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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga has issued new measures to guide the conduct of sittings in Parliament during the coronavirus lockdown. She says that the measures are in line with those put in place by the government.
Kadaga says that with effect from April 14, plenary sessions shall be conducted in the Parliament Chamber and must end not later than 5 pm. Sittings are currently held in the Parliament Conference Hall with all MPs allowed to attend at will.
She has directed that after April 14, every sitting of the House shall be attended by not more than 100 members, 5 members of staff of parliament to be deployed by the Clerk and 2 staff on the technical bench of government. Parliament currently has 459 MPs.
“Consequently, 80 seats will be marked on each sitting day for use by the backbench members and each will have an assigned number. Before the scheduled sitting of the House, the Government Chief Whip, Opposition Whip and the Speaker on behalf of the Independents and Coordinator of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) representatives shall designate members under the numerical strength in the House provided that all members of parliament will be given an opportunity once in a week to attend the sitting of Parliament,” she directed.
The Speaker says that the nomination of these members shall be sent and received by the Clerk of Parliament by 5 pm, a day before the date when the sitting of the House shall be held.
Members of Parliament shall also not be allowed to change seats in the House and there will be no physical consultation between MPs, the Clerk’s table and the Speaker’s desk.
Kadaga said that in the current circumstances, the biometric register of MP’s attendance is suspended and the Clerk to Parliament Jane Kibirige shall ensure that each member is manually recorded as present during the relevant sitting.
Members with pre-existing conditions were encouraged by the Speaker to work from home.
Parliament shall only be accessible through the Parliamentary intranet and the Parliamentary website to avoid the use of paper documents.
Speaker Kadaga also directed that every member while entering or exiting the House shall observe social distancing requirement.
“So you cannot move as a group. You have to move sequentially out of the House so that the measures are observed. When members exit the House, the Sergeants shall disinfect the seats before it is occupied by other members who may be outside and want to enter,” she added.
Committee sittings have also been suspended except the Budget Committee and the Finance Committee and any other committee approved by the Speaker to be handling the business of the coronavirus pandemic.
Kadaga says that these special committee sittings will be facilitated by 1 clerk assistant, 1 legal officer, 1 research officer, a sergeant, 1 budget officer at any given time.
According to Speaker Kadaga, the media will not be permitted into the committee meetings and that the Clerk shall make arrangements to enable media to access committee meetings electronically.
Kadaga also suspended catering services at the Parliament canteen or anywhere in the precincts of Parliament noting that only water will be availed to the MPs during the Plenary and Committee meetings.
Meanwhile, a section of MPs accused the government of trying to force parliament into recess citing the difficulties to receive car stickers that can enable them to travel to and from the Parliament building.
Fredrick Angura, the Tororo South MP accused the Executive of negatively following Parliament saying that it was failing the fight against Covid-19 and questioning its continued sittings.
Bugiri Municipality MP Asuman Basalirwa equally said that Parliament should not be tempted to close for any reason since other arms of government were working.
Kadaga said that government was avoiding formalizing the State of Emergency yet every issued measure indicates a defacto state of emergency.
Budadiri West MP Nathan Nandala Mafabi also indicated that the Executive would need Parliament away so that their work goes without any oversight.
However, First Deputy Prime Minister Moses Ali said that it was not a government intention to close parliament but there was concern about how people undermine the danger of the virus.
He said that only one a third of Cabinet was only meeting due to the pandemic.
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