Read More Magistrates’ Forum on Human Rights in the Criminal Justice System in Uganda – Update
Magistrates’ Forum on Human Rights in the Criminal Justice System in Uganda – Update
350,000 abortions in Uganda are induced – experts
Article by Catherine Mwesigwa Kizza ( New Vision)
Infanticide, child abandonment and abuse — the Ugandan media is full of the stories. The missing story though is that the abused and murdered children are most probably survivors of induced abortion.
“There are over two million conceptions in Uganda every year. 200,000 to 300,000 of these miscarry or abort spontaneously but 350,000 abortions in Uganda are induced,” said Dr. Charles Kiggundu an obstetrician and gynecologist at a breakfast meeting convened by the Center for Reproductive Rights and Centre for Human Rights and Development in Kampala Wednesday, to discuss the laws and policies on abortion in Uganda.
“90,000 of the induced abortions end up with severe complications but only a half of them access post abortion services,” he added.
“Only half of the women with complications seek medical care. A few survive but many others die,” he added.
Joy Asaasira of CEHURD said of the 20 women in Uganda who die due to pregnancy and childbirth-related complications every day, four to five of these are due to induced abortion.
Dr. Kiggundu says these are needless deaths. The policy environment allows women to receive healthcare for post- abortion complications, however, studies have shown that when they seek care, it takes about 44 hours for them to get attention compared to 35 to 45 minutes other women spend in hospital before getting a service.
“Health workers do not want to treat women with abortion complications because they do not want to be seen to be accomplices to the termination of pregnancy,” he said.
He also pointed out that phrases on hospital documents like “Police notify” worry health workers and are a deterrent to provision of care for women.
‘Health workers do not want to get involved with police. They want to do their work unencumbered,” he said.
Women induce abortions due to unwanted pregnancies due to wrong timing of pregnancy or economic and social hardships.
“Some men tell their wives to abort because ‘they stopped having children’ and yet did nothing about it,” Dr. Kiggundu said.
Those who survive death end up with chronic pain, anemia, and infertility among other complications.
He said safe abortion services were available but hidden to the poor.
“You must be connected and well-oiled to access the services. Some women fly to South Africa to terminate pregnancies and return,” he revealed.
The consequences for the majority who go to quacks or unskilled medical workers working undercover are dire.
“We recover forks, pens, knitting needles, bed springs, sticks, herbs from women who run to us with botched abortions. Some of these things kill the woman before they even kill the foetus,” he said.
Treatment for those who survive death is expensive. According to CEHURD, sh17.6bn is spent on treating abortion complications.
Not only can this money be saved and spent on worthwhile health causes but women’s lives can be saved as well.
According to Dr. Kiggundu, the Ministry of Health’s comprehensive abortion care includes sexuality education to promote safe sex practices, family planning use including access to emergency contraception, reducing fertility, providing safe abortion services and quality post-abortion care.
Government is also training nurses and giving them skills to perform manual evacuation procedures to attend to women with incomplete abortions.
“There are still many gaps,” said Dr. Kiggundu. “Uganda still produces health workers for export and retains only a few.”
He revealed that only 30% of the vacancies for skilled health personnel required to provide safe motherhood are filled.
It is no wonder that despite government commitments, advocacy efforts, plans and policies to reduce maternal deaths in the country, there has been no progress in this indicator in the past five years.
New data from the Uganda Demographic Health Survey report of 2011 show that the maternal mortality ratio increased from 435 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2006 to 438 deaths, though other international studies show a decline to 310 deaths per 100,000 live births.
“26% of these deaths are due to unsafe abortion,” said Elisa Slattery the Regional Director, Africa Program Center for Reproductive Rights.
Once addressed, reduction in unsafe abortion contributes to reduction in maternal death.
Slattery said studies on the law on abortion in Uganda have found that “abortion is permitted where a mother has severe illnesses threatening her health like cardiac disease, renal disease, eclampsia.”
