President Museveni has rejected the resignation of Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) Chairperson Mariam Wangadya.
She revealed this while appearing before parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) on Tuesday morning, saying the President instead instructed her to continue serving and executing her mandate.
Wangadya had on the 6th of July reportedly submitted a notice of resignation to president Museveni, who is the appointing authority but that the Attorney General however later advised parliament that she remains the substantive UHRC Chairperson.
Before announcing her intention to resign, Wangadya publicly criticised some of the commissioners appointed to UHRC, accusing them of lacking the competence and credibility needed to lead the institution.
She also complained about what she described as undermining by President Museveni through the appointment of people who had failed politically and were financially constrained, suggesting that some had been brought into the Commission to revive their careers or obtain financial relief to cater for their health bills.
“It is true I wrote a letter of resignation to the President and it was rejected, and the Attorney General addressed the parliament, and his address was clear, it said that my resignation letter was rejected which means I am the substantive chairperson of the Uganda Human rights association,” Ms Wangadya said.
Meanwhile, during the interaction between the officials and the COSASE members, the MPs have questioned the Commission over failure to organize tribunal sittings.
Mpindi Bumali, the Member of Parliament representing Persons With Disability noted with concern that significant funds went to travel, cleaning, security, printing, office, furniture and laptops.
He also wondered why the Commission has continued to spend huge amounts of money on less important issues, yet it claims it lacks money to facilitate tribunal sittings.
“let me give you an example here, i am seeing here the shs 167 Million ugx which was procured to a purchase ticket for the Chairperson to Australia, shs146 million ugx was used to procure another ticket for the chairperson, 117 million used to procure cleaning service, 280 million used to procure security service, 280 to procure laptops, you can imagine all this money and the that are spent and the commission said they do not have money,”Mr Mpindi said.
Led by the chairperson Mariam Wangadya, the officials of the Human Rights have appeared before COSASE to answer accountability queries.
This comes just a day after committee chairperson Muwada Mkunyingi had in an August 10th letter to the Commander of the Parliament Police Division, ordered her arrest and had her produced before the MPs at 9am today.
