President Yoweri Museveni’s struggle to assert his authority over ruling party MPs may finally bear fruit today as parliament moves yet again to vote on the controversial Clause 9 of the Petroleum (Exploration, Development, Production) Bill, after weeks of fractious debate and procedural impasse.
According to MPs, the president has himself been contacting them by telephone to muster support for re-introducing Clause 9, which gives the minister in charge of petroleum—and, in effect, the president himself—decisive powers to award and revoke exploration and production licenses.
It is not known whether these conversations include the offer of financial rewards for political obedience, but some political observers regard this as a characteristic feature of President Museveni’s recent rule.
A December 5 Cabinet meeting over-ruled efforts by Energy Minister, Irene Muloni, to reach a compromise with dissenting parliamentarians, according to the New Vision newspaper. Cabinet insisted that Clause 9 should be retained in its original form.
Yesterday, December 6, the president postponed a scheduled address to parliament and instead met with NRM MPs within the parliamentary precincts and, according to New Vision, obtained overwhelming support for the re-introduction of Clause 9.
Attack on dissenters, clerics
Meanwhile, NRM stalwarts have taken the president’s case to a wider public through the columns of the New Vision, flagship of the Vision Group, in which the NRM is believed to have a majority shareholding.
Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi contributed a December 3 opinion piece whose regrettable plagiarism was uncovered by Oil in Uganda.
The December 4 edition carried an article by NRM deputy communications head, Ofonwo Opondo, who draws attention to “the forces behind the on-going manouevres in Parliament and among civil society groups like ActionAid, ACODE, HURINET, DENIVA, UYONET, UWONET, Transparency International, and Acfode among others that are funded in large measure by USAID, a US government agency.” As well as xenophobic this is inaccurate. ActionAid International Uganda receives no funding whatsoever from USAID, and USAID is not a significant donor on oil governance issues in Uganda.
December 6 saw a piece by ‘special NRM mobiliser’ Henry Mayega—a former Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) member and abrasive critic of the ruling party who nonetheless defected to the NRM in 2010. Entitled “Political direction, leadership key for oil sector,” Mr. Mayega’s article includes an attack on religious leaders who have spoken out against the concentration of executive power.
In May, the Inter Religious Council of Uganda, an ecumenical body comprising leaders of several faiths who unite under the tagline ‘Religions for Peace,’ submitted comments on the petroleum bills to the parliamentary Natural Resources Committee. Those comments included a call for greater parliamentary oversight of the oil sector, and for licensing powers to be given to the Petroleum Authority rather than the minister.
On November 27, the Council held a press conference and issued a statement—signed by Catholic Archbishop of Gulu, John Baptist Odama—which reiterated that “Clause 9 does not augur well with the spirit of transparency and accountability” and would give the minister “excessive powers.” That afternoon, as earlier reported by Oil in Uganda, retired Church of Uganda Assistant Bishop, Zac Niringiye, attended the parliamentary oil bills debate and helped other citizens who had turned out to observe proceedings gain access to the public gallery.
In his New Vision article, Mr. Mayega criticises the bishop for making “political statements” and adds the somewhat sinister remark “We are also aware of his and other’s pre-Parliament meetings in which it was plotted to cause commotion on the floor of Parliament.”
House deadlocked and fatigued
By yesterday afternoon’s parliamentary sitting, most MPs appeared ready to vote on the contentious clause but, yet again, the house spent five hours discussing whether to vote without actually doing so.
Deputy Speaker, Hon. Jacob Oulanyah (NRM, Omoro), who presided over the session, had returned from overseas in the early hours of the morning, and appeared not to be familiar with the outcome of recent sittings, with the result that the debate did not really take up from where it had left off. The absence of Speaker Rebecca Kadaga was not explained.
Those opposing the re-introduction of Clause 9 – including, notably, Theodore Sekikubo (NRM, Lwemiyaga), Betty Nambooze (DP, Mukono North), Abdu Katuntu (FDC, Bugweri) and Beatrice Anywar (FDC, Kitgum)—argued at length that parliament could not vote until it had received a revised report from the Natural Resources Committee, taking account of the Cabinet’s latest statement on Clause 9, and also taking account of a proposed ‘Kantuntu-Muloni’ amendment.
The latter is a compromise formula, apparently agreed between Hon. Katuntu and Energy Minister Irene Muloni (NRM, Bulambuli), which proposed that the minister and Petroleum Authority should share responsibility for approving licenses. It was roundly rejected by Cabinet in its December 5 meeting as being vague and impractical, but it remained unclear whether it should be subject to a parliamentary vote.
Many NRM speakers asked Katuntu to state categorically whether he still expected a vote on the proposal, even though Hon. Muloni had been instructed by Cabinet to abandon it.
Hon. Katuntu at first prevaricated, saying that it was up to the House to consider whether to pay attention to good ideas laid before it.
“If there is no consensus, I can even withdraw the amendment,” he later said. “I thought I had discussed it with partners but I was duped. I will live to regret the day I sat in Muloni’s office,” he added, provoking outbursts of laughter.
Hon Katuntu stood firm by his view, however, that “We do not want a technical transaction to be turned into a political transaction.”
Attorney General, Peter Nyombi (NRM, Nakasongola), re-stated the government position that the proposed compromise would substantially affect other clauses in the bill. “Taking Katuntu’s position will be an exercise in futility and he may have to seek for re-committal of the other clauses.”
Third Deputy Premier and Leader of Government Business in parliament, General Moses Ali (NRM, East Moyo), maintained that the government’s position on Clause 9 had not changed and therefore “We have nothing to report to the [Natural Resources] committee.”
Former Vice-President, Gilbert Bukenya (NRM, Busiro), a trained physician, treated the House to a long account of a complex surgery he had once conducted in Kenya, where he finally decided to make a difficult incision. The point appeared to be that the debate should be cut short and proceed to a vote.
Bukenya subsequently left the House, shortly after 6 pm, telling television reporters outside that he couldn’t see the sitting coming to a vote and had other business to attend to.
Growing impatience and fatigue with the process was evident among rank and file NRM MPs, many of whom drifted in and out of the chamber throughout the debate.
Foreign Affairs minister, Sam Kutesa (NRM, Mawogola), was reproved on a point of order for taking a call on his mobile phone.
Eventually, at 9:10pm, the Deputy Speaker adjourned the debate, instructing the Natural Resources Committee to meet the following morning and present a final, ‘harmonised’ report to parliament, in the hope that this could finally lead to a vote.
Report by NY, with additional reporting by CM and AS