How Parliament performed in the last 12 months

When Parliament on May 4, 2023 passed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, it set out a flurry of excitement among Ugandans, but also attracted a swift lethal response from the backers of homosexuality – the western world led by their powerhouse, the United States of America.

Internally, human rights activists led by Fox Odoi, the West Budama North East County Member of Parliament and the former senior legal counsel to President Museveni, swiftly went to the Constitutional Court to challenge the Act, after President Museveni assented to it.

Speaker Anita Among and her deputy Thomas Tayebwa went on offensive against those opposed to the law, which they said will protect Uganda’s sanctity and the cultural values, which homosexuality wants to erode.

Shortly after she presided over the plenary sitting that okayed the strict anti-gay legislation, Speaker Among had her US visa revoked. She was later joined by the architect of the said law, Mr Asuman Basalirwa, as well as other key government officials.

Despite blows the law has earned Uganda, Speaker Among has no regrets over its endorsement, a position government insists on as well.

“We don’t regret passing that law. I want to thank the President of Uganda for assenting to that law,” she told Parliament on December 6 as the House reacted on the statement of the Biden administration that indicated that Ugandan officials found to be implementing the anti-gay law would be slapped with sanctions.

Government has, through its mouthpiece, Dr Chris Baryomunsi, told foreign powers against this legislation to back off, affirming that Uganda is a sovereign state that must be left to determine its own affairs.

“We pass laws in the interest of Ugandans, not foreigners. Therefore, nobody is going to coerce Parliament or the government to start making laws in the interest of foreigners.”

On October 30, the US government announced a possibility of removing Uganda from the African Growth and Opportunities Act (Agoa) beneficiary list, largely due to enactment of the law prohibiting same-sex relations in Uganda.

The Agoa arrangement is designed to allow states in the beneficiary list duty-free access market in the United States. Because of the economic punch on the country, the government has on several occasions indicated that high-level discussions are underway with respective world power authorities in a bid to have heavy clamp-downs on Uganda relaxed.

The law has since been taken to court, with petitioners including veteran journalist Andrew Mwenda, West Budama MP Fox Odoi, Makerere University law dons Sylvia Tamale and Busingye Kabumba, together with other civil society organisations.

In this, petitioners want, among other things, court to determine whether the law imposes a charge of the consolidated fund or any public fund in contravention of Article 93(a)(ii) of the Constitution.

A panel of five members was this December named to hear the four petitions and these will be led by Deputy Chief Justice Richard Buteera.

Other laws

The Anti-Homosexuality Act is just one of the 14 Bills Parliament passed in 2023, taking the tally of the bills passed into the law since the 11th Parliament kicked off in 2021 to 75 in 257 sittings.

On November 14, MPs endorsed the government’s Petroleum Supply (Amendment) Bill, 2023, that chiefly granted the Uganda National Oil Company (Unoc) monopoly powers in the supply of Petroleum products in Uganda.

Other bills that Parliament passed in 2023 include, the Appropriation Act, 2023; Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (Implementation) Act, 2023; Excise Duty (Amendment) Act, 2023; Financial Institutions Amendment Bill, 2023; Foreign Exchange (Amendment) Act, 2023; Income Tax (Amendment) (No.2) Act, 2023; Law Revisions (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act, 2023; Lotteries And Gaming(Amendment)Act, 2023; Markets Act, 2023; Micro Finance Deposit-Taking Institutions (Amendment) Act, 2023; Museums And Monuments Act, 2023; National Sports Act, 2023; Petroleum Supply (Amendment)Act, 2023; Stamp Duty (Amendment) Act, 2023; Supplementary Appropriation Act, 2023; Tax Procedures Code (Amendment) Act, 2023; Traffic And Road Safety Act, 1998 (Amendment) (No.2) Act, 2023; Uganda Human Organ Donation And Transplant Act, 2023; and Value Added Tax (Amendment) (No.2) Act, 2023.

 During the year under review, 14 motions authorising government to seek finances were approved to finance the budget, further condemning the country towards debt distress, with the public debt blowing above Shs86 trillion.

Twenty-seven Members were granted leave to introduce private members bills and 126 reports were adopted, plus two other documents.

The house also asked a number of questions with a total of 665 questions responded to during the Prime Minister’s Question Time, a total of 602 urgent questions were responded to, and 184 ministerial statements were also delivered.

The Opposition boycott

When the Opposition Members of Parliament under the leadership of Mathias Mpuuga, the Leader of Opposition in Parliament, met on October 12 and resolved to boycott the plenary, the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) legislators laughed it off, deriding the Opposition of playing to the gallery and engaging in politics of activism, instead of representing their voters.

They demanded for a statement from the government on the missing Opposition supporters before and after the 2021 elections, detention and trial of civilians in military courts, targeted arrest and prosecution of Muslims, and a string of other human rights violations by the state actors.

When government started dilly-dallying and refused to issue a statement as demanded by the Opposition, the members on October 19 went on boycott of the plenary that lasted for about two months before they resumed after government yielded to the pressure, issuing a statement which denied the Opposition claims.

The legislators cited the Executive’s failure to address several human rights violations concerns including accounting for the whereabouts of Opposition supporters.

