Parliament grants two opposition MPs leave to introduce bills

Parliament has granted two MPs Anna Adeke and Asuman Basalirwa leave to introduce the Sexual Offences Bill and the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill respectively.

The nod by Parliament for the two to introduce private member’s Bills was granted during the Tuesday plenary sitting chaired by Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa.

In her motion, Adeke who is Soroti Woman MP told the House that the Bill is a resubmission of the Sexual Offences Bill, 2019.

This was read for the first time on November 25 2019 and referred to the Committee of Legal and Parliamentary Affairs for scrutiny.

But it was lased with the dissolution of the tenth Parliament in line with Rule 235 (1) of the Rules of Procedure, hence necessitating the motion.

Whereas Uganda has enacted various laws to curb sexual offences and sexual violence against women and children,she says incidents of sexual violence are increasing.

She refers her notion to the report by the 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey, wherein 22% of women aged 15 to 49 reported having experienced some form of sexual violence.

She also notes that the 2021 Uganda Police Annual Report indicated that a total of 16,373 sex related crimes were reported, representing about 8.2 of the total crimes reported in the country, signifying an increase of 1.4% from the previous year.

Some of the laws under which sexual offences in the country are prescribed are the Penal Code Act Cap.120, the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act, 2009, the Domestic Violence Act, 2010 and the Children’s Act Cap 59.

Adeke raises concern that due to passage of time, some aspects of the Penal Code Act and various other laws have become out-dates, especially in light of advances in technological, emerging international best practices and the evolving and current trends in sexual offences.

She says that this has resulted in none prosecution of the vices that are prevalent today, such as child grooming.

“Due to the scattered nature of sexual offences in different pieces of legislation, the public and the law enforcement agencies are denied a single piece of legislation on sexual offences to guide the effective prevention, protection and prosecution of these offences,” Adeke told Parliament.

She cites the need for Uganda to consolidate all sexual offences under a single legislation like it is in a number of commonwealth countries like India, United Kingdom and Kenya.

Attorney General, Kiryowa Kiwanuka however stated that there was no legal issue to raise against the Bill at the time.

This prompted the Deputy Speaker to put a question on the motion and the eventual approval by the House.

On the other hand, Parliament also granted Basalirwa ,MP Bugiri Municipality leave to introduce the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill to amend the Public Order Management Act, 2013.

This is to define an authorised officer and make provision for disposal of notices for meetings.

The proposed Bill also seeks to repeal provisions in the Police Act affected by decisions of court in Constitutional Petition No.09 of 2005 Muwanga Kivumbi Vs Attorney General, repeal provisions in the Penal Code Act, Cap.120 that are unjustifiable in a free and democratic state and amend the Nakivubo War Memorial Trust Act, Cap 47, to remove provisions that have been rendered inoperative and redundant.

“The Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court has in various decisions examined provisions of the Public Order Management Act, 2013, the Police Act Cap 303 and the Penal Code Act, Cap 120 and declared them unconstitutional for infringing constitutional standards and constitutionally protected rights and freedoms,” said Basalirwa.

He says that in order to give legislative effect to the decisions of Court, there is need to amend the laws to remove provisions that infringe or adversely affect the realisation of constitutional standards and protected rights and freedoms.

Attorney General Kiryowa objected to Bill saying that law revision was the mandate of his office and that Basalirwa can only propose amendments to a particular law.

But Basalirwa said that the Attorney General was misleading the House since his Bill is about law reform and not law revision.

Parliament granted leave to Basalirwa to draft the Bill and the Deputy Speaker asked the private member to work with the Attorney General.