The Centre for Reproductive Rights study also found that healthcare providers are not required under the Uganda law to consult one or more providers to get their consent before terminating pregnancy as has been previously believed.
The organization is calling on government to broaden access of information among healthcare professionals and the public as a means of stopping the tragedy.
source:http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/634689-350-000-abortions-in-Uganda-are-induced—experts.html
UGANDA : Creating A Healthier Future for our Youth
By; Ikirimat Grace Odeke (Program officer , Sexual Health improvement Project
It was the day before we broke off for the Christmas holiday. I was wrapping up at the office when a phone call came from 400 kilometers away. On the other end of the line was John, a student nurse and sexual health educator, and my colleague at the Sexual Health Improvement Project (SHIP). He urgently wanted advice on how best to handle the ordeal of an 11-year-old girl who was raped by a man two years ago.
The girl reported the abuse to her mother, who concealed the matter after receiving a bribe from the perpetrator. The mother warned the little girl never to tell anyone what had happened. “Sarah has just revealed this to me after she tested HIV+ during our outreach visit today,” John said in a poignant tone. “She is emaciated, weak, and malnourished. I need advice on how best to handle this delicate issue.” As I listened, I found myself baffled both by the details of Sarah’s story and by the fact that her situation is all too common in Uganda: This is the reality girls are grappling with in my community.
As coordinator of SHIP, it is my job to help young people like Sarah who confide in our sexual health educators. We are now connecting Sarah to the local health facility for treatment and are getting in touch with the District Probation Officer who is in charge of children’s affairs to take up the issue. Setting the wheels in motion to get Sarah out of her predicament reminds me of my own path to this work, and of all the reasons we urgently need sexual health education. Rape, incest, teen pregnancy, and transmission of AIDS are all serious problems in Uganda. I believe the only way to combat these situations is to address the cultural and social issues that cause them. I know that education is our most powerful tool to create a safer and healthier future for Uganda’s youth. SHIP’s vision is a society of healthy young people empowered to make informed and responsible decisions regarding their sexuality. And with more than 70 percent of Ugandans under 24 years, we’ve got no time to lose.
Navigating Adolescence Alone
A girl is considered a woman in my community when she develops breasts. Adolescents who have never been prepared for this stage of life are surprised and frightened. How can we blame them when things go wrong?
My own adolescence was challenging, yet punctuated with excitement, exploration, discovery, and vulnerability. My parents never talked to me about growing up. Friends told me about maturation, menstruation, and relationships with boys. Of course these were mixed messages. I grew up in a remote area, without TV; the small radio was only tuned in by my father for the news broadcast or his favorite music channel. I vividly remember the day my mother found me stealthily reading Drum, a fashion, music, and relationships magazine. She scolded and beat me. “So you have started reading this kind of magazine, do you want to get spoiled!” she shouted.
My mother’s rage is a typical scenario in Uganda, where parents talking about sex with their children is simply taboo. Because of these cultural realities, it was up to me to make decisions on sensitive matters that none of my parents wanted to discuss. I have no sister, so I was confronted with big issues for which I had no solutions.
When I was 15 years old, one of the big boys in my class used to tease and abuse me with inappropriate touches. I did not know how to deal with this situation. I began hating school and my self esteem was affected. Fortunately he left our school, but I continued to be confronted by all sorts of unfair situations. I thought the world just hated me. Inside I suffered alone while my society was busy threatening me instead of educating me.
Making decisions as a young person can be a daunting challenge without advice, information, and experience. Young people in Uganda are told that having sex before marriage is an abomination and immoral. But these kinds of threats do not protect youth from unsafe behaviors. They only attract the desire among young people to test the facts, discover, and experiment.
