Like the famous African proverb “What will kill a dog first blocks its nose” goes, this is the tragedy that befallen the political empire of the Mityana Municipality Member of Parliament, Francis Zaake.
MP Zaake Butebi, leader at the National Unit Platform party was on Thursday, 10th March 2022 fired from being the Commissioner of Parliament during the vote of no confidence that attracted wide support.
During the parliamentary vote of ‘NO CONFIDENCE’ cast in a secret ballot, out of 161 MPs, some 155 legislators voted to remove Zaake while only four MPs voted against the proposal and two votes were invalid.
His removal emanated from a motion moved by the MP of Bardege-Layibi Division MP, Martin Ojara Mapenduzi under section 5 of the Administration of Parliament Act.
MP Zaake enters record as the first Commissioner of Parliament to be censored for disrespecting the Speaker of Parliament among other reasons.
This website has investigated some of the reasons as to why the young legislator was censored.
Majority of the legislators expressed disappointment in the way Zaake conducted himself, a thing they say was a disgrace to the entire parliament and could not go unpunished.
“I voted for Zaake to go, what did you expect? If I was around, I’d have seconded Hon. Mapenduzi. How do you degrade the Deputy Speaker of Parliament? You are literally degrading Parliament,” Dan Kimosho said.
MP Kimosho further maintained his preparedness to ensure that Zaake’s name is further rejected by Parliament once resubmitted.
Nobert Mao, the DP leader said irresponsible pride and indiscipline costed MP Zaake his job as the Commissioner of Parliament.
“I hate to have to say this but pride goes before a fall. Bagobye emome! Stick to insulting Norbert Mao. Nze nsiiwa naye oli abalagala…” Mao said.
Some of the notable reasons as to why MP Zaake’s trouble remained prominent include, immaturity, feud with other opposition legislators, poor performance, political arrogance, poor working relation with other MPs among others.
Trouble for MP Zaake stemmed from his social media ranting attacking the person of the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among in February.
“To my consternation, the Deputy Speaker of parliament while presiding over the session of parliament controverted the finding of the High Court in Suit No; 85 of 2020 that I was tortured by sarcastically stating but with the utmost level of recklessness that though tortured won a medal in E. A @parliament_ug games. The utter bunkum emanating from her dishonest loose lips was only intended to mock and break me down, this is idiocy!” MP Zaake posted on his Twitter but soon deleted it.
The vote followed debate of the report of the committee that found Zaake in breach of public trust and confidence. Zaake was probed for statements he made on social disparaging the Deputy Speaker, Anita Among.
Busia Municipality MP, Geoffrey Macho seconded the motion saying the removal of Zaake as a commissioner would bring sanity. He says that the removal of Zaake is not because of his political party but of his character.
The Deputy Speaker said Zaake would apologize to the House within one week adding that the Opposition will have to propose another name for the position.
In his report, Abdu Katuntu said that Zaake did not protect the integrity of Parliament but instead his conduct brought the entire Parliament and its leadership into disrepute.
Katuntu said that the statement with undermined the dignity and integrity of the Office of the Speaker.
He added that Zaake’s statements lowered the esteem of the institution of Parliament in the eyes of the citizens who ought to look up to their leaders.
“Following an evaluation of the submissions and evidence, the committee observes that Hon. Zaake did not take steps as provided in the Rules of Procedure to challenge the words of the Presiding Officer which allegedly led him to post the impugned social media posts. This is clearly so upon examining his statements made to the committee,” he said in his report.
Aisha Kabanda, the Butambala Woman MP who presented the minority report recommended reconciliation between the parties involved in the matter for smooth running of Parliament and avoidance of unnecessary tension.
