Uganda: Age Limit - Kadaga Tasks Government to Explain Army Presence

The drama at Parliament continues with the Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, now asking the Internal Affairs ministry to explain the presence of more unsolicited security personnel at the House.

This follows a concerns by the Amuru District Woman Representative, Lucy Akello, that there are soldiers now sleeping in the Anglican and Catholic chaplaincies of Parliament.

As a result, Ms Akello said they cannot partake of their lunch hour prayers since the police [with the aid of some parliamentary police] have sealed access to the chaplaincies.

This prompted Ms Kadaga to adjourn the House early today morning to 2pm.

And when she returned, she was in a combative mood.

"I said only the Parliamentary police should be securing this place. I also said I wanted all of them in uniforms [and] with their name [tags on their lapels]. I also said that any other deployment of any other police officers must be communicated to my office. So, I want to know who those people are. I want the Minister of Internal Affairs to explain and to apologise - if you brought people here without my knowledge... "

Internal Affairs minister Jeje Odongo, who is a soldier, said whereas he had heard reports about unknown individuals at Parliament; his investigations had established that they were police officers.

"I did ask the Sergeant-at-Arms who keeps the keys to the chapels. He informed me the keys are kept by the leadership of the faiths," General Odongo said.

"I went there with the commandant of parliamentary police, we were able to establish that there were policemen eating but not in the chapels.

"Indeed, there were utensils that had been used by the policemen but the utensils were in the corridors and not in the chapels. So it is not true that the chapels were used as eating places."

Ms Kadaga said the issue is "extremely important", kind of suggesting Gen Odongo was treating it.

"The issue we are talking about is extremely important. If indeed it is true there are people who have resided in the chaplaincies, we would like to know why. Were they eating from there? If 'people' were living here, it was not right," Ms Kadaga said.

Ms Ruth Nankabirwa called for a "thorough investigation" to establish the truthfulness of Ms Akello's concerns.

Ms Kadaga then directed the Clerk to Parliament to furnish the House with a report about the custody of the keys and the management of the places of worship.

A section of Opposition MPs murmured