Nakawa West constituency Member of Parliament Hon. Joel Ssenyonyi who doubles as the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) party spokesperson, while appearing on one of the local Television shows has confirmed that there were negotiations between the Leader of opposition in Parliament (LoP) and government over the release of the two jailed NUP legislators.
Ssenyonyi’s admission comes after several media reports claiming that there’s a working relationship between the current opposition leadership in Parliament and the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) under President Yoweri Museveni.
“Of course there were media allegations accusing some opposition leaders of cutting deals with government, but I’m not aware about any of those deals. However, I admit that the LOP engaged in different negotiations with several arms of government to ensure that our colleagues regain their freedom,” Ssenyonyi stated.
He however challenged members of the general public with information about any other deal between opposition leadership and government, apart from the one that involved the releasing of Hon. Ssewanyana and Segirinya from prison to bring the facts in the lime light.
A few weeks back, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament together with the Leader of opposition held a security meeting with different government officials and discussed on the status of the jailed legislators as well as other security concerns in the country.
From this background, different media reports that are familiar with business in Parliament suggested that the final deal that saw the two legislators set free could have been reached at in the same meeting.
Hon. Segirinya and Ssewanyana are accused of masterminding the spate of machete killings that rocked the greater Masaka sub-region between March and June 2021 and left about 26 residents including the elderly dead.