By Joyce Namutebi  

There was excitement at Parliament Tuesday afternoon after the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, 2009 was re-tabled for consideration.

Parliament resumed business on Tuesday after over a month of recess.

MPs applauded as Ndorwa West MP David Bahati took to the floor to re-introduce the controversial Bill for reference to the appropriate committee.

After re-tabling the Bill, MPs both on the ruling side and the opposition gave Bahati a standing ovation.
“Our Bill, our man,” the legislators chanted.

Speaker Rebecca Kadaga committed the Bill to the relevant committee for scrutiny.

The Anti-Homosexuality Bill was among the several Bills re-tabled in Parliament.

Copies of the Bills had been saved and reprinted for scrutiny by various committees.

They include the Plant Variety Protection Bill 2010, the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (Amendment) Bill 2010, the Anti-Counterfeiting Goods Bill 2011 and the Accountants Bill 2011.

The Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions (Amendment) Bill 2011 and the National Population Council Bill 2011 were also tabled. The Plant Protection and Health Bill 2010 will be re-tabled because it was not read properly.

The HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Bill 2010 was also not re-tabled as scheduled because it was not ready for presentation by the chairperson of the committee.

 MPs, however, expressed disappointment with water minister Maria Mutagamba and the other two ministers in the ministry, for failing to show up to re-table the Uganda  National Meteorological Authority Bill, 2010.

Later, the disaster preparedness minister, Stephen Mallinga, performed the task. Kadaga said she had been accused of blocking government business by members of the Executive, yet they do not attend Parliament to transact business.