Parliament reconvenes for unfinished business

Mar 01, 2016

Majority of the MPs who are required to convene today will be participating in some of their last sessions in parliament since they were not voted back.

KAMPALA - As the current 9th parliament prepares to wind up its tenure of service of five years in May, it will today convene to embark on sorting out its unfinished business which remained pending when the country entered the election period.

According to the order paper which was issued yesterday, key items to be debated by the legislators include the Children (Amendment) Bill, 2015, Capital Markets Authority Amendment Bill, 2015, and report on the audited accounts of some public enterprises.

The Children's Amendment Bill 2015 will be presented by Ayivu County MP Bernard Atiku. Atiku, formerly of FDC bounced back as an Independent in the 10th Parliament.

Other items on the order paper include a report on petition by former prisons officers of Kasese district local government, and report on the Mbarara bypass, Mbarara-Ntungamo-Kabale Katuna roads, Mitaano and Ntungwa bridges.  

Speaking to New Vision about the report on roads and bridges, the physical infrastructure committee chairman Ephraim Biraaro said, "There were concerns about escalated costs for the Mbarara bypass, shoddy work that was done on the two bridges, and delayed completion of the above named roads."

The Children Amendment Bill has already gone through most of the stages and it is now at the stage of passing its clauses.

 

MPs, the civil society and government have been pushing for the law to be expedited to handle challenges surrounding the adoption and trafficking of Uganda's children.

Majority of the MPs who are required to convene today will be participating in some of their last sessions in parliament since they were not voted back to be part of the 10th parliament which commences in two months' time in May.

As it is always the practice, legislators are expected to point out issues of national importance like the events that have unfolded since the presidential and parliamentary elections on February 18, 2016 like arrests of FDC members and detention  of the party's flag bearer Dr. Kizza Besigye at his home in Kasangati.

Ayivu County MP Benard Atiku, who authored the Bill as a private member's Bill, said, "About 80% of the work for passing the Bill was done. What is now left is for parliament to consider clause by clause. It is now even possible to pass the Bill in one day."

Asked to explain the main object of the Bill, Atiku said, "It is majorly about the plight of our children especially safeguarding their rights, inter-country adoption, and measures for combating the trafficking of our children. Those who have been trafficking our children have been using the lacunas in the existing law. My Bill seeks to close those gaps."

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});