“Speaker Forced to Adjourn House Due to Ministers’ Absence”

The Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among was pushed to adjourn the House unceremoniously, in protest over continued absence of government Ministers.

In adjourning the House, Speaker Among said she will have to discuss with the Executive on solutions to the perennial absenteeism of government ministers. 

At exactly 2pm, the speaker of parliament Anita Annet Among made her way to the chambers of parliament to chair the 26^th sitting of the 1^st meeting of the 3^rd session of the 11^th parliament but only to realize that the front bench of the ministers was empty.

The speaker and ministers have been at loggerheads in the recent past over snubbing house sittings and recently she vowed to crack the whip on perennial absentees. Ministers are so pivotal in daily running of house sittings, as they are required to respond to a number of issues in their sectors. To find a lasting solution to the absenteeism, Speaker Among adjourned the house saying she will have a conversation with the Executive to ensure business never stalls like is the case. 

Few minutes after the adjournment of the house, ministers started pouring in while falling on each other only to find an empty house. The 3^rd deputy prime minister Lukia Nakadama who was supposed to lead the front bench had this to say.

Some ministers borrowed excuses of lunch time traffic jam on city roads while others had no excuse but to apologize to the public  

MPs had no kind words for ministers, accusing them of disrespecting parliament. They called on the appointing authority to take action.

The motion seeking leave of Parliament to introduce a Private Member’s Bill entitled the Rainwater (Harvesting and Storage) Bill was high on the order paper of the day. In June 2021 Parliament approved a motion to vary a number of ministers from 79 to 82 of whom 32 are Cabinet ministers while 50 are Ministers of State. But getting 10 ministers in attendance of a plenary sitting has proven to be difficult.