Studies show that by 18 years of age, 72 percent of girls in Uganda have had sexual intercourse. The reality is that adolescents are engaging in sex and we need to give them the right information beforehand. Peer pressure motivates many adolescents to initiate sexual activity early, and financial transactions are a major component of adolescent sexual relationships. In fact, 31 percent of young women in Uganda report receiving money for sex. Being educated about the likely dangers and consequences of such acts can help them decide. For 20 percent of girls, their initial sexual encounter is coerced or conducted under considerable pressure. Having the support of health professionals in the community can empower them to seek help in such situations.
As an adult and mother of teens, I never understood the dilemma today’s adolescents go through until I began working with them through SHIP. Going into schools and communicating with young people in informal, participatory ways has given me new insight into their worlds. I realize today that having experienced the transition into adulthood is not adequate to make parents understand what young people are struggling with to become responsible adults.
My work with SHIP has brought me face to face with horrors that are difficult to comprehend, and has made me aware of stories like Sarah’s that are common in Uganda. Cases of girls who are abused, defiled, and raped by relatives in their homes are reported daily. Daphne, a young nursing officer and sexual health educator, was horrified by the story of Rose, a 17-year-old who came to her at a health facility last year seeking a five-year contraceptive injection. Rose, a poor student under the care of her uncle in Kampala, divulged that her uncle was sexually abusing her. When Daphne met her, Rose had already conducted two crude abortions; the last one left her critically ill, so she wanted to avoid getting pregnant again. Daphne advised Rose to tell her mother about what was going on. “I told my parents, but they say I should endure the situation for the sake of completing my examinations,” Rose lamented in tears. Rose only feared pregnancy, which is reprimanded by Ugandan society. She did not think about sexually transmitted diseases, like HIV/AIDS.
No Way Out
Abortion is illegal in Uganda. In 2011, Rhoda, 17-years-old, was clandestinely brought to the rural health unit by her friends and abandoned there in critical condition. Rhoda had conducted a crude abortion that went septic. This was an emergency, but post-abortion care services are not developed in Uganda. Rhoda had to be transferred urgently to a different health facility. She was rushed to the hospital about ten kilometers away; however her life could not be saved. I lost many of my own adolescent friends to abortions that went bad. Others dropped out of school due to pregnancy.
The adolescents I work with identify poverty and negligence as common reasons for engaging in sex. Parents are preoccupied meeting their own personal needs and have forgotten about the needs of their children. Many parents think school fees are the most important thing in their children’s lives and they overlook nurturing them and providing sex education. Hope’s story is not uncommon: She was sent away from school to collect a book and pencil that her parents refused to provide. The Universal Primary Education program requires that parents provide children scholastic materials, food, and uniforms. Disappointed, Hope went home weeping, knowing her future was doomed without an education. A businessman eventually lured Hope into sex with the promise of keeping her in school. Hope is now 12-years-old and has just tested HIV positive.
Hope’s terrible dilemma reflects the fact that parents still believe that children are the sole responsibility of government. Universal Primary Education is now compulsory, but the law is not yet in place to deal with parents who do not meet their obligations of keeping children in school.
Phina, now a nursing student and a sexual health educator for SHIP, has vowed to complete her education against all odds. She says her father promised never to educate a girl because her elder sister got pregnant while at school. He arranged a husband for Phina, a proposal she rejected outright. But how many girls can find the inner strength to take such a defiant stance?
Where Do We Go From Here?
I am certain sexual health education needs to begin as early as 11 years. Children, especially in rural areas, tend to complete primary education at 17. Waiting until later ages to begin sex education is a missed opportunity. Last year, over 63 girls in 30 primary schools in Ngora district who registered for Primary Leaving Examinations either got pregnant or married.
Coordinating SHIP has opened my eyes about adolescents’ sexual health. It is clear that young people do not have adequate information about what to expect as they grow up. Adolescents have no one to listen to them. To combat this situation, we go into the schools to complement the formal efforts of the public education sector in sexual health education. We recognize the vital role played by parents, teachers, and community leaders in the lives of young people. It is my dream that one day every adolescent will be able to have the information they require to make appropriate decisions about their sexuality. We are working out an expansion program with some of the local members of Parliament to reach youths with these skills and information.
