Editorial & Agency
Opposition Members of Parliament on Tuesday stormed out of Parliament, boycotting the plenary sitting convened to debate and pass two contentious bills including the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF) Amendment Bill 2025, arguing they could not participate in what they described as a sham process.
Led by the Leader of the Opposition, Joel Ssenyonyi, the MPs questioned the government’s rush to amend the UPDF Act a proposal that, among other provisions, allows for the trial of civilians in military courts.
Ssenyonyi also criticized the deployment of armed forces around Parliament as the bill moved toward its second and third readings.
Security forces were visibly deployed on roads surrounding Parliament ahead of the debate, sparking further criticism from civil society and analysts.
The opposition also raised concerns over the amendment to the Political Parties and Organisations Act, which seeks to condition government funding to political parties on their participation in the Inter-Party Organisation for Dialogue (IPOD).
The parties with MPs in parliament have been sharing among themselves 35 billion Shillings, with the NRM taking the lion’s share with about 27 billion, followed by NUP with about 4 billion.
If this bill passes, NUP risks losing this funding, which party officials have said in the past has been used to run party activities, including buying the party headquarters at Makerere Kavule in Kampala.
