The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
AI is already reshaping lawmaking across many parliaments around the globe and the Parliament of Uganda should not be left behind
COMMENT | KENEDY MUSEKURA | Dear Honourable Members of Parliament, Congratulations upon the trust and responsibilities entrusted to you by Ugandans as you prepare to shape laws and policies for our nation over the next five years.
Across democratic systems, parliaments and other arms of government are facing a paradox: a technological revolution is quietly reshaping economies, rewriting the rules of governance and reconfiguring what it means to be human.
Artificial Intelligence (AI), once a preserve of science fiction, is now embedded in hospitals, courtrooms, financial markets, and education, among other sectors. It would be tempting for the 12th Parliament to treat AI as a preserve of technologists and technocrats in agencies like the Ministry of Information & Communication Technology (ICT), the Uganda Communication Commission (UCC) and the academic world.
AI reshaping lawmaking around the world
But AI is already reshaping each phase of lawmaking across many parliaments around the globe, and the Parliament of Uganda should not be left behind on these trends and associated opportunities. For instance, legislators can deploy AI tools to aid them in impact assessments, reductive modelling and data analytics. This could allow Parliament to interrogate the likely economic, social or environmental consequences of the proposed legislation.
On the other hand, citizen engagement is being transformed with aid of tech tools. Digital platforms are being deployed by parliaments with the aim to get large-scale consultations. AI can help analyze submissions, identify patterns and bring to the fore under-represented perspectives. This is particularly valuable as consultations keep on increasing beyond what manual analysis can reasonably handle.
Herein, fresh in my mind, is the recent Sovereignty Act 2026. During one of the debates that preceded its passing into law, there was a viral video that emerged from one of the hotels where some legislators were shown carrying a huge volume of paper of views of Ugandans. These legislators were raising complaints to the effect that some views of Ugandans had not been taken care of. For me, this clearly painted a picture that our Parliament is still handling sensitive areas like consultation and petitions manually; that is reading voluminous files filed by stakeholders, which is practically next-to-impossible.
Post-enactment analysis
AI can also aid our dear MPs in post-enactment analysis through deployment of tools that enable tracking implementation and outcomes, hence supporting post-legislative scrutiny and close feedback loops between lawmaking and lived experience. Therefore, dear MPs, AI is not going to sit at the margins of parliamentary work; it is rather going to intersect with the core legislative functions.
Opportunities presented by AI are immense and cannot be fully captured in this article. However, so are the risks. It is an open secret that AI is evolving at supersonic speed than parliamentary cycles, thus creating persistent regulatory lag. Existing Standing Orders and Parliamentary Procedures in many parliaments Uganda inclusive rarely anticipate automated analysis or algorithmic support. Capacity gaps imply that expertise is often concentrated in a handful of staff or external vendors with its associated dependency risks.
Moving forward, the 12th parliament should look at this area with a critical eye. Fortunately, the 12th Parliament is not starting from scratch. At the international stage, there are frameworks and best practices. For instance, the Guidelines for AI published by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy provides a practical framework covering, among others, ethics, governance, capacity and implementation.
Complementing this is the Toolkit for Parliamentarians or the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Maturity Framework for AI in Parliaments. It offers self-assessment tools across six levels from initial awareness to leadership, where parliaments act as global benchmarks.
Last but not least, the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on responsible AI use was issued recently following an international conference co-organized by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), the Parliament of Malaysia, the United Nations Development Programme (UDP) and the IPU. Together these frameworks suggest a pragmatic way forward for parliaments. Uganda’s 12th Parliament should put its foot forward by starting with pilots, investing in data foundations, learning from peers and embedding AI within transparent, ethics-driven governance structures.
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Musekura Kenedy is a Lawyer, Tech and Digital Policy Analyst
musekurakenedy@gmail.com 0784393922
