Drama ensued on the floor of Parliament this afternoon during the final campaigns for the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) elections when MPs turned rowdy and humiliated
Ingrid Turinawe Kamateneti of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party as she tried to campaign for a seat at the regional Parliament.
Turinawe endured what turned out to be the most hostile reception of all the 47 candidates in the race. When it was time for Turinawe, legislators mainly from the ruling NRM party who had earlier smuggled in white placards on which they wrote "No Vote for PIGs" attempted to walk out while others booed her.
Turinawe was blamed by the MPs for being behind the numerous demonstrations staged at parliament in which piglets were painted yellow and smuggled into Parliament premises. The protesters accused MPs of being extravagant while spending tax payers' money.
Immediately after the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga called Turinawe to address the House, the legislators shot up chanting "Twamuganye Ingrid twamuganye....kubanga yeyisa bubi" literally meaning that they have rejected her candidature due to her unappealing character.
Despite pleas from Speaker Kadaga for the legislators to take their seats, they continued to insult the candidate for close to 15 minutes.
When the House seemed to return to calm, MPs now resorted to boos. Turinawe, however, calmly kept her cool and smiled as MPs booed, heckled and insulted her.
With all this drama unfolding, MPs Allan Ssewanyana for Makindye West and Mubarak Munyaggwa for Kawempe South attempted to fight those opposed to Turinawe.
FDC party Secretary General Nathan Nandala Mafabi, meanwhile, moved to the corner and laughed as the mayhem unfolded.
At this point, it was evident that the MPs were not ready to grant Turinawe a peaceful environment for her to table her manifesto. Kadaga directed that the candidate goes ahead to address the House amidst noise.
Turinawe noted that she was a winner after all and had managed to expose legislators as hooligans.
She asked them not to vote according to what the party bosses dictate but according to who is the most suitable candidate.
After Turinawe's speech, Kadaga appealed to the legislators to listen to the candidates and that the decision would be made at the ballot in the afternoon.
