An attempt by the Leader of the Opposition Joel Ssenyonyi, to block the the second reading of the controversial Protection of Sovereignty Bill, 2026 failed after a sharp procedural exchanges and pushback from the Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among, who ultimately cleared the way for the government to proceed with the motion.
The tension began when Ssenyonyi challenged the legitimacy of the bill, citing a letter purportedly written by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. The LOP tabled a copy of the letter, alleging that the President had “disowned” the version of the bill presented by the Minister of State for Internal Affairs.
“In this letter, he disowned the bill… In fact, he was appalled wondering what it is that we were debating,” Ssenyonyi told a hushed House.
Ssenyonyi further raised concerns regarding the independence of the legislature, questioning why the President had reportedly bypassed the Speaker to deal directly with committee chairpersons. He argued that because the Attorney General and the Minister had made “amendments to the majority of the clauses,” the document before the House was effectively a “new bill” that required a fresh introduction.
Speaker Anita Among, however, remained unmoved by the LOP’s arguments. Maintaining a calm but firm demeanor, she reminded the House that as the “custodian of the law in Parliament,” she had received no official communication from the State House regarding a change in the bill’s status.
“I don’t have a new bill,” Among stated flatly. “If the President wanted to make a change… the President ought to have informed me. I am not aware of that.”
When Ssenyonyi attempted to push for the withdrawal of the bill based on the sheer volume of amendments, the Speaker intervened to prevent what she termed “debating in anticipation.”
“We don’t know what the bill is as when the minister moves his bill is when we can reject it,” she guided, urging the LOP to allow the formal process to continue.
In a final effort to stall the proceedings, Ssenyonyi pivoted to a point of procedure regarding the committee report. He reminded the Speaker of a 2023 precedent she set regarding the Uganda Airlines report, where she ruled that a “leaked” document could not be debated.
“This report has leaked… It was first shared on our Parliament platforms, media houses have shared it,” Ssenyonyi argued. “Given that precedent which you set, are we going to go ahead and debate this leaked report?”
Speaker Among dismissed the comparison, citing Rule 141.4a of the Rules of Procedure, which mandates that committee reports be uploaded to the Parliamentary Information System for members. Unlike the 2023 incident, the Speaker said that she had personally sanctioned the upload of this report.
With the procedural hurdles cleared, the Speaker invited the Minister to move the motion. Amidst murmurs from the opposition benches, the Minister of State for Internal Affairs, David Muhoozi moved that the Protection of Sovereignty Bill, 2026 be read for the second time, marking interesting step forward for the government’s legislative agenda.
The speaker has given one-hour shared equally between majority and minority reports to be presented to parliament, each side having 30 minutes to make their points. In the joint committee report shared on Monday, majority of the contentious issues in the bill were amended-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
