The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Parliament has launched an application that will among others help the public track proposed Bills and directly submit petitions for consideration.
The Speaker Rebecca Kadaga launched the web-based and mobile application named ‘Uganda Bungeni’ at the on-going parliament week departmental exhibitions. Bungeni is a Swahili word meaning ‘inside parliament’. Parliament Week is held under the theme “Building a Strong Democracy in Uganda”.
Fred Bbaale, the Director of Parliament’s Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) Department said that the new application will enable the public participate in legislation by viewing and providing input in the legislative process through what he termed as the Bills and Petition Tracking System.
Under Bill tracking, any member of the public can be able to track and view the status and progress information of the Bill from its first reading to assent by the President.
Uganda Radio Network- URN viewed the application and found out that one can search for any Bill by committee, title, sponsor or date it was tabled. One can also download a full Bill text and also comment on the proposals in the Bill while still before any committee of parliament for consideration.
Under the petitions module, a member of the public can view lists of petition and their status in parliament and can also submit general petitions for consideration.
Speaker Kadaga said that the application which currently has two core functionalities including bill tracking and handling petitions, will in the near future be used to provide parliament online radio since the institution is yet to secure a frequency for its planned radio.
She says that this will increase parliament’s engagement with the public as parliament awaits a radio frequency.
Bbaale also confirmed the on-going process to use the new application to the online version of the Parliament Radio.
In December 2019, Speaker Kadaga said that the Parliament radio project had stalled due to delays in acquiring a frequency. She said that Parliament has been having a lot of trouble in getting a frequency for the radio expected to communicate activities of Parliament with coverage in several parts of Uganda.
Uganda Communications Commission – UCC had allocated the Parliament radio station one of the frequencies of the national broadcaster, Uganda Broadcasting Corporation – UBC only to be withdrawn shortly after UBC protested its reallocation. The frequency 98.0 FM, known as the Red Channel was provided in March 2019.
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