GOVERNMENT | APPOINTS | KINOBE

The government has appointed the former president of the Uganda Law Society (ULS), Simon Peter Kinobe, as chairperson of the National Bureau for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO Bureau) board.

According to the state minister for internal affairs, Gen. David Muhoozi, the new board will commence operations when funds to pay the monthly salaries of the new board members are availed in the coming financial quarter.

Kinobe will be deputized by Paul Mandela on the bureau’s board, which oversees the operations of non-governmental organizations across the country.

Other members of the board include the former chairperson of the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC), Margaret Sekaggya, and Rebecca Akunda.

Sekaggya is also the executive director of the Human Rights Centre Uganda.

The director for youth affairs at the National Resistance Movement (NRM) secretariat, Maj. Okwir Rabwoni, is also a member, among other members.

“The rest are five members of the board, including two representatives of the sector who will represent the interests of the NGOs,” Stephen Okello, the executive director of the NGO bureau said during the quarterly interface between NGO leaders and the minister of internal affairs on November 29 (Tuesday) at Golf Course Hotel.

“I asked why don’t we induct them, but the technical people were saying we have to pay them, and in the first quarter we didn’t have money for them." For them, it is a salary board. I told them, "Why don’t we inaugurate them, and then pay them later? "They said it would accrue arrears," Muhoozi explained.

Section 9 of the NGO Act, 2016 establishes a board of directors for the NGO Bureau composed of seven members appointed by the minister and approved by the cabinet. The law adds that the board members must be salaried.

The board consists of a chairperson, a vice chairperson, and five other members.

“A board member must be a citizen of Uganda and of high moral character and proven integrity." "One-third of the members of the board of directors must be female,” the Act states.

The function of the board is to oversee the implementation of the Bureau’s policies and programs among other functions.

 The law states that a member of the board of directors holds office for three years and is eligible for reappointment for one further term. Currently, the bureau awaits the appointment of the new board.