A heavy workload awaits MPs as they return

The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga. Photo/File

The Clerk to Parliament, Jane Kibirige, has today said Parliament will resume its normal sittings on Tuesday next week, starting at 10am.

"You are all requested to turn up in big numbers," Kibirige told the MPs.
 
The House was adjourned for Christmas holiday on December 21.

Although Parliament has been grappling with issues of lack of business from the Government side and absenteeism of ministers, observers say a heavy workload awaits MPs in the House.

The observers say MPs will therefore be expected to make sacrifices to ensure that Parliament reform electoral laws and pass other Constitutional amendments in this new year.

Kadaga speaks
In a recent interview with New Vision, Kadaga said the main challenge had been lack of Bills which President Yoweri Museveni mentioned in his State of the Nation address.

"They have not been presented for first reading and we are already halfway through the first session. I hope they will be brought sometime in the future," she said before the House broke off for Christmas.

However, the Speaker noted: "In the meantime, there is something I designed when I became Speaker in the ninth Parliament, so that the Bills and business should not lapse at the end of the tenure. We moved a motion to revive them and they are being handled by the committees at the moment."

Parliament is also expected to handle the budget framework paper for the financial year 2017/18 budget.