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Uganda’s cabinet has taken a step towards promoting the use of Kiswahili, with a directive requiring ministers to deliver statements and speeches in the language on the first Monday of every month.

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs John Mulimba announced the move, which is aimed at enhancing the use of Swahili in government business.

“At cabinet, we have devoted every Monday to lessons in Kiswahili,” Mulimba said.

“Starting this month, the president has directed that we will be having every first Monday of the month to only deliver our statements and speeches in Swahili. So those who will have a shortcoming may not have the opportunity to say anything.”

Mulimba was speaking during the launch of the 2nd Uganda-Tanzania Business Forum set to take place on May 23-24 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Mulimba said the move is part of a broader effort to promote Swahili as an official language in Uganda and to strengthen regional ties with neighboring countries where the language is widely spoken.

“It’s important to note that Uganda adopted Swahili as our second official language. Accordingly, in the new curriculum, Kiswahili has been introduced as one of the languages that are taught and made compulsory,” he said.

English has been the only official language since independence in 1962, but Kiswahili has been gaining ground. Proposed as a second official language in 2005, it has been taught as an optional subject in secondary schools since 2017.

As the region’s lingua franca, Kiswahili is widely spoken in Tanzania, which adopted it as a national and official language. The East African Community, comprising Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, designated Kiswahili as its official language in 2017.