The current generation has been unfair to the next generation. We are leaving the youth to their own fate. It’s critical that we educate young people about sexual health, about the dangers and consequences of unsafe behaviors. We must give girls the tools and empowerment they need to stay in school, seek help when they need it, and fight back against sexual abuse — and we need to do it now.
The sick hospital system in Uganda
The death of Cecilia Nambozo in the labour ward of Mbale Hospital,
last month, mirrors the massive problem health centres are facing all
over the country. She is just one in 16 who die everyday during
labour.
The government last Wednesday outlined a six-point ‘fire-brigade’
response to salvage the country’s ailing health care system after the
death, during labour, of a primary school teacher in Mbale District
sparked public fury countrywide.
On September 6, when Cecilia Nambozo died, 15 other expectant women also passed on, their deaths unreported, since the Health ministry says 16 would-be Ugandan mothers lose their lives in labour daily. Thus the 5,840 annual maternal deaths backpedals the country’s drive to achieve Millennium Development Goal Five of reducing maternal
mortality by three-quarters by 2015.
Nambozo’s case was not particularly unique or the first one to stir
anger. In August 2009, residents attacked Mityana Hospital after
Sylvia Nalubowa of Bussujju village died with her baby during labour
allegedly because staff wanted to take a bribe before they could
assist.
Even in the Mbale case, it was reported that medics asked for
Shs300,000, which relatives of the deceased never paid, although the
allegation is yet to be substantiated. Government’s blue-print issued
by Health minister Christine Ondoa says their preliminary
investigations showed Nambozo died due to “negligence” by the health
workers. She said: “Investigations are still going on and that
disciplinary action will be taken on all health workers implicated in
the incident.”
Already, police arrested senior medical staff that were on duty at
Mbale Hospital that fateful day and the Director of Public
Prosecutions is studying the evidence on file against them to
determine if they should be formally charged in court and prosecuted.
Dr Ondoa, herself a consultant paediatrician, in last Wednesday’s
press statement announced measures to crack the whip on all errant
medical staff while promising to make medical supplies available.
Experts say such willy-nilly pronouncements that render health workers
culpable may be music to the citizens’ ears, but masks the systematic
decay, which is at the core of failing service provision at public
health institutions.
Already public health institutions such as Mbale Hospital routinely
report stock-out of essential drugs and supplies alongside shortage of
already poorly-remunerated but overwhelmed staff. It is understood
that some 12 midwives that the Health Service Commission recruited and posted to Mbale Hospital declined to take up the job.
Our investigations show that on the day Nambozo died, 11 hours after
reporting to the health facility, the hospital was apparently being
manned by interns. It had had no sutures (stitch threads) for more
than two months and every expectant mother was required to come along with stitching threads.
The only medical officer on duty, an obstetrician, Mercy Nassali, had
been in the one-bed theatre from morning and exhausted by the evening hours when the condition of Nambozo, who initially appeared likely to give normal birth, worsened. The obstetrician, with the help of one intern doctor, was at the material time attending to a woman with arm prolapse.
Arm prolapse is a condition during which a baby’s hand presents first
to obstruct labour, making it one of the “most serious” delivery
emergencies, according to Dr Rogers Ayiko, a maternal and child health
specialist, working for Doctors with Africa (CUAMM), an Italian health
organisation.
He said such an emergency can make the unborn baby
suffocate and is usually treated as a first priority to handle. Two
other interns continued handling all patients presenting with labour
complications while one midwife monitored the progress of nine other
women who had reportedly given birth at the hospital.
Dr Daniel Zake, a gynaecologist at Nsambya Hospital, a private
facility, said every maternity bed should be attended to by at least
two midwives. Health workers at public health facilities, however,
told us a midwife at a government facility handles anywhere between
four to 10 expectant women in a day.
