Debate on the government's land law reform proposals as contained in the Land (Amendment) Bill 2007 opened Thursday amid protests from several lawmakers.

Opposition MPs questioned the manner of scrutiny by two House committees-that of Physical Infrastructure and Legal Affairs which have spent the past year discussing the Bill-after a report of the Physical Infrastructure Committee was presented devoid of the thoughts of the Legal Affairs Committee.

The matter proved a sticky point at Thursday's sitting of the plenary as Lands Minister Daniel Omara Atubo moved to compel the House to accept the Bill for its second reading and in effect push Parliament to take a step closer to passing the controversial piece of legislation.

But Speaker Edward Ssekandi moved to shake off opposition from MPs who included Alice Alaso (FDC, Soroti Woman), Abdu Katuntu (FDC, Bugweri) and John Kawanga (DP, Masaka) and thwarted attempts at blocking the Bill's second reading.

"Let us debate the report some other time when we have fully read through all its provisions," Ms Alaso begged of the Speaker.

The Bill, first tabled on the floor of Parliament in February 2008, has had a start-stop process, attracting wide public criticism which compelled the government to backtrack and issue fresh amendments even before Parliament considers the Bill clause by clause on the floor.

Mr Ssekandi laboured to calm nervy MPs who raised objection to both Mr Atubo's statement and the report of the Physical Infrastructure Committee which spoke of fresh amendments to the Bill but amendments not yet formally tabled on the floor.

Mr Ssekandi ordered the lawmakers to limit their comments to the original version of the Bill, telling the MPs to reserve their thoughts until the Bills committee stage when the House will scrutinise the Bill word for word, clause by clause.

However, Mr Atubo distributed a copy of the government's new amendments which showed the extent to which public outcry had influenced fresh changes in the Bill. For instance the controversial proposal to let courts arbitrate disputes on customary land has been thrown out while a new clause that seeks to penalise tenants who assign "the tenancy by occupancy without giving the first option of taking the assignment of tenancy to the owner of the land" has been introduced.

Thinks differently

However, even as the Bill seems likely to be passed on Tuesday, one MP has already stood to protest his party position to have halted and thwarted the whole piece of legislation.

Kibanda MP Awor Otaada gave his personal reservations in the Thursday debate where he was given a lone chance to debate owing to the fact that he would not be present at the Tuesday debate.

"The Bill seeks to criminalise civil cases," he said, adding: "It is a preconceived law that seeks to encumber land economically."

Mr Otada also tabled before the House a three-page petition to the NRM party chiefwhip Daudi Migereko challenging the law.