Following the one-month absenteeism of the Opposition legislators from the sittings, Speaker Among directed that they resume attending House sittings or be excluded from other businesses of Parliament including attending committee meetings and traveling abroad.

Subsequently, Ms Among later made a U-turn and ordered that the Executive present a comprehensive statement in the House on the grotesque rights violations in the country including giving accountability on the missing Opposition supporters.

Led by Gen David Muhoozi, the State minister for Internal Affairs, the Executive responded on November 29 by partly explaining that the Uganda Police Force had conducted investigations into the matters of alleged missing persons but was confronted with several challenges and constraints, which compromised the integrity of the findings from the people given as next of kin.

Gen Muhoozi said the integrity of finding missing persons included individuals who were allegedly arrested with some of the reported missing persons refusing to make statements, most of the alleged disappearances were never reported to the police, fictitious people, and the presence of inconsistencies in the numbers and testimonies in the various claims of reported disappeared persons.

In response to the Executive’s statement, the Opposition on December 5, gave a rejoinder by listing four demands including directing for the immediate unconditional release of all political prisoners, and the formation of a Commission of Inquiry to investigate glaring human rights violations.

They added that there should be an establishment of a Select Committee to investigate rampant cases of rape, defilement, destruction of property, murders, and unjustified arrests, among other crimes. Finally, that persons not subject to military law and are currently being tried before any military court be transferred to civil courts under the direction of Director Public Prosecutions as directed by the Constitutional Court in the Constitution Petition No.44 of 2015: Rtd Captain Amon Byarugaba and Others versus Attorney General decided on December 15, 2022, and it was never appealed nor stayed.

Ms Among and Mr Mpuuga were expected to have a meeting with the chairperson of the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC), Ms Mariam Wangadya, and her team of commissioners to address some of the highlighted human rights concerns before conclusively concluding on the matter.

By the time of filing this story, the meeting had been rescheduled after flopping the first time due to the absence of UHRC commissioners who were up-country undertaking hearings. As of now, the Opposition legislators have returned for the plenary sittings.

Mr Zaake issues

Mr Francis Zaake, the Mityana Municipality Member of Parliament, for much of his political life has been a target of the State brutality, being repeatedly beaten by security forces, while at the same time his tormentors prosecuting him in courts of law, which he said are political witch-hunting.

His torturers did not end with the security people. Back in Parliament, every word Mr Zaake spoke was carefully listened to and for much of the time, attracted swift referral to the Committee on Rules and Privileges for investigations.

This year, Mr Zaake has been in the eye of the storm for alleged misconduct over two incidents that were subsequently referred for probe to the aforementioned committee.

One incident involved allegations that he demeaned the Rakai District Woman lawmaker, Ms Juliet Kinyamatama, by uttering vile statements about her during a rally in her constituency during this year’s Independence Day on October 9.

Mr Tayebwa referred the matter for probe on October 12.

As the Committee embarked on the investigations, they also opted to jointly handle another pending case involving Mr Zaake.

Mr Zaake is reported to have attempted to re-open debate on an issue concerning the abduction of Opposition supporters by State security agents. The matter was referred to the committee by Mr Tayebwa on November 29. The Committee is yet to finalise probing the two matters.

On Wednesday, December 13, Fr Charles Onen, the Deputy Chairperson of the committee said they were adjourning the interfaces until further notice, following continuous clashing schedules among committee members, the witnesses, and their lawyers.

Games and sports

In sports, the Parliament of Uganda, the defending champions from last year, defended the title and emerged the overall winner of the 13th Edition of the East Africa Community Games.

In athletics, Uganda collected 36 medals; 23 gold, eight silver, and five bronze to emerge the overall champions, followed by Tanzania and Kenya, respectively.

The football team, captained by Moses Magogo (NRM, Budiope East County), was also crowned champions of soccer after an unbeaten campaign with a maximum of 15 points, scoring a record 32 goals and conceding only two.

In Golf, the Deputy Speaker, Mr Thomas Tayebwa, led the team triumphantly to the championship with 270 and 268 points for men and women, respectively.

Key 2023 dates in parliament

October 9: Police raided the Opposition National Unity Platform offices in Kamwokya, a Kampala suburb and brutally arrested the party officials and MPs.

October 12: The Opposition team led by the Leader of Opposition met and threatened to boycott Parliament until government explains the brutality meted against their members and account for human rights violations.

October 17: Opposition attempted to present video evidence of human rights violations in Parliament. Power was temporarily switched off, a time in which parliamentary staff, who were supposed to play the video, vanished from the control room, forcing the Speaker to suspend the House for 10 minutes.

October 18: Mr Tayebwa suspended five opposition MPs, including Ms Betty Nambooze (Mukono Municipality), Mr Francis Zaake (Mityana Municipality), Ms Joyce Bagala (Mityana District Woman), Mr Frank Kabuye (Kassanda County South) and Mr Derrick Nyeko (Makindye Division East).

October 24: Opposition members returned to Parliament to pay their last respect to Henry Kyemba, former MP.

November 1: Mr Tayebwa suspended the House for two weeks.

November 6: Mr Mpuuga announced continuation of House boycott.

Compiled by Franklin Draku, Esther Oluka & Arthur Wadero