The slowdown in Uganda’s parliamentary business is causing concern that legislators may not finish the pending work before the 2016 elections are called. 

Speaker Rebecca Kadaga and her deputy Jacob Oulanyah have publicly complained about absenteeism, which they say is slowing business at both the committee and the plenary levels. 

Mr Oulanyah now proposes that the House sets aside one day in a week to take decisions on Bills and handle urgent business.

This lacklustre performance of the Ninth Parliament is in stark contrast to its first year, in 2011, when it was described as more assertive than previous parliaments.

At the time, the House kicked off on a high note by debating bribery allegations in the oil and gas sector, and passing a resolution to suspend three ministers who were implicated. Parliament also investigated the electricity sector following inflated bills for thermal generation during load-shedding. 

Besides turning up for plenary sessions, some ruling party MPs occasionally defied their party positions on issues taken in the caucus. But now that enthusiasm has evaporated. 

“It is true we have had some challenges. When we started it was like a big bang. Most MPs have gone back to school, and that was not the case at the beginning. Things are also beginning to take their toll on the members, and then the pressures begin to come,” Mr Oulanyah told The EastAfrican. 

Owing to absenteeism, the productivity of the House is low as Bills are not passed in time. In addition, committee reports are either not produced, or those generated are not discussed in plenary.  

The backlog is overwhelming, with 19 pending Bills, while oversight committees are yet to present reports on the sectors they oversee. 

Early this month, parliament failed to pass the Trade Licensing Amendment Bill for lack of quorum. Only 101 members were in attendance. The Constitution requires that at least a third of the members must be present to take decisions. The Ninth Parliament has 375 MPs, meaning that at least 125 MPs should have been present for the Bill to pass. 

“We had a gentleman’s understanding that if the issue is not controversial and is for the benefit of the people, we should take decisions. But the opposition is saying that the NRM is using numbers, and so there should be enough members all the time, which really is counterproductive. There is a Bill on trade licencing, but we did not pass it because a member from the opposition raised the issue of quorum,” Mr Oulanyah said. 

The passing of the Public Order Management Bill, for example, was controversial as the Bill was unpopular with the public. But through the caucus, members passed the Bill amidst protest from the opposition. 

READ: Rights group to go to court over public order law

“Sometimes we have bipartisan discussions on the floor. If they think the reasoning is correct and we are likely to win by reasoning, they [ruling party] call a caucus,” said opposition MP Ayena Odongo. 

“All of a sudden there is change. MPs have lost interest. The momentum with which we started has been lost. It is discouraging. You think this is the right thing to do, and because of the power of the majority, you cannot do anything,” said Mr Ayena. 

Parliamentarians conduct business for three working days (Tuesday-Thursday), and then they are supposed to travel to their constituencies for consultations.  

If Mr Oulanyah’s suggestion is adopted, MPs will have two full days to handle committee matters. The practice has been that committee matters are handled in the morning, and plenary sessions are held in the afternoon. 

Campaigns for the 2016 elections also pose a challenge. Legislators are struggling to maintain a balance between being in parliament and going to their constituencies where their rivals are working to unseat them.

They also claim constituents are making unreasonable demands on them to contribute at every fundraising to pay school fees for needy children, sink community boreholes, buy ambulances and other development matters.

“I know many people have loans and people are paying their debts, but the presentation by the media has been wrong. The right one is that people are getting pressured at their constituencies because the primaries are this year. MPs are therefore spending their time between parliament and their constituencies,” said Ann Nankabirwa, an MP from the National Resistance Movement.