Ninth Parliament better than previous - report

By Henry Sekanjako

Citizens have assessed the performance of the 9th Parliament saying it has in its first session performed better than the previous parliament.

According to the parliament watch bulletin report, a citizen –assessment of the first year of the 9th parliament released on Friday in Kampala by the Uganda governance monitoring group, (UGMP) the 9th parliament was rated high in terms of legislation and oversight scoring 60 percent.

The report indicated that in its first session, the 9th parliament was able to pass up to 11 bills and adopted 23 bills that were left out by the 8th parliament.

“In terms of the number of bills, tabled and passed, this was minimal compared to the first session of the 7th and 8th parliament,” said Norah Matovu research officer UGMP.

The report attributed Parliaments’ performance to vigilance of MPs in the fight against corruption and impunity.

It was also highlighted that in its first session, the 9th parliament was very instrumental in protecting national interests such as the demand for transparency in the management of oil and other extractive resources in Uganda.

According to the report, the interaction and consultations with different parties has increased transparency in parliament which has improved its image among Ugandans.  

Its rating was also attributed to the freedom of speech that is expressed by MPs in Parliament. In the report, the citizens also attributed the good performance of the 9th parliament’s first session to the independence of speaker of parliament Rebecca Kadaga who they said is a seasoned politician.

However, the report citied what they called perceived ‘interference’ by the ruling party National resistance movement (NRM) and the executive which they said undermines the performance of parliament.

The report indicated that the ruling party through caucus meetings tends to reverse some decisions made by parliament.

In the report, the citizens recommended that parliament explores all legal avenues to put pressure on executive and judiciary to ensure that persons implicated in committee reports that are tabled before parliament on corruption cases are investigated and culprits are duly punished . Ends.