Uganda Government Speaks: Bahati Bill will continue 6

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Giles Muhame tweets about the Bahati Bill news

Uganda’s Minister of Ethics and Integrity has spoken: the Bahati Nazi Bill will continue.

He really didn’t have any other option but to concede this given that this is a parliamentary process. Don’t forget, too, that the first attempt at debating this bill was rudely halted by presidential fiat. This time round the same tactic cannot work especially since, as I tried to explain here, Parliament and the President are in near open warfare with each other over questions of turf, jurisdiction and integrity.

Chimpreports.com has the transcript that the Minister of Integrity (now there is an oxymoron in a country like Uganda) has put out.

It does not form part of the government’s legislative programme and it does not enjoy the support of the Prime Minister or the Cabinet. However as Uganda is a constitutional democracy, it is appropriate that if a private members bill is presented to parliament it be debated. (Ethics Minister, Simon Lokodo)

As I guessed many moons ago, oil is beginning to be a pivotal player in this saga. The legislators feel that they can show Uganda’s donors where to get off if the oil from Lake Albert starts to flow. In fact, the contracts being signed left, right, and center can only embolden Parliament against what they see as meddling from Britain’s Cameron and America’s Barack Obama.

It is for that reason that one has to look at how this entire story will eventually be played out with a little more circumspection than I have perhaps used in the past. Museveni’s own missteps in handling the economy and Parliament, plus the emergence of oil as a central player might run a coach and horses through my past predictions on the fate of the bill.

But this was just about reporting the government position on the latest maneuverings of the bill. More on what might happen eventually at some point.

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