Anita Among has revealed that she has one term left to serve as Speaker of Parliament, and will later hand over power.
According to Among, there is no reason to cling onto power. Among made the remarks on Sunday while addressing guests at the opening of the Shs2.7Bn St Charles Lwanga Kigarama Church in Mitooma District. The ceremony also coincided with the thanksgiving to celebrate 80 years of his father, Daudi Bangirana.
“He is one Deputy Speaker who knows what his role is, he is so down to earth and very social. We want to thank you people of Mitooma and we want to request you, that kindly bring back Tayebwa to Parliament. I only have one term to serve, when I finish serving my term, I give to Tayebwa to continue because you don’t need to cling on power I have one term to go, then I hand it over to him,” said Among.
“When we were discussing about the Mitooma function, I was with my younger brother here and when people start talking, they don’t know that we have known each other for 20 years, we have come from very far, from blue (FDC) to yellow (NRM) and now, we are here to stay in yellow (NRM),” she added.
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Among also described the young Ugandans who took to the streets to protest against the rampant corruption in Parliament as self-seekers, insisting that the House still stands by the decision it took to criminalize homosexuality in Uganda.
“The Bible says, Adam was given to Eve, Eve wasn’t given to Eve, or Adam wasn’t given to Adam. So, that is why we are proud as a Parliament of Uganda. And when you see the demonstrations that are in town now, are out of that, they are demonstrating because they are self seekers. These are people who don’t want us to respect our values and as Ugandans, MPs, we will stand by the decision we made,” said Among at the function also attended by President Museveni.
“And saying Anita must resign, resign and go where? Your Excellency, when you start marching that you are marching for corruption, the first fighter for corruption is your good self and we do appreciate. These MPs aren’t Accounting Officers, we don’t account, the stealing doesn’t start from Parliament. Let us not demonize Parliament,” she added.
She also claimed that some of the demonstrators are not happy seeing Parliament work with the Executive.
“You start marching, wasting Government resources, and one thing again why they are marching? MPs, because as 11th Parliament we decided to work with the President, we no longer have any conflict between Legislature and Executive,” she said.
“Your Excellency, as Parliament of Uganda, we want to assure you of our unwavering support, despite what is happening with the bum shafters or whichever, you have our unwavering support, and we shall support you as Executive.
“Our request as the father of the nation, we have three arms of Government: Executive, Legislature and Judiciary, please protect the Legislature. The two stones can’t work alone, you need the three to work, and for us, we are ready to work with you and make sure we achieve what you promised Ugandans,” added Among.
In his remarks, Tayebwa revealed that despite criticism by the public over the source of funds used to construct the church, he said most of the money was raised from his friends from the business community, wherein one meeting that lasted about 30 minutes, Shs1.7Bn was raised by his friends.
“It (church construction) will cost us Shs2.7Bn and I heard some people say, you get Government money, you build such a church, just in less than one hour, when they passed home, these people gave me Shs1.7Bn. But we are completing it. Don’t see any glasses, and you say these people are in fundraisings, we have the resources to complete it. Even tomorrow, the contractors are continuing. But we prematurely did this because we had to celebrate Mzee. You would say, why did you call a few, they called themselves, so don’t think you aren’t my friend because I didn’t call you,” said Tayebwa.
Archbishop of Mbarara Lambert Bainomugisha together with the President commissioned St. Karoli Lwanga Kigarama Catholic Parish.
In his remarks, Mr Museveni said the ruling NRM came to deal with disorientation of ideology.
“In the past, there was emphasis on politics of identity, religion, tribes when we came, we said no, emphasize interests, not identity. Secondly, our politics is to solve people’s problem- health, peace, education, prosperity for all, infrastructure. That is our second mission, to solve people’s problems, not to improve, people’s CVs. Former president, former this, that isn’t what we came to do here. President eyawumula, wawumula wakola ki?” he said.
Present at the thanksgiving were Deputy Chief Justice Richard Buteera, Rebecca Kadaga, Ruhakana Rugunda, Amama Mbabazi, several ministers, MPs, members of the Diplomatic Corps and the business community, including tycoons Sudhir Ruparelia and Godfrey Kirumira, among others.