This appears to have been the case with the lone midwife on duty at Mbale Health facility on September 6, who was taking care of nine new mothers, resulting in fatigue and diminished quality of care.
Health Minister Ondoa in a separate interview on Friday, said that the
World Health Organisation (WHO) has lately revised its definition of a
health worker to mean a combination of a doctor, nurse and midwife.
Under the health agency’s new guideline, such a cadreship of medical
professionals should handle 1,000 people. “If a country has less than
2.5 health workers per 1, 000 population, that country is in crisis,”
Dr Ondoa said. Uganda is operating significantly below the new WHO
standard.
The minister said the country’s present situation is “bad because we
don’t have enough health workers, but it is looking the future is
going to be good”. Why? Dr Ondoa said in the month of September alone, they recruited 150 health professionals and posted them to health facilities most in need and a total 1, 000 new health workers are
likely to be employed by end of next year if ongoing negotiations with
development partners succeed.
It is understood Nambozo’s uterus ruptured with the overweight baby
around 7pm and she wasted away fast because there was no blood stock at both Mbale Hospital and the Regional Blood Bank to transfuse her.
Her relatives had not bought the required sutures either. The National
Medical Stores that manages the budget for drugs and medical supplies
of all public health facilities had allegedly not supplied the
post-surgery stitch threads to the hospital in more than two months.
This newspaper understands that when Nambozo’s health deteriorated
sharply, the health workers decided to pick sutures from another
patient and rushed her into the theatre. Already acutely anaemic, she
was pronounced dead at 8.30pm.
Her demise, which Ministry of Health Spokesperson Rukia Mbaziira attributes to false starts by the health workers, exposes the many inadequacies and failures in Uganda’s health systems separately documented in an ad hoc report prepared by the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI).
Asked why the government has accused the health workers of negligence when they appeared stretched to the limit amid a dearth of medical supplies, Ms Mbaziira, who admitted “some health system challenges”, said it was incumbent upon decision makers there to summon staff who were off-duty once it determined the workload was overwhelming.
In the meantime, she said, the ministry had decided to absorb all of
this year’s intern doctors on one-year temporal arrangement until the
Health Service Commission formally recruits them at a later date.
FRHI’s 2010 report titled, “The Right to Health Care in Uganda”, shows
the government is in default on its commitments to health; its
allocation of 9.8 per cent of the national budget this fiscal year to
the sector, down from 10.3 per cent in the 2009/10 FY, contrasts with
the 2001 Abuja Declaration that obliges African states to dedicate at
least 15 per cent of their revenues, excluding donor financing, to
health.
Uganda had prior to the declaration accelerated its allocation to
health as a share of the national budget from four percent in 1997 to
nearly 17 per cent in 2000 before dropping the vote to below 12 per
cent in 2003 and 2006.
It was within the period of higher funding to the health sector that
the country shone internationally as a poster child for fighting
HIV/Aids, although much of the money came from donors. That
notwithstanding, the positive results showed in part that increased
investment in health – when officials do not pilfer the resources for
self-enrichment – improves citizens’ welfare and productivity. But
this financial year, the government has engaged a reverse gear and
slashed the Ministry of Health allocation to just 9.8 per cent of the
national budget, injecting more money instead into infrastructure
development.
The Regional Network for Equity in Health in East and Southern Africa
(EQUINET), which monitors the implementation of the Abuja Declaration,
in April 2008 reported vast fluctuations. It noted: “This research
demonstrates that some seven years after the Declaration, many of the
countries are still lagging well behind this target…”
That same year, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who is the honorary chair of the ‘Africa Public Health Alliance 15 per
cent Now Campaign’, urged African Heads of State and government not to in any way “revise, drop or further delay implementing the Abuja
Declaration”.
