KAMPALA: The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Thomas Tayebwa, has directed the Clerk to Parliament to stop committees from conducting field activities while Parliament is sitting.
The directive was issued during his communication to the House on Tuesday, 20 September 2022.
The Deputy Speaker said that the behaviour he termed “unacceptable” had come to the attention of the leadership.
“Attendance of plenary sittings has suffered at the hands of members attending committee activities in the field; I direct the Clerk to halt an activity coinciding with sittings,” he added.
Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa’s directive comes after Silwany Solomon, Bukooli County central Member of Parliament asked him to call back all the MPs who are for official field trips to vote for the candidates of their choices.
“Rt Hon Speaker, I thank you for organizing the nomination for the EALA seats. However, many of the committee members are out on official field trips and visits. I implore you to call back that our members to come and vote,” he said.
Currently, the committee on East African Community Affairs members are in the field trip to meet the former members of the defunct East African Community over their pension arrears that have never been paid.
Tayebwa said that there was plenty of work to be done and that business on the Floor of the House that was being delayed needed to be given priority.
“All committees which were going to the field tomorrow, all your businesses are hereby cancelled, no one should go. We need to do the work of this house, you have processed reports, and you must remain here and listen to reports from the committees. You can’t only be here when we are processing your business and not here when other people’s business are being processed. So clerk cancel all travels for the committees to the field,” Tayebwa said.
Parliament, under normal circumstances, sits from Tuesday to Thursday every week. There are 29 committees of Parliament.
