The resolution to reprimand Persis Princess Namuganza, the state minister for lands, housing, and urban development, will be discussed in Parliament on Monday.
The motion is the third item on the order paper Adolf Mwesige Kasaija released, the Clerk to Parliament, on Friday.
The report by the seven-member Select Committee of Parliament was presided over by Mwine Mpaka, a member of Parliament for Mbarara City South Division. It was established by Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa on January 6, 2023, to look into Namuganza’s alleged infraction of the law.
The Committee issued three summonses to Namuganza, who declined to appear and instead sent her attorney, Norman Pande, to provide a letter in which she claimed sub judice and short notice as excuses for her absence.
The attorney said in a meeting with the Committee last week that his client’s request for the pieces of evidence related to the accusations made against her in the motion was not granted, preventing her from preparing her defence.
Newspaper articles, videos pulled from YouTube, and excerpts from NTV and NBS newscasts accusing Namuganza of assaulting Parliament were presented before the Committee by lawmakers led by John Amos Okot, the member of Parliament for Agago North.
One of the 200 MPs who signed the petition and provided evidence supporting the resolution to censure the Minister, Dan Kimosho, of Kazo County, stressed that the only action that should be taken against Namuganzais censure.
After 200 lawmakers signed a petition in favour of the action, Okot presented a motion in December asking Parliament to punish Namuganza, who also serves as the Bukono County MP in the Namisindwa district, for contempt of Parliament.
Namuganza’s problems began in May when an ad hoc committee accused him of participating illegally in the 142-acre land transfer to certain investors for a satellite city at the Nakawa-Nagura Housing Estate.
When the Minister was seconded to the Ministry by the President, she left the meeting called by the ad hoc Committee. She later publicly stated that Parliament had no authority to look into her appointment.
Since then, she has denied any wrongdoing and refused to apologize, arguing that she is innocent and is only being persecuted by Speaker Anita Among because she has a personal grudge against her and wants to stroke her ego.
