prime minister, right speaker, there's again a concern of human rights violations that are not ceasing. We talk about these issues and many times we hope that government will move and do better. It does not happen.

I am concerned right honorable speaker about persons who are missing to date. Some belong to the NRM side, some belong to the opposition side. One of our colleagues, the honorable Margaret Atilu who is the Amura woman member of parliament. We were taking oath here with her among others. We understand she was arrested on 23rd May before went to elect the speakership. Her family, I've seen them in the media asking for the whereabouts of their person. Lawyers are asking where she is. We are asking right speaker. Honorable speaker, I'm leader of the opposition. But I should also be concerned when an NRM member who is a colleague in this house disappears and we don't know her whereabouts. It should concern all of us just like it should concern colleagues on the side if it happens to any of us. So that's how I am concerned. Where is this member? Can government account for a member? This is happening to a member of parliament. If she has committed any offense, Article 283 of our country's constitution provides very clearly somebody's innocent until they are proved guilty. Why is she not produced in court? Where is she being held? Take her to court. If she stole money, for example, I'm always speaking out against corruption. Take her to court so that she gets charged. If she needs to go to jail, she goes there. But for now, can due process happen? Similarly, right honorable speaker, there's a young man called Christopher Agodi, also known as King Zary. He belongs to my political party. Was picked up by the military in Kamocha on 21st April. His whereabouts to date are not known. Why does government not want to follow the law? You see, even myself, even yourself as a leader, we can all be suspected to have committed an offense. What does the law say? Why don't you produce people in court when you abduct? And we call it abduct because you're not following the prescribed procedure of arrest. Right honorable prime minister, why don't you want to follow the law? And right honorable speaker, we were here at another time speaking about missing persons. There's a gentleman called John Bosco Chibalama. He was abducted on 3rd June 2019. It's been 7 years since the right honorable prime minister told us Chibalama was arrested. Up to now government has not accounted for Chibalama and 17 others and we are adding on to that list. Why? Government needs to account for these people. Thank you. Both NRM and the opposition. Right honorable prime minister, talk to us on these issues.

Thank you very much. Right honorable speaker. Allow me to thank the leader of opposition for raising those fundamental issues and I would like to thank the right honorable prime minister for the clarifications that she has given to the house. Right honorable speaker, I'm here to supplement the clarification which the prime minister has just given to the house. Firstly, the teaching and learning of sciences which has cost the medical doctors to more than double or triple in our education institutions is a fundamental policy issue by government. And when I say government including members of the opposition, they supported that policy in the committees. And therefore we are talking about the positive impact on the deliberate channeling of resources to the human resource development of our country. But I would like to make a short response to this house which I would like to request the house to support. That we as government go and discuss and review the proposal that is now across the media across the country and the issue that the leader of opposition has raised on the stopping of the facilitation of interns. It can be reviewed. The policies that we make, the laws that we make are not cast in stone and our being here is to solve the problems of the people. And that's why I'm saying my supplementary clarification to what the right honorable prime minister said is that allow us as government to return to the drawing board, discuss the issue and at an appropriate time the minister of health comes here with a clear statement which we shall discuss with facts. Secondly, secondly and lastly, the honorable Margaret Etilu, a woman member of parliament for Amurya is my daughter. She is a sister to some of you. She is a muzukulu to some of you, but she's my daughter. We all know that she is being detained. But the clarification I would like to give in light of what the prime minister has said. What the prime minister has said is that she has met her family. Some of her family members were permitted to have an interaction with her. She is safe. She is healthy and she will be joining us soon. We have been speaking to the law enforcement officers in police on phone. Some of them we have met physically. We did not want to involve cameras. The concern that the leader of opposition has on honorable Margaret Atilu is a concern that all of us have about her. But from the messages that we have received from law enforcement officers, the assurance is that she will be joining us anytime this week. That's what the last message I got yesterday from the concern. The attorney general may wish to clarify on the procedures because the leader of opposition is concerned about legal. Is it legally done or it not being legally done? But I think that also can be done at an appropriate time with the statement by the attorney general. And finally from the last parliament we have been discussing about the people who have disappeared. So and so he's not seen so and so including that name called Chibaluma. We in the last parliament we used to discuss. We used to discuss you members of parliament who were here in the last parliament we used to share and every time that matter would come up would agree that it is not a flimsy matter. It is a matter that should be presented to this house in black and white. So I request that the leader of opposition agrees again that the minister for security on those names which he has mentioned returns here next week with a statement because it's a matter that affects all of us. We all have relatives and friends who are opposition. You also have relatives and friends who are NRM. So this issue we are discussing does not affect only you as members of opposition. It affects all of us as members of parliament, as leaders, as Ugandans. I thank you, Mr. Speaker, for giving me the opportunity.

Thank you very much, Lope. Now you give us your ministers.

Honorable speaker, allow me to first appreciate the vice president um for her response which has been um properly clothed and uh easy to understand. Because when you compare it to the prime minister, the prime minister was simply mocking this house. Prime Minister, meet more often with the vice president so that she can coach you on how to respond to some of these issues. Because you see, even when you're being given bitter medicine, somebody can put a coating of some sugar. So it's easy to take the medicine down. That's what the vice president has said. I may not fully agree with everything she has said, but she has clothed it in a motherly way. And so it becomes easy for me to follow up now that she has promised number one, the question of these interns, you're going to go back and cabinet and review and you have said nothing is cast in stone. That is what the vice president has said. It's better than what the prime minister said, mocking and saying we increase the numbers and so on and there's no harm in learning from your senior the vice president. Is that a bad thing? You don't want to learn. Go for it.

I am glad she says she always consults the vice president. I was only encouraging her to continue to do it a lot more regularly. But you see, government now that you are reminding us that you did pass that policy to promote sciences and we were here and for us were saying it is a good thing. You're paying science teachers better. We said also pay the arts teachers better but away from that now that you promote sciences and young people are graduating as interns and so on or medical interns. Don't make it ironical by failing to facilitate them and then discouraging the younger ones who will say maybe it's not attractive to study sciences. So please follow through. And then finally, right honorable speaker, please, it's good the vice president has given us assurance to follow up on these missing persons including the name that I have mentioned the most recent one Christopher Godi aka King Zary. Let's follow up, produce people in court including John Bosco Chibalama. The prime minister is mocking us here to say the Chibalamachment was a chairperson of her village. Which one you said was arrested? He killed people. You need to come with a report because it is here that you told us. We were asking you about John Bosco and you told us that very person was arrested over certain offenses. So that's the one we are talking about. Please don't mock this house. We are waiting for the responses. Right honorable speaker, pursuant to rule 152 of our rules of procedure which mandates the leader of the opposition to constitute and designate colleague members of parliament to the shadow cabinet. I have the honor to submit the duly constituted shadow cabinet for the 12th parliament. The honorable Harriet Nau Caunga district woman representative. She's our deputy chief opposition whip and shadow minister for the presidency. The honorable Eugenia Nasulo Luaga South Member of Parliament, shadow minister for cooperatives and micro finance. The Honorable Seu Gonzaga Kalongu West MP, shadow minister for defense and veteran affairs. The honorable Sheila Amano Mukono district woman representative, shadow minister for information and anti-corruption. The honorable Dr. Eunice Apio Oam County North MP, shadow minister for science innovation and technology. The honorable Kasur Ismile, Homemer West division MP, shadow minister for trade.