Parliament passes Protection of Sovereignty Bill 2026 

The Parliamentary sitting on Tuesday was marked by an eye-soaring scene as the majority side pushed through the Protection of Sovereignty Bill, 2026, amid a chaotic atmosphere where opposition voices were largely sidelined.

The session, presided over by Speaker Anita Among, saw the legislative chamber filled to capacity after a free-sitting declaration allowed NRM MPs and government Ministers to occupy the opposition side of the House, leaving late-coming legislators standing throughout the heated deliberations.

Efforts by the opposition, led by Nakawa West MP Joel Ssenyonyi, to block the Bill were foiled from the outset. Ssenyonyi raised procedural objections, arguing that the version of the Bill being processed was fresh and different from the one received late last month.

He further contended that the House was proceeding based on a leaked committee report, citing a precedent where a previous Uganda Airlines probe report was blocked on similar grounds.

However, Speaker Among dismissed these claims, stating that the current report had been officially authenticated with her signature, unlike the previous Airlines report.

The presentation of reports further highlighted the deep divide within the House. While Wilson Kajwengye, co-chairperson of the joint committees on Defense, Internal Affairs, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs, presented the majority report endorsing the Bill without interruption, the opposition faced severe time constraints.

Speaker Among directed that all six minority reports be presented within a combined 35 minutes the same amount of time allotted to the single majority report. This sparked an uproar, with Shadow Constitutional Affairs Minister Jonathan Odur and others openly rejecting the instruction to split their time.

The tension escalated when Odur accused the committee co-chairpersons of gross incompetence and stifling debate during the Bill’s consideration at Speke Resort Munyonyi. Speaker Among intervened, ordering the Hansard team to expunge the remarks and demanding that Odur condense his 20-page submission into just five minutes.

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Similar restrictions were placed on other minority report authors, including Shadow Attorney General Wilfred Niwagaba, Abdallah Kiwanuka, and Betty Nambooze.

Nambooze warned the 11th Parliament against its current conduct, noting that hundreds of memoranda including a significant submission from the Buganda Kingdom had been ignored during the committee stage.

Adding to the friction were allegations of technical bias on the floor. While the majority report was heard in silence, the opposition struggled against loud laughter and noise from the NRM side.

Tororo District Woman MP Sarah Opendi pointed out that the microphones being used by the opposition appeared to be less audible than those used by the majority side, making it nearly impossible for the dissenting views to be comprehensively heard by the House and the public record.