Uganda’s parliament has called on Kampala’s foreign affairs ministry to protest the mistreatment of two Ugandan legislators while they were in Kenya recently.

The two legislators were stopped by Kenyan police who demanded bribes, the Daily Monitor reported on Friday.

“Parliament seemed to suggest – when it pointed out how Nigeria handled its diplomatic stand-off with South Africa – that Uganda could make it less pleasurable for Kenyans to travel through Uganda,” reported the Monitor.

“If you read your passports, they say ‘this is to require, in the name of the President of Uganda, that you allow this person to move’. If they are objecting to our movement in their country, it is an insult to the President of the Republic of Uganda,” said the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga.

Kadage said the situation was very serious and couldn’t continue, adding that the foreign affairs ministry had been directed to issue a protest note to the Kenyan government immediately.

MP Connie Galiwango told the Ugandan parliament that when she travelled from Uganda to Kenya to attend her daughter’s wedding in Mombasa, Coast County, several Kenyan traffic police officers at different roadblocks demanded money from her.

When Galiwango refused to pay, she was held by some of the police while others threatened to lock her up.

“I do not see how the East African Community is helping Ugandans. When Kenyans come to Uganda, we treat them well. However, when we are in their country, they mistreat us. Our leaders have to address this issue otherwise the problem will persist,” Galiwango said.

In a similar incident, MP Peter Ogwang was forced to cut short his journey to Kenya after he too was bribed for money by a number of policemen.

Government Chief Whip Ruth Nankabirwa said Uganda was the most open to free movement of East African Community member states nationals within its borders.

“It is unfortunate that the other countries do not reciprocate,” Nankabirwa said. “This matter is very serious. The Ministry of East African Community Affairs should object to the kind of treatment Kenya subjects Ugandans to.”

MP Elijah Okupa added that Uganda should reciprocate Kenya’s treatment of Ugandans.

“When some Nigerians flew from Nigeria to South Africa and South Africa refused to allow them in because they did not have Yellow Fever vaccination cards, the Nigerians flew back,” Okupa said.

“When they arrived in Nigeria they reported the incident. And later when a South African Airways plane touched down at an airport in Nigeria, Nigerian customs officials said all South African passport holders should not alight from the plane unless they show HIV/AIDS status results.”