Prof. Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba has urged church leaders to dedicate at least some percentage of the tithes to the vulnerable communities in order to curb diseases and hunger affecting the people.

PLO Lumumba, the keynote speaker made the urge while addressing people at the National HIV/AIDS symposium under the theme “Ending inequality among adolescent girls, young women and boys” held at Makerere University Business School in Nakawa.

Lumumba said that the churches should be so impactful in changing the lives of people since religion in Africa has been so based on moral values and behavioral change.

“Tithes and offerings are given to churches. But how much do they contribute to the noble cause of eradicating HIV? Let us give back to these communities in order to stay relevant,” Lumumba cautioned.

He has also called on the government to set up the HIV/AIDS trust fund to end reliance on dwindling funding from development partners. Apparently, the country’s HIV funding deficit stands at 450 billion shillings according to Uganda AIDS Commission.

“Create a single fund for a purposeful use to fight HIV/AIDS. We made commitments that 15% of our budgets be dedicated to the health sector and therefore by extension HIV must also be on radar,” Lumumba said.

He added, “funding of HIV must have a regional perspective. The president has recognised that the impact of HIV is not only on the health sector but also on the economic kind, political kind and social kind,” 

“We cannot win the fight against HIV in spite of regional inclusion, there is a need to have other regional countries involved in the response,” he noted.

He also said that research in Africa is not at the level which one desires it to be. The universities and other institutions of higher learning are doing their own things, not research.

“In Africa we don’t have researchers. The ones we have are mainly good at writing proposals to donors in Sweden, Canada,” he said.

He further urged the citizenry to hold the authority accountable and always speak the truth to power. Adding, “In Africa, when politics fails, everything fails.”

Stories Continues after ad

Bugiri Municipality legislator, Asuman Basalirwa, has tabled the National Sports Bill, 2021 for its first reading.

The Private Member’s Bill was tabled on behalf of Budiope East County MP Moses Magogo during plenary sitting on Wednesday, 09 November 2022.

The bill seeks to repeal the National Council of Sports Act. Cap 48. The object of the bill is to consolidate and modernize the law relating to the incorporation and registration of national sports organisation and community sports clubs.

Further to that, the bill intends to provide for the management, promotion, development and regulation of professional, amateur and recreational sports in Uganda and to streamline the recreation, registration and management of national sports organisations and community sports.

Speaker Anita Among referred the bill to the Committee on Education and Sports.

Parliament deferred the first reading of the bill on 09 March 2022, with government arguing that there is a need for further consultations on the financial implication.

Magogo was scheduled to table the bill, but the then Government Chief Whip, Thomas Tayebwa, said that the bill had several connotations of financial implication which require co-sponsorship.

Attempts by the Minister of State for Sports, Peter Ogwang, to convince the House during the sitting of Wednesday, 09 November 2022 to heed the earlier position on harmonisation of the bill were futile.

“Procedure requires that before a bill is tabled, it has to go through Cabinet. Cabinet will approve the bill on Monday and it will be tabled. I request the House to permit that the consolidated bill is tabled after Cabinet approval,” Ogwang said.

Among, however, advised government to take over the bill at committee stage, if they feel the proposed law is not sufficient enough, citing a similar scenario in which government took over the Succession (Amendment) Bill, 2021 at committee stage.  

“We are bringing the bill in good faith, we are helping you to work. We cannot have a Bill laid and it takes eight months. Let us not deprive a private member of executing his constitutional mandate,” she said.  

The Speaker added that Parliament has a legislative agenda of 62 bills and yet not even a quarter of the bills have been handled.

Stories Continues after ad

Experts from the Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA) have called on government to offer free legal services to Ugandans, whose rights have been abused while on duty abroad.

CEPA proposes that since government collects revenue from exportation of domestic workers, part of the revenue should cater for legal aid.

“Many of our migrant workers have been sexually and physically harassed, others have been denied their pay, government should in such a case be able to assist them get justice and claim their payment,” said Brighten Abaho, Programme Associate at CEPA.

He was speaking before the Committee on Gender, Labour and Social Development on Wednesday, 09 November 2022, where he made submissions to the Employment (Amendment) Bill, 2022.

Abaho suggested that once the bill is passed, all bi-lateral agreements on labour export, should be reviewed and aligned with the law to rule out any grounds for exploitation as witnessed in several reports.

He further proposed an increment in penalties for Ugandan employers guilty of employee exploitation, cognisant that the existing ones in the principal act are not deterrent enough.

“We are talking about employee harassment, and the fine of not exceeding 42 currency points an equivalent of Shs 840,000 is not deterrent enough. We propose an increment to 200 currency points for anyone who mistreats employees,” said Abaho

CEPA also wants the Minister for Gender, Labour and Social Development to update Parliament on external labour quarterly.

The committee chairperson, Flavia Kabahenda, said the US$30 charged for every domestic worker abroad does not reach the gender ministry to be able to assist migrant workers.  “The ministry lacks money to monitor the sector, all the money goes through Uganda Revenue Authority to the Consolidated Fund to do other things,” said Kabahenda.

Workers’ MP Margaret Rwabushaija, said there was need for government to pay attention to the deteriorating relationship between Uganda and countries where it exports labour.

“Where things are going, the Arab world is getting afraid of us. Even our committee which was about to go for oversight has been blocked,” said Rwabushaija. She called on government to open up to other countries for labour export.

Fellow Workers MP, Charles Bakkabulindi, was concerned that the proposed increase in penalties may not be the solution to labour exploitation and suggested strengthening of law enforcement.

“People know how to evade such fines. Therefore, the law enforcement should be the focus, hiking the penalty to so many years, or so many million shillings may not help,” Bakkabulindi said.

The committee has commenced receiving submissions from stakeholders over the Employment (Amendment) Bill, 2022.

The bill seeks to regulate employment of domestic and casual workers so as to improve their working conditions. It provides for compulsory registration and licensing of recruitment agencies for domestic workers and non-manual labourers.

Stories Continues after ad