East Africa: Kenyan MPs pass anti-Uganda motion - Uganda wants to take part of Kenya

May 29th, 2009

 

 

Kampala (Uganda) — Kenya's Parliament has given President Mwai Kibaki a go-ahead to deploy the military in case diplomacy fails in the ongoing row over Migingo, the tiny island in Lake Victoria both Uganda and Kenya claim.

The House also allowed Kibaki to seek the help of the United Nations Security Council if the matter threatens regional peace and security, according to the Daily Nation.

In a motion passed by the House yesterday, the MPs urged President Kibaki as the Commander-in-Chief "to use all resources at his disposal to reclaim Kenyan land."

The motion, filed on the basis of "Uganda infringing the territorial integrity of Kenya when it occupied Migingo Island and Kacheliba in West Pokot", seeks to have Ugandan forces retreat and "unconditionally commit to respect Kenya's borders."

Efforts by foreign affairs minister Moses Wetangula and his information counterpart Samuel Poghisio to oppose the move, and even raise the adequate numbers to force a division, failed. The two ministers opposed the motion, arguing that the matter was being discussed between the presidents of the two countries and that a joint border survey was underway to resolve the row. They also denied claims that Ugandan soldiers had occupied Kacheliba.

"The basis of this motion is wrong and inaccurate since there are no Ugandan soldiers in Kacheliba," the information minister said.

Similarly, an appeal to MPs by assistant minister Peter Munya that the motion was against the spirit of East African Cooperation failed. Munya said the motion was in "bad faith" since the issue was being resolved.

In the heated debate, several MPs accused the government of laxity amid harassment from what they called a hostile neighbour. Some MPs insisted that the "wajaluos are mad" slur by President Yoweri Museveni was an affront to the people of Kenya and not merely "a Luo affair".

Museveni has since explained that he was talking about the youth in Kibera slum who uprooted the railway, thus cutting off the trade route to Uganda.

Other MPs accused the Kenyan government of wasting taxpayers' money by "spending resources on a matter whose answer was already known."

"Whatever your motive of opposing this motion, you must be having total disregard for our people remitting tax to a foreign hostile country," MP Jakoyo Midiwo (ODM) was quoted as saying by Daily Nation. "Museveni has called me as a Luo a mad person and that is unacceptable.'

He said the UN will only come in after the EAC, the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the Great Lakes Conference fail to resolve the border dispute.

There were only 47 lawmakers present. An earlier attempt to pass the motion two weeks ago had failed when ministers staged a walk-out.

 

source.New Vision (Uganda)