Uganda: Our Parliament Is Being Dissolved Through Bribery

3 November 2017
opinion

In 2005, a bizarre proposal for constitution amendment to grant the Executive power to dissolve Parliament was mooted. One may argue that it was brought to divert legislators' wrath in order to make the lifting of term limits appear like a lesser evil. This time round, the land Amendment and the age limit amendment Bills came together. Initially, the age limit amendment, like a pregnancy, was being denied. It is now being midwifed by the committee whose business we all know is a mere formality.

But these parliamentary rituals did not begin yesterday. What is disturbing has been our inability to admit that Parliaments is being dissolved gradually. Take the case of the Shs29 million payment for consultation, rightly described by MP Semujju Nganda as 'sanitising bribery.' How can Parliament, which is charged with the constitutional mandate of appropriation disregard all the rules of the budgetary process and accept such a mischarge on its budgets?

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