A Day at the Uganda National Assembly

This morning I was deployed with veteran New Vision parliamentary reporters to cover the proceedings at the house of parliament of Uganda. I was attached to Joyce Namutebi, a senior reporter. She took me through the rituals of parliamentary reporting. For the committees, it is not so strict. One can go with a camera, recorder, mobile phone, computer or other devices to the committee rooms. However, if one is to attend the plenary, all these gadgets are not allowed. Only pen and paper.

A parliamentary reporter tag was provided for me and off we went. Committee meetings are supposed to start at 10.00am, but by 10.30am, none of the committees had started. I was more interested in the ICT committee and after moving up and down, decided to go to that committee and wait. Having visited a number of committee rooms, I was surprised with the bareness of the ICT room. The rest of the rooms had modern equipment like microphones, speakers and screens, all high tech equipment. The ICT committee room had none of these amenities. A far cry from what the committee represented. Attendants were few and there was only one journalist!

Honorable. Edward Baliddawa a Member of Parliament and veteran computer expert chaired the committee. This morning’s session was discussing Uganda’s ICT ministry proposed budget for 2009 – 2010.

The chairman observed that the ICT ministry which supervises the Uganda Communication Commission (UCC) has a budget of only Shs 6.5 billion (approximately € 2.5 million) per year compared to UCC which has a shs 46 billion allocation. It was observed that the parliamentary act that established the UCC did not envisage the creation of an ICT ministry. UCC was set up in 1995, yet the ministry was created in 2006.

Most functions of the ministry are being carried out by UCC, yet it is supposed to be a regulatory body. 1% of the annual income of all telecommunications operators is remitted to UCC in a fund called Rural Communication Development Fund (RCDF). This fund is supposed to take communication nearer to the underserved rural areas where major players don’t reach because of its unprofitability.

The committee agreed to recommend to the plenary to review the UCC act in view of the current dynamics. UCC would remain the industry regulator, but the ICT ministry accompanied by the budgetary allocation should take up the function of implementer.

The ministry of ICT was also found running parallel to the ministry of information. The latter was in charge of the government satellites, which should ideally be under the ICT ministry. To harmonize this situation calls for a review of the media act according to the members.