MPs want overstayed bills dropped from agenda
Why does cabinet present bills that they never follow up so that they can be passed into law?
That is the question many MPs are asking after it was revealed that more than 10 bills that were supposed to have been debated in the 8th and 9th parliaments were returned in the 10th parliament.
A section of legislators now want an amendment in the parliamentary rules of procedure to empower the August House to drop some of the overstayed bills.
The 10th parliament began business when it already had more than it can chew. There were several left over bills from the 8th and 9th parliaments
According to the rules of procedure of Parliament, after the first reading of any bill whether government or private members bill, the responsible Parliamentary committee is mandated by law to spend only 45 days to process such a bill and report back to the House for both the second and third reading
If the process is supposed to be as fast as it sounds, why then do we see bills overstaying?
Some of the legislators said some of the bills have overstayed because of the unfriendly content to the public
Some of the bills that were presented before parliament and have not yet been processed since the 8th Parliament are the Regional Government Bill of 2009, Marriage and Divorce Bill 2009, Uganda Forestry association bill 2010 and the Pharmacy protection and Pharmacy practice Bill 2006.
Those that were presented in the 9th Parliament and are still hanging in the House are the Indigenous and Complimentary Medicine Bill 2015, Human Rights Enforcement bill 2015, The Law Revision Miscellaneous Amendment Bill 2015 and the Kampala Capital City Authority Amendment Bill 2015.
Others are the Data Protection and Privacy Bill 2015, the Minimum wage bill 2015 and the Sexual offences Bill 2016.
These bills that were now pushed to the 10th parliament found this group grappling with its share of bills which has now forced sections of MPS to ask for powers to have some of them thrown out.
But who is responsible for the overstayed bills in the House, Chris Obore the director of Communications at Parliament explains.
However some of the bills that have been withdrawn by government without clear explanation are the Land amendment bill of 2017, the Retirement benefit sector liberalization bill 2011, persons with disability bill 2014, Anti counter fitting good bill 2015 plus the Uganda National Laboratory services bill 2016.
The 10th Parliament that is now gone half way its tenure boosts in passing the Constitutional amendment bill 2017 that saw the lifting of the age limit, the Excise duty amendment bill 2017 that saw the introduction of taxes on mobile money services, the GMO bill of 2017 and the Sugar bill 2017 among the host of other bills
