As emotions continue to run high over the debate on the controversial National Coffee (Amendment) Bill, 2024, the Speaker of Parliament dismissed 12 MPs from the House following a row in the house during the plenary session on Wednesday morning.

A fight broke out between Kilak North MP Anthony Akol and his Mityana Municipality counterpart Francis Zaake after the latter tried to push him from the seat he had vacated for a while to restore order on the ground.

In his presentation, Mr. Zaake expressed his concerns about the security of members of parliament, claiming that some non-MPs entered the Parliament with weapons.

However, the Speaker said that the person Mr Zaake was talking about was his bodyguard. He then asked the sergeant-at-arms to subject his bodyguard to a body search and then told the members he had no weapons.
When Zaake turned to take his seat, he saw Mr. Akol sitting there before attempting to push him away.
In response, Mr Akol stood up and punched Mr Zaake one by one before chaos broke out as the Speaker fled the chamber.

A few minutes later, Zaake was seen being loaded into a waiting ambulance to be taken to hospital for treatment.
When the Speaker returned a few minutes later, he read out a list of 12 MPs who he said would not be allowed to attend three consecutive sessions due to misconduct.

MPs; Akol, Zaake, Wakayima Musoke, Aloysius Mukasa, Charles Tebandeke., Isaiah Ssasaga, Asinansi Nyakato, Derrick Nyeko, Frank Kabuye, Ronald Evan Kanyike, Susan Mugabi and Shamim Malende.

“I continue to name members of Parliament and suspend those members from this House for three consecutive sessions. Members are suspended from the Assembly with immediate effect. “I also recall Rule 88(2) to order the above MPs to immediately resign from the House and accordingly order the Sergeant-at-Arms to vacate the Houses and thereby suspend the House for 15 minutes,” he ruled.

Earlier, Ms Among reminded Rule 9 and declared a free session, considering the large number of MPs in the House today.

Meanwhile, security has been tightened in and around the Parliament building, with MPs subject to extensive security checks before entering the chambers.

This led Kira Municipality Member of Parliament, Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, to express concern over the high security deployment in Parliament and ask the Speaker to vacate the Houses and subject all residents and offices around the Houses to a check beforehand to ensure that no weapons are brought into the House. The heated debate expected on the National Coffee (Amendment) Bill.

“I offer you a privileged spot to subject everyone and we are evacuating the building because Parliament should be a place of free debate. We need to examine all these surrounding rooms to make sure that there is a free atmosphere in which we can have the discussion. I have been here for a while, we were subjected to humiliation by security on our way to Parliament and this did not only affect Opposition MPs, we were removed from our vehicles, stopped from parking. There are more than 530 MP uniformed security personnel. According to our rules, you cannot carry weapons in front of the main gate, I am not sure there are no weapons inside this building and I am bringing this up because some of us have lost victims before,” said Mr. Ssemujju.

In response, the Speaker said security is about ensuring the safety of members.
“We should note that EALA lives in the same building. I was personally checked when we walked in and I am not immune to anything,” said Ms. Among.