The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Members of Parliament have taken offence to criticism by Security Minister Gen. Elly Tumwine over their recent botched attempt to inspect safe houses. The MPs were last month blocked from accessing suspected Safe Houses in parts of Nkokonjeru, Kyengera and Nalukolongo.
But Tumwine yesterday morning slammed the Human Rights Committee of Parliament for its attempt to access safe houses reportedly run by the Internal Security Organization (ISO) in Kampala and Wakiso. He asked committee members to improve their methods of work in order to avoid casting parliament in a bad light.
He was appearing before the committee yesterday for the third time in line with the ongoing investigation into the operations of safe houses.
But the statement evoked anger from the Kawempe North MP Latif Ssebaggala who asked the chairperson of the committee Janepher Nantume Egunyu to rule Tumwine out of order. Ssebaggala also pointed out that the Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah had given the committee the green light to inspect the safe houses.
Tumwine had asked the MPs to apologize for trespassing on private property. Committee chairperson Janepher Nantume Egunyu ruled him out of order by stating that the committee has the powers to carry out on-spot visits. She also slammed the Minister for stubbornly refusing to provide the committee with a list of safe houses to aid the investigation.
Tumwine stated that he has never denied legislators access to safe houses but advised that they should take heed of procedures to be followed. He announced that he was willing to provide MPs with the locations of safe houses that they could inspect.
However, when pressed for a list of safe houses, Tumwine backtracked saying that the matter is too sensitive and only acknowledged the existence of the Kyengera safe house, one of the three that MPs were blocked from accessing.
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