Uganda’s junior lands Minister Persis Namuganza says she intends to move a motion in the future against Speaker of Parliament Anita Among and and her husband Hashim Magogo for what she called procurement of a fraudulent marriage that has become a personal fight in the August House.
“In the future, I intend to move a motion against Hon.Magogo Moses and the Speaker of this house Anita Among for procuring a fraudulent marriage which is turning into a personal fight in this house”, said Namuganza during a plenary session on Thursday.
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The Speaker and the FUFA boss tied a knot early last month in a private marriage ceremony. The newlywed couple went ahead to officially register their marriage.
However, a few days ago, the office of the town clerk in Makindye division receded and withdrew the registration of the customary marriage of the couple, saying it was invalid.
In a letter dated August 16 from Makindye Division Urban Council addressed to the Registrar of Marriages at URSB, the marriage was called off and deleted from the Division Customary Marriage Registrar.
”Please refer to my letter reference number MKD/KCCA/1308/06 dated August 15th, 2022 on the registration of the customary marriage of Magogo Moses Hashim and Among Anita Annet. I have discovered glaring omissions and errors occasioned to me as a consequence of duress while processing this matter”
Nevertheless, according to a statement issued by URSB on the 22nd September, 2022 , the Town Clerk had no power to cancel the marriage.
“The role of the Town Clerk in customary marriage registration is to register and transmit a return to the Registrar of Marriages at Uganda Registration Services Bureau. Neither, the Town clerk nor Registrar of Marriages have the authority to invalidate a marriage. Therefore, the letter from the Town Clerk cannot invalidate the marriage between Magogo Moses Hassim and Among Anita Annet. The public is put on notice to ignore the misleading circulating stories about the validity of the said marriage,” the letter read.
“Upon completion of the registration at the Sub County Chief or Town Clerk’s office, the Marriage return is filed with Uganda Registration Services Bureau (Registrar of Marriages) to be entered on the National Marriage Register maintained by URSB
Namuganza’s statements come barely hours after parliament the Rules, Privileges and Discipline Committee of Parliament found the Minister of State for Housing, Persis Namuganza, guilty of contempt of the House and gross misbehavior, and recommended her censure.
“The committee finds that the conduct and behavior of Hon. Namuganza constitutes gross misconduct and misbehavior and is not befitting of a Member of Parliament, more so a Minister. Being cognizant of the fact that Parliament approved her appointment as a Minister, recommends that the House invokes Article 118 (1) (b) of the Constitution and Rule 106 of Parliament rules to censure her,” read the committee report tabled before the house on Wednesday.
The Committee Vice Chairperson, Charles Onen tabled the report following their inquiry into allegations of misconduct leveled against Namuganza by Bukooli Central MP Solomon Silwany on July 13, 2022.
Silwany raised a procedural matter on the floor of Parliament accusing Namuganza of taking to social media and television where she criticized the operations of Parliament and questioned the powers and integrity of the presiding officers of Parliament to form Adhoc Committees.
This followed a report compiled by the Adhoc committee that investigated the giveaway of Nakawa-Naguru land, which recommended that Namuganza steps aside as Minister for falsifying a presidential directive that led to the Uganda Land Commission (ULC) to allocate the land to some investors.
Namuganza reportedly questioned the way investors and people who appear before parliamentary committees are handled, equating it to a torture chamber.
In his submission to the committee, Silwanyi said that the Minister had questioned the integrity of parliament through statements in a WhatsApp group of Members of the 11th Parliament.
By press time ,Anita Among and Hon Magogo had not responded to Namuganza’ statement on the floor of parliament.
However, this is the not the First time Namuganza is conflicting with fellow members of Parliament, there has been a conflict between the former speaker of Parliament Hon Rebecca Kadaga and Namuganza that allegedly started when Ms Kadaga started ‘interfering’ in the royal issues of the Nkono chiefdom, one of the core pillars of the Busoga kingdom.
The Minister while appearing in a Parliamentary probe said that she was disturbed that the leader of Parliament had failed to show any respect to the people she leads and instead chosen to destabilize Bukono (Namuganza’s constituency) people and the entire Busoga region.
