The Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Rebecca Kadaga has said that parliament is concerned about the continued human rights violations by security agencies.
Kadaga made remarks while responding to a petition presented to her by the newly elected Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) councillors. The Speaker said Parliament had tasked the government to release all those people it has arrested for supporting former presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi.
The petition was among others, requesting Parliament to instruct the central government to release all political prisoners and to lift the night curfew.
The Speaker said as Parliament had already pronounced them on the matter disagreeing with the actions of the security agencies and government’s failure to be forthcoming on the matter.
“Immediately after elections, we were on record for asking the government to produce a list of the people it is illegally holding and produce them before the court,” she added.
On curfew, Kadaga agreed that it was affecting the livelihoods of many people. “I do not understand why we still have a curfew; does the virus only spread at night? I strongly believe that the decision to lift the curfew is long overdue,” she added.
John Mary Ssebuufu, a councillor from Nakawa and a member of the National Unity Platform party led the delegation of mainly NUP councillors.
Ssebuufu said as a party, they witnessed the most violent elections in their lifetime with over 400 people abducted adding that about 60 per cent of the people on Hon. Robert Kyagulanyi campaign trail may have been killed by security agencies.
“The government should release the people it is holding incommunicado because of supporting Hon. Kyagulanyi especially one of the councillors, James Mubiru who was imprisoned and arraigned in military court.”
Ssebuufu added that Parliament needs to push for the lifting of curfew because businesses that benefit have been adversely curtailed.
