After Passing Age Limit Bill, MPs Are Set to Pass Another Controversial Land Bill

After passing the controversial Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2017 (No.2) also known as age limit Bill, Speaker Rebecca Kadaga has announced that Parliament is now ready to scrutinize and tentatively pass the land amendment Bill too.

While chairing the House on Wednesday, Kadaga listed about 7 Bills that Parliament will be handling starting in August. Among the Bills listed include Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2017 (No.13)  also known as Land Amendment Bill that seek to amend ar­ti­cle 26 of the Con­sti­tu­tion in ac­cor­dance with Ar­ti­cles 259 and 262 of the Con­sti­tu­tion.

 “The following bills will be soon be handled Marriage and Divorce bill, Law Reform bill, Sexual Offences Bill, KCCA Bill, Sugar Kill, CAA Bill, and Constitutional Amendment Bill,” Kadaga said. She also warned committees to be mindful of timeframe while scrutinizing a bill as stipulated in the Parliament Rules of Procedure.

“We are going to enforce the rule that a bill stays in a committee within only 45 days and if you fail, you report back so that we give you more time. All bills that have been in committee for more than 45 days will be on the order paper on 5^th August 2018,” Kadaga said.

The pur­pose of this land Bill that was first tabled in June last year, is to re­solve the cur­rent prob­lem of de­layed im­ple­men­ta­tion of Gov­ern­ment in­fra­struc­ture and in­vest­ment pro­jects due to dis­putes aris­ing out of the com­pul­sory land ac­qui­si­tion process. Once passed into law, government will be granted all the rights for compulsory acquisition ofprivate land for public projects.