Describing the Declaration as the “most important” commitment African
leaders had made towards health financing and development, Archbishop Tutu said: “The continued loss of millions of African lives annually, which can be prevented, is unacceptable and unsustainable. Our leaders know what they have to do. They have already pledged to do it. All they have to do now is actually do it. This is all we ask of them.”
Even when there is marked growth in the number of health facilities,
improving access in parts of Uganda to a four kilometre radius,
according to the 2006 household survey, physical availability of the
infrastructure has not been matched by improved health services
because drugs, diagnostic machines and qualified personnel are
lacking. For example, HRFI researchers found during their study
carried out for six months (January to June 2010), and covering nine
districts, that people in rural areas, frustrated by lack of doctors
and medicines, are increasingly turning to mushrooming yet unregulated
traditional healers for treatment.
Worse still, in most rural areas, as is the case at some urban health
facilities, ambulances are either non-existent, not fueled or in
disrepair to effect transfers during referrals.
The FHRI reported that the government of Uganda is obsessed with
physical presence of health structure but not their functionality. It
also questions the rationale of the National Medical Stores (NMS)
having to manage budgets of all public health institutions when some
lower-tier health centres can hardly quantify their drug requirements
over months, resulting in stock-outs. As such, patients return with
their prescription forms home, staying for sometimes weeks without
medication, and turn up to swamp health centres when they catch wind of delivery of drugs.
The government appears aware of just how the failing health system has exposed it.
In the Wednesday’s press statement, Ondoa announced commencement of maternal and perinatal death audits at health centres to determine their possible causes and recommend implementable control measures.
Many observers say the government knows the hamstrings but is just
dithering to fix it – in the process leading public health institution
that offer treatment on the cheap to atrophy as private ones, many
owned by bureaucrats, thrive.
The good news is that Dr Ondoa says this time around her ministry is
determined to provide mama or delivery kits, unlike presently where
NMS charges for their supplies, to hospitals and all village health
teams at no cost; more health centres will be built and blighted ones
renovated and mass sensitisation undertaken to educate Ugandans on
safe delivery methods.
It is hoped these measures will propel Uganda to the league of nations
that have reduced maternal and child mortality but it is uncertain if
the hand of the first female Health minister will indeed heal Uganda’s
ailing health sector.
Source: Daily Monitor
http://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines/Health+++Living/-/689846/1247262/-/mc1l4vz/-/index.html
Whose interests do the honourable MPs represent?
From a vantage point in the Parliament Watch, I watched with disbelief on Monday as one of the authoritarian chairpersons, Mr Tim Lwanga, hit the roof and evicted journalists from the Budget Committee. The only reason this man gave was that “his” committee was going to discuss “technical matters” and therefore, no need for journalists.
Well, that’s Lwanga for you. But for some of us who have over the years watched MPs come and go, we are reliably informed that by the nature of our training and experience, we are knowledgeable in public spending than some lawmakers.
So, the accusation that the journalists were not needed because the Budget Committee was going to discuss “technical matters” is a complete conjecture whose inner meaning insults journalism and confuses the symbiotic relationship between Parliament and the media.
Well, that’s not all folks! In the face of the current economic crisis and the biting shortages the country is facing, this Budget Committee abandoned free meeting rooms in the House and pitched camp in one of the luxurious hotels on Entebbe Road to discuss the proposed Budget cuts. The Budget Committee has more than 30 members.
According to my sources in Parliament, each MP was paid Shs1 for pocket money. To show how wasteful these MPs are at a time when they were meeting to cut ministries’ wasteful expenditures, for two days, they wasted more than Shs100 million.
What is not clear though is why these MPs decided to blow public funds in expensive hotels yet they could have used Committee rooms at Parliament and save that money for striking teachers and other suffering Ugandans who cannot afford ARVs or even those without drugs.
Why the MPs, including the opposition preach water and drink wine at night, will be a discussion for another day. But this week, let us look at the importance of an open Parliament, focusing on answering a fundamental question: Whose interests do MPs serve?
