UPDF Bill: MPs spar over legitimacy of majority, minority reports

KAMPALA - Kilak South MP Gilbert Olanya has accused the joint committees scrutinising the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) Bill, 2025, of concocting a committee report without members’ knowledge or input.

He raised this during the second reading of the Bill on Tuesday, May 20, 2025.

During the sitting today, Olanya, who sits on the defence and internal affairs committee, asked chairperson Wilson Kajwengye (Nyabushozi County, NRM) to account for where he derived the majority report he was presenting at the time.

“Rt. Hon. Speaker, you gave the committee the task to look at the Bill and come up with a report. When we were writing the report on Monday, before we reached half of the report, the chairman told honourable members that they are going to Entebbe to attend the caucus, and they will come back and we will continue with the report. Rt. Hon. Speaker, the chairman did not come back, and we did not continue with writing our report. Is it procedurally right Rt. Hon. Speaker, I don’t know where the report came from. Let the chairman clarify to members,” he pointed out.

“We need to be serious, and it is very bad to keep on smuggling what is not agreeable to members,” Olanya warned.

Speaker of Parliament Anita Among. (All Photos by Miriam Namutebi)

However, Speaker Anita Annet Among clapped back, asking Olanya where, together with Kioga County MP Moses Okot P’Bitek, they had derived their minority report, before waving on Kajwengye to proceed with presenting the majority report.

Bizarre development

Later on, it emerged that although Kajwengye had claimed there was only one minority report, another had been authored by Erute South MP Jonathan Odur (UPC), who also serves as the shadow minister for Justice.

“Honourable members, there are two minority reports. Not so, chair?” Among posed.
“I am not aware, and it offends the rules of procedure Rt. Hon. Speaker,” Kajwengye responded.

Things took an even stranger turn when Labwor County MP Jim Bricky Norman Ochero (NRM) questioned the legitimacy of the Opposition’s position in the House, given that many of their colleagues had staged a walkout.

“According to the official information we have, the Opposition is officially boycotting this sitting. I wonder how my colleagues are masquerading here,” Ochero raised.

However, the Speaker was quick to clarify that while others had walked out, there were still pockets left.

“Opposition is in the House, I see honourable Akello, Okot, Olanya, Santa, Odur, who has ably presented a report, Namanya. Honourable members, legal committee, did you get a report?” Among said.

“I just received a document. Somebody came and dumped a document here. But I have just read, it is a minority report of the honourable Jonathan Odur. I was not informed of what it was, but I have just read and realised,” legal committee chairperson Stephen Bakka Mugabi responded.

Internal affairs minister Gen. Kahinda Otafiire arriving for plenary today.

Legal standstill

The matter nearly brought the House to a standstill over legal technicalities.
While State Minister for Youth and Children Affairs Balaam Barugahara warned that blocking the report would reflect poorly on the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party government which is renowned for its strong democratic credentials, others, like ICT and National Guidance Minister Dr Chris Baryomunsi, insisted that rules should not be bent to accommodate a report that had not followed due process.

In the end, Speaker Anita Annet Among prevailed upon the House to let the matter rest.
“Honourable members, let’s not be seen to be suffocating any member. Let Honourable Odur come up with his report and give us a summary of his report, his areas of dissent. Let him do it,” she ruled.

“For the record, this morning, I made a call to the chair of the legal and parliamentary affairs committee, and I told him on the phone that I have a minority and the chair is here. Secondly, when I reached Parliament, I again notified him on our platform, and then I find this report with the clerk of our committee, who duly submitted it to the clerk of Parliament. It has been duly stamped as received. So, the record should show that I am not smuggling, I am just complying with the rules,” Odur clarified.