Theodore Ssekikubo, the Lwemiyaga County Member of Parliament (MP), who is doubling as the team leader spearheading the censure motion of the four commissioners over the Ugx 1.7Bn Service Award, has revealed that the signature gathering has gained momentum, but they are running short of 12 signatures.
Ssekikubo made the remarks while addressing journalists at Parliament, where he assured them that although he had hoped to file his notice with the Clerk to Parliament on June 17, 2024, the plans had to be halted until 12 more MPs sign the motion.
“The signature gathering has gained momentum as we ended the day; today, we have 164 signatures. We hope to resume this on Monday, when we shall have the full details, and by 164, we are falling short of 12 signatures. We hope that by Monday, we will have finalized this question. We had wanted to have issued a notice to the Speaker by Monday, but for now, we can’t do so, and we are agreeable with our colleagues,” Ssekikubo said.
Following numerous extensions and what seemed impossible, Ssekikubo has admitted that his team has failed to raise the 176 signatures, three weeks after the exercise started.
The Lwemiyaga County MP revealed that his team will hand in the notice calling next week, and asked the Speaker not to wait for the 14 days to elapse because Ugandans were so exhausted with the corruption at Parliament and have thus run out of patience to wait for that long.
Ssekikubo further noted that although the “Censure Team” had anticipated ending the signature collection exercise on Friday, June 14, 2024, as earlier promised, the exercise is still ongoing in order to allow the Secretariat to sum up figures.
“So we hope that by next week we will have lodged all the necessary documentation, and the process will now commence. We hope the figures are good; we are doing well, and as you can see, members are very strong. Yes, there might be a few MPs here and there, but those minute numbers shouldn’t tarnish the image of Parliament. This is the time for Parliament to clean itself, to reinvent itself, and to stand firm in the fight against corruption,” Ssekikubo noted.
On the issue of him promising Ugandans to inform them which of their MPs have appended their signatures to the motion, Ssekikubo said that they await to see if by Monday the 12 signatures will be secured or if there might be another extension.
