President Museveni on Monday night lost his cool and stormed out of an NRM caucus meeting called to break a stalemate over the budget after he was reportedly challenged by legislators over the governments failure to fix the health sector.
The presidential protest in a manner usually preferred by the political opposition in Parliament, was reportedly provoked by heckling from MPs after he allegedly swore never to sacrifice the defence budget for anything.
His dramatic behaviour was still not enough to stop MPs from refusing the governments request for the national budget to be passed for the third time in as many days yesterday.
Ruling party members, who requested not to be quoted in order to speak freely, accused the President of being insensitive to the health needs of Ugandans, while others described his storming out of the meeting as an act of blackmail bearing the hallmarks of a dictator.
When we went to State House for the caucus meeting, they forced us to wash our hands, why do you fear to die and you want others to die? " said one MP
I couldnt believe what I was seeing. The President said that he couldnt sacrifice the defence budget for anything and members started heckling him, a member said, adding, This was an insult to our people who are dying because of a sick healthcare system. We heckled him and he got very angry. We were talking to him directly without fear.
Another member said: He stormed out because the room was getting very hot for him and I seemed to understand because the anger that was evident on his face wouldnt have been good for all of us.
The presidential protest in a manner usually preferred by the political opposition in Parliament, was reportedly provoked by heckling from MPs after he allegedly swore never to sacrifice the defence budget for anything.
His dramatic behaviour was still not enough to stop MPs from refusing the governments request for the national budget to be passed for the third time in as many days yesterday.
Ruling party members, who requested not to be quoted in order to speak freely, accused the President of being insensitive to the health needs of Ugandans, while others described his storming out of the meeting as an act of blackmail bearing the hallmarks of a dictator.
When we went to State House for the caucus meeting, they forced us to wash our hands, why do you fear to die and you want others to die? " said one MP
I couldnt believe what I was seeing. The President said that he couldnt sacrifice the defence budget for anything and members started heckling him, a member said, adding, This was an insult to our people who are dying because of a sick healthcare system. We heckled him and he got very angry. We were talking to him directly without fear.
Another member said: He stormed out because the room was getting very hot for him and I seemed to understand because the anger that was evident on his face wouldnt have been good for all of us.
