Parliament left in the cold: Museveni decrees on phone registration as Nsereko withdraws censure motion

Parliament left in the cold: Museveni decrees on phone registration as Nsereko withdraws censure motion

President Museveni has extended SIM card verification exercise to August 30th, in a show of autocracy and NRM Party caucus rule over parliament.

At the same time MP Nsereko Muhammad who abruptly declared that he was leading a censure motion against Minister for ICT Frank Tumwebaze has announced that he has abandoned it.

Museveni’s decree Twit

Appearing on NBS morning breeze Nsereko compromisingly declared that he has been satisfied with the outcome of the Nrm caucus meeting that led to the Presidential decree to extend registration to August 2017 and therefore as the lead petitioner he is withdrawing from the motion.

 

Yesterday night Mr. Museveni met members of his Nrm caucus at State house where MPs, pleaded and begged him to extend the deadline of Sim card registration.

 

The move casts Parliament in a very bad light as all signs are that, it has surrendered the people’s powe vested in it to the executive essentially killing the concept of the independence of the legislature.

 

It’s not clear whether Museveni in doing this traded off the censure motion against his Minister Frank Tumwebaze who was facing a censure or he was moved to sympathize with Ugandans who have suffered at the hands of an incompetent system that has failed to capture sim card owners in an effective manner.

Although the extension brings some relief to millions of sim card owners, it also brings to question the democratic trend Mr Museveni is taking having ignored a Parliamentary resolution and resorted to a one man’s decision generated at a party caucus meeting.