Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa has pressured the health committee chaired by Charles Ayume (Koboko municipality, NRM) to expedite processing of the Alcohol Drinks Control Bill, 2023.

He raised this during plenary on Tuesday, February 14, 2024. This was shortly after the tabling of the report of the committee on health on a field visit to Acholi sub-region to assess the prevalence of nodding syndrome. 

“Chairman committee on health, our bill, the alcohol bill, the committee is late,” Tayebwa posed.

Ayume, however, attributed this lag to a cocktail of factors which could not permit them to proceed with business. 

“The bill was referred to two committees. The committee on trade and health. Rt. Hon. Speaker cognizant of the challenges of processing the bill as two committees, I would therefore like to ask for more time (30 days). We still have some stakeholders that we need to engage,” he argued.

In response, Tayebwa said he fears that delays of such nature might clog business of the house thus preventing them from achieving their set objectives.

“This is a very critical bill but chairman my worry is we are also receiving over 30 bills from government for harmonization, the merger bills. And then we are about to go into the critical part of the budgeting process, so 20 days should be enough for you,” he ordered.

Alcohol bill 

The private members' bill was tabled by Sarah Opendi (Tororo district Woman MP, Indep) seeking to regulate the manufacture, sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks.

The legislative piece which also prohibits the sale of alcoholic drinks to children was tabled for the first reading on Tuesday, 14 November 2023.

Statistics

Globally, 5.1% of the global burden of disease and injury is attributable to alcohol in addition to its significant negative socio-economic impact.

Uganda is ranked among the highest alcohol-consuming countries in Africa with a reported alcohol per capita consumption of 9.5 litres, much higher than the 6.3 for the African region. Additionally, almost 10% of Ugandans aged 18 and older have an alcohol use disorder.

This is deduced from an August 31, 2023 study that was conducted by Samuel Maling, Jerome Kabakyenga, Charles Muchunguzi, Eunice Apio Olet and Paul Erasmus titled “Treatment outcomes of alcohol use disorder by traditional medicine practitioners using plant derivatives in southwestern Uganda: findings from in-depth interviews".