Uganda: Museveni Summons Speaker

President Museveni has summoned Speaker Anita Among for a meeting that sources say will touch on wide-ranging issues.

Top of the agenda is the State of the Nation Address, the Nile Post has been told, which the President wants to understand how it is being prepared.

Mr Museveni will address the nation on the status of the economy and other governance issues on June 6 ahead of the 2024/25 National Budget reading a week later.

The meeting at State House comes on the back of the Speaker facing intense scrutiny weighted by debilitating sanctions imposed by Western governments.

The US government on Thursday joined the UK in designating the Speaker, this time including her husband Moses Magogo, planning junior minister Amos Lugoloobi and the former deputy Chief of Defence Forces Lt Gen Peter Elwelu.

However, the Speaker arrives at State House on the back of another tetchy issue in the House she superintends - of the ruling NRM legislators Theodore Ssekikubo (Lwemiyaga County) and Sarah Opendi (Tororo Woman) leading a censure motion that could see three political compatriots potted in the trench of ignominy.

Esther Afoyochan (Zombo Woman - NRM), Prossy Akampulira Mbabazi (Rubanda Woman - NRM}, Solomon Silwany (Bukooli Central - NRM}, and Mathias Mpuuga (Nyendo-Mukungwe -NUP) face censure over pocking at total of Shs1.7 billion as service award without the approval of the House.

Mr Museveni has been angry over the so-called service award and the Speaker's decision to back off and watch as Ssekikubo and Opendi lure one legislator after another adds to speculation that the ruling party is in it.

On Friday, Soroti West MP Jonathan Ebwalu shocked the censure motion desk by appending his signature after previously being at the forefront to pulling fellow legislators away from the same.

Mr Ebwalu is one of Speaker Among's most loyal members of the 11th Parliament and his dramatic U-turn has led to speculation that he had been ordered to submit to the unspoken authority.

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