As Parliament is sitting for the third time to debate the Presidential age limit, the seven suspended legislators have this morning, Wednesday, dragged Speaker Rebecca Kadaga to the High Court, requesting for a mandamus order.
A mandamus order is a command to an inferior court or ordering a person to perform a public or statutory duty.
The suspended MPs including Gerald Karuhanga, Ibrahim Nganda, Mubarak Munyagwa, Moses Kasibante and Allan Ssewanyana, said Kadaga in suspending them, she totally abused the rules of procedure governing the House.
Through their lawyer Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, the suspended MPs said Kadaga acted as the law herself and her actions wouldn’t go legally unchallenged.
The legislators also argue that the Speaker disregarded the provision of Article 28 and 42 of the Constitution by unlawfully mentioning their names.
Addressing media shortly after the suspension, Karuhanga said Kadaga had become more political than a Speaker.
“The Speaker first adjourned the House before she read the suspension. When you adjourn the House, members move out. So this suspension doesn’t count because the House had been adjourned,” Karuhanga noted.
Munyagwa said he was to talk to Kadaga to find out the reason for his suspension.
“Why did she suspend me? I am one of the most disciplined MPs in that House. I tried as much as I could to exercise restraint….. I just can’t understand why I was suspended,” Munyagwa said.
The legislators were allegedly suspended for causing disorder in the House.