The Members of Parliament (MPs) on Wednesday clashed during a plenary over Uganda’s fast population growth rate, with Aruu County MP Odonga Otto, urging fellow legislators in the August House to lead by example by not producing many children.
MP Otto said that some of the Ugandan youth are disadvantaged because of joblessness to the extent that some are marrying while still staying in their parents’ households.
Odonga’s submission was countered by Deputy Attorney General Mwesigwa Rukutana and MP of …who said MPs are not reckless and that they know how to apply family planning methods. He asked whether Otto was in order to insinuate that MPs produce children they cannot cater for.
Ibanda North legislator, Maj. Guma Gumisiriza on the other hand commended the fertility of Ugandan women and only prayed that there should be rationalized planning, especially to address challenges of the country’s youth who continue to graduate to world of joblessness.
He said the fertility of Ugandan women was a blessing rather than a curse to the country, urging his fellow MPs to draws an example from China that boosts of its big population numbers.
The Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga who chaired the 20th Sitting of the 4th Session was concerned that many households in the country are failing to feed, treat and educate their children, urging the responsible ministries to come up with a comprehensive statement on what the government was doing for the youth.
Kadaga however disagreed with MP Otto who claimed that government was doing nothing for the youth. She said government had initiated projects for the youth.
Members were concerned that many Ugandan graduates are involved in boda boda riding, urging that government should boost the skills development programme if the youth were to join the job market as well as creating their own jobs. They advocated for trainings in tailoring, wood work, technical drawing catering, home economics, brick-laying and others.
The leader of Opposition in Parliament Betty Aol Acan said that institutions like National Leadership Institute Kyankwanzi could be used to make Ugandan youth skillful and productive.
She said that the ministry responsible for the youth should carry out a comprehensive study that could help develop a comprehensive plan for the biggest segment of Uganda’s population.
