Speaker of Parliament, Ms Anita Among, has fetched all the 11 female legislators from the Central Police Station in Kampala who were brutally arrested at the gates of Parliament as they attempted to march to the Ministry of Internal Affairs demonstrating the continuous harassment by police.
The legislators were unconditionally released, following an engagement between police leadership and the Speaker, who told the former that they ought to inform her office first when it comes to the arrest of MPs.
“I want to request you that next time, as the head of Parliament, when you are going to do any arrest on my Members of Parliament, courtesy calls that you tell me, I am going to arrest so and so. You may not even need to arrest [but] you could tell me to deliver them because these women are mothers, they are people’s wives,” Ms Among told Police leadership at the CPS in Kampala.
The legislators who were released include Ms Joan Namutawe (Masaka District Woman MP), Ms Juliet Nakakande (Masaka City Woman MP), Ms Hanifa Nabukeera (Mukono Woman MP), Stella Isodo Apolot (Ngora Woman MP) and Joan Alobo (Soroti Woman MP).
The other are Florence Kabugho (Kasese Woman MP), Ethel Betty Naluyima (Wakiso Woman MP), Joyce Bagala (Mityana Woman MP), Manjeri Tabakutika (Jinja City Woman MP), Nyakato Asinansi (Hoima City Woman MP), Hellen Nakimuli (Kalangala Woman MP)
Speaker Among’s intervention followed a series of engagements on the same with a number of leaders condemning the Police for the continued brutality meted out female legislators and other persons found in peaceful demonstrations and gatherings.
In the lead up to their release, the Deputy Speaker, Mr Thomas Tayebwa, had tasked the government to investigate the implicated officers for staining the image of government.
“You shamelessly do it at the gates of Parliament so I don’t know whether we are safe, if people can be just at the gate. I don’t know whether they considered being powerful like robots and therefore you need to come like as if you are strangling (and) undress and humiliate,” Mr Tayebwa stated.