In the West, there is this idea that unless, public institutions are open to public scrutiny and susceptible to public opinion, true democracy cannot flourish and therefore, progress will always be like a dog chasing its tail.
On account of this principle, as part of the global movement toward more open and accountable government, citizens have become increasingly concerned with obtaining access to information particularly on budgets. In fact, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) to which Uganda is a member, recommends unhindered media access to Parliament and its committees.
Similarly, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) to which Uganda is also a part and is hosting its 126th global summit here next year, believes that for a Parliament to be ‘open’ means, most obviously, that its proceedings are physically open to the public.
This may not always be straight forward in an age when the security of public figures is a pressing concern. However, other serious parliaments have found it possible to strike a balance between openness and security; in such a way that Parliament is manifestly seen to belong to the people as a whole, and not just to its members. This urge is premised on a belief that the best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy is openness. The inner sense we draw from this counsel is that secrecy, breeds corruption and corruption kills public and private institutions.
Indeed, secrecy, particularly in public offices like Parliament breeds dishonesty, laziness, nepotism, and many other social ills. Certainly, secrecy means evasion, and evasion means a problem to the moral mind.
Why the secrecy?
By locking out the media from covering the Parliament proceedings, our representatives in the 9th Parliament, clearly began their five-year journey off-side. Unfortunately, this weird behaviour in Parliament is gradually eating into the House’s creed and has of late permeated committees, including the Budget Committee, which is supposed to encourage transparency.
When Lwanga evicted journalists from the Budget Committee meeting as if the discussion threatens national security, the Shadow Finance Minister Geoffrey Ekanya tried to plead on behalf of the journalists, but without any success, and in the end our lawmakers discussed the amendments to the budget behind closed doors in one of the lavish hotels outside Parliament building.
However, it should be clearly understood that under Section 20, subject to the Parliament Rules of Procedure, the sittings of Parliament or of its Committees including the one Lwanga chairs shall be public. With exception of Section 20(2) where the Speaker may, with the approval of the House and having regard to national security, order the House to move into closed sitting.
By allowing Mr Lwanga, whose dictatorial leadership appears to have betrayed him in many ways, there was a conspiracy of silence from the rest of the committee members. They purely looked comical especially when their chairperson claimed that they were going to discuss “technical issues” as if the 9th Parliament is the first to discuss the budget. These inexcusable events in Parliament will evidently remind Ugandans how Mr Lwanga’s leadership is a contradiction to Mr William Okecho and Ms Rose Akullo (Bukedea Woman), among others, who venerated an open-door policy in the handling of the Budget.
Call for action
Even so, in this column, we urge the rest of the MPs to see sense in openness and in the same spirit, the office of the Speaker should have a joint meeting with all the committee chairpersons/vice chairpersons to orient them on matters of good governance. Surely, Parliament should be the last institution to be seen promoting secrecy, wastage in government and corruption for that matter.
The lawmakers should know that the overarching purpose of access to information legislation, which is operational, is to facilitate democracy and rule of law. This Act does so in two related ways: It helps to ensure first; that citizens have the information required to participate meaningfully in the democratic process, and secondly, that politicians and bureaucrats remain accountable to the citizenry.
Parliament needs to foster a culture of openness in government. For that matter, the media undertake to work with Parliament to ensure public trust prevails, establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Unlike secrecy, openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency, honesty, transparency and accountability and effectiveness in government.
The rising assertiveness of committees is a welcome development. But for those locking out journalists on flimsy grounds need to reverse this naughtiness, it is not helping anyone.
Mr Lwanga and others should know that the media and Parliament share a responsibility to contribute to political, economic and social development in ways consistent with democratic principles by pursuing fact-based, fully substantiated reporting. Ultimately, economic development is best achieved and sustained in societies where the people are democratic and well-informed.
Source: Daily Monitor
http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/OpEdColumnists/YasiinMugerwa/-/878670/1233862/-/item/0/-/yjflij/-/index.html