By Leonard Kamugisha Akida,
KAMPALA
A report on the missing persons which was demanded by the opposition was presented on the floor of Parliament by the minister of state of internal affairs Gen. David Muhoozi last week on Wednesday, in which he reported that most of the alleged missing persons have never been reported to the police.
“This can only be done with the police, which was not done, and which is still being resisted by the people approached,” Muhoozi said.
The minister added that some cases where the Leader of Opposition, Rt. Hon. Mpuuga attributed alleged disappearances to security operatives had been reported earlier by the relatives of these people as unwitnessed disappearances.
But, in a media briefing at City House Kampala today December 4, the Democratic Party says it is “not convinced by the rationales for reporting about only 9 persons and not others” finding the justification by the minister about the abductions as “vague and based on sweeping assumptions” and raising concerns over the decisions being politically motivated.
Ismail Kiirya, the UYD President and Ag DP spokesperson said the report which Gen. Muhoozi presented is not what they expected despite the time and energy invested in demanding for it.
“As the opposition we thought Gen. Muhoozi would have presented a footed of Mr Senteza who jumped off a car as claimed then he was knocked, […] We thought you can tell us when did Kibalama leave this country and also give us a real direction where exactly he is in Canada because you have that capacity,” Kiirya said.
He suggested that government should liaise with security agencies in foreign countries to arrest and deport person it claims were not abducted and are living and working in foreign countries.
For nearly two months, opposition lawmakers have been staging a boycott demanding that government files a comprehensive report on the 18 missing persons until last week when the minister of internal affairs presented the report. Following findings of the report however, the acting DP spokesperson challenged the LoP of not being skillful and tactical while he was organizing the boycott.
“They made you move out of Parliament and they passed a law which is controversial and now they have presented to you a report which doesn’t have use,” said Kiirya
According to him, the opposition made a grave blunder to boycott plenaries giving the ruling government an open space to pass unfair law that gave monopoly to CNOC over importation and sale of oil in Uganda.
“I think now the opposition has learnt a lesson that next time we need to be tactical when boycotting,” he said.
Although the DP commended the government for presenting a report, they tasked government to come out and apologize to Ugandans for violating their human rights than playing hide and seek games.
