The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | URN | The Protection of Sovereignty Bill 2025 is closer to being passed following its endorsement by the NRM Parliamentary Caucus on Friday. This decision by the MPs “with guidance from President Museveni” has caused jitters among opposition politicians and civil society, as it is believed it would limit their sources of income even further, on top of other restrictions, if passed.
The Bill, 2025, seeks to “safeguard Uganda’s national interests and institutional independence,” and this development immediately raises reminders of the recent government efforts to counter external influences on domestic policy. The Bill’s core purpose is to safeguard Uganda’s national sovereignty by regulating foreign financial inflows and other external influences, specifically ensuring that funds, grants, donations, or other resources entering Uganda do not undermine the country’s independence, security, or national interests, according to David Hamson Obua, the Government Chief Whip in Parliament.
The party says that the bill would therefore operationalise Article 1(1) of the Ugandan Constitution, which states that all power belongs to the people, who exercise their sovereignty through elected representatives and other constitutional means. Even before the coming of this bill, the government has been emphasising protecting Uganda from external pressures or influences that could compromise national decision-making, such as donor funding tied to specific political or governance conditions. This, by extension, puts NGOs, aid inflows, and generally foreign-funded activities under increased state control, under the government’s role of fighting money laundering and terrorism financing.
The government, through the NGO Bureau, for example, has suspended operations of several NGOs and says it is investigating the sources and applications of their finances, especially foreign-sourced funds. Stephen Okello, the Secretary to the Bureau, says that 95 percent of Uganda’s NGOs rely on foreign donors and has warned against foreign funding that violates regulatory frameworks, hence the need for tracking and registering all funds. He however, says that national security, politics and general sovereignty is at stake with the dwindling traditional sources of external funds.
He says this leads to organisations in Uganda seeking or accepting money from anyone, irrespective of who they are, some of whom will have sinister motives of pushing money into Uganda. He advises that to avoid all this, the civil society in Uganda should seriously consider starting income-generating activities as side activities, for the sake of self-sustainability. However, he says, since the advice was given in 2016, only two NGO have heeded it and started “side business”.
Sarah Bireete, leader of the Centre for Constitutional Governance, says if not handled carefully, the bill risks limiting the operating space for NGOs and community-based organizations (CBOs), potentially constraining their work in essential areas like education, literacy, health, and community development. “Civil society must be fully and actively engaged in any reforms to ensure they strengthen rather than weaken the sector, rather than imposing top-down controls,” she says. While details on how the Bill or the eventual Act will operate await discussion when the Bill is tabled, if it leads to an inflow of finances, especially to NGOs, CSO leaders fear that the consequences will further affect ordinary Ugandans.
Dr. Okello admitted, for example, that the exit of the Democratic Governance Facility (DGF) three years ago greatly affected not only the NGO world, but the government, including his own NGO Bureau, which was also being funded by the DGF. Bireete calls for transparency during the development of these restrictions as well as their implementation, without creating undue foreign funding restrictions that undermine constitutional freedoms of association and expression.
