Ex-MP Lukyamuzi tells legislators, 'you don't need much time to make your point'

KAMPALA - For quite some time, political commentators have argued that as more constituencies were created, the sheer number of lawmakers in the August House has made it increasingly difficult to manage proceedings fairly.

One such analyst is Kira Municipality MP Ibrahim Semujju Nganda, who also serves as spokesperson for the latest entrant on the scene, the Katonga Road-based People's Front for Freedom (PFF).

According to Semujju, the spectacle has left little room for a seemingly overflowing Parliament to debate.

“Look at our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with a cabinet of 86 ministers. Parliament of Uganda, 552 MPs, we can’t even fit in the chambers. This is like a secondary school. That’s why MPs begin quarrelling that they are not being given an opportunity to talk. Because even if everybody is given an opportunity, it will take four months for every MP to speak here,” Semujju stated in a September 2023 interview.

“But also, the quality because I keep telling MPs here, that the late Jacob Oulanyah, on the sale of Uganda Commercial Bank, spoke for 2 hours. Then Kategaya and Mao. But Parliament nowadays just operates like a talk show, giving opportunity to everyone to talk. That’s why Oulanyah had said we need to research. I think in this Parliament we need to reduce it to a maximum of 300. The sixth Parliament had 214 MPs,” he added.

Looking back, Semujju observed that the number of MPs had risen from 214 in a space of about 15 years. Worse still, he expressed fear that the clamour for more constituencies could lead to new ones being created before the end of the Eleventh Parliament. Something that is yet to pass.

“That’s why the budget for Parliament has risen from about shillings 300 billion about 2005 to now almost a trillion shillings… There is a need to restructure general administration in Uganda, I keep on telling people, wages and salaries are shillings seven trillion, the money for recurrent expenses, that is fuel, stationery, vehicles and this and that is shillings 13 trillion. So, you spend a total of 20 trillion, and another 20 trillion is for paying loans. What remains is about 12 trillion,” he explained.

In theory, the House sits three days a week; Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday usually from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm.

Proper time management

And yet, in an exclusive interview with New Vision Online on Tuesday, September 9, 2025, former Lubaga South MP Ken Lukyamuzi said the cheat code in such a situation is proper time management.

Drawing lessons from a benchmarking visit to the United Kingdom’s House of Commons during the Sixth Parliament.  Lukyamuzi, who also doubles as the Conservative Party (CP) President, had reportedly been sent by the Ugandan Parliament, then led by the late James Wapakhabulo, to study parliamentary practices.

“I was very much moved. For the very first time, I saw I think the late Teddy Heath, who was Prime Minister of the Conservatives. He made a point of a very prominent nature within five minutes. It really taught how parliamentarians need to learn how to maximise time,” he recalled.

“You don’t need too much time to make a point; you can use three minutes to cause rattles,” he said. 

The visit to King Charles III’s land left him with other lasting impressions as well.
“I worked in the library, for example. Even the speech of Sir Edward Muteesa, the first President of Uganda, was in the archives in London. I was so happy. It’s so unfortunate that Ugandans are not enjoying such a speech, I don’t know why?” he mused.