Parliament defers Coffee Bill amidst controversy

A vast majority of the 74 members that Speaker Among allowed to debate on the matter spoke in strong objections to the proposals of the Bill.

“The Ministry of Agriculture as of now doesn’t have the capability and capacity to take on the roles and functions of UCDA. That is known,” Mr Muwanga Kivumbi (Butambala) told Parliament.

Similarly, the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament (LoP), Mr Joel Ssenyonyi, rallied MPs to reject the said government plan.

“The ministry should keep what it is doing, UCDA should be empowered to continue doing what it has been doing. Like any other entity, UCDA has some challenges ….., but the challenges at the ministry are enormous,” he said.

“That is why, as colleagues have been airing out, some of the things the ministry has been handling seem to be too much on its plate, and yet we have been saying, UCDA has been thriving. Why don’t we empower it to go to those areas which have begun growing coffee?” Mr Ssenyonyi wondered.

In an attempt to persuade MPs to support the proposals of the Bill, the Constitutional Affairs Minister, Mr Norbert Mao, downplayed the role of UCDA.

“My wife is a coffee grower and the coffee is flowering, she is even picking, I haven’t seen UCDA on the farm, and I haven’t seen the Ministry of Agriculture either. UCDA hasn’t helped us, Ministry of Agriculture hasn’t helped us,” Mr Mao said.

Similarly, the State Minister of Agriculture, Lt Col (Rtd) Bright Rwamirama, argued that once the rationalisation of UCDA is effected, the fears of the coffee fraternity will be catered for by the government.

Government argument

“Government is sensitive to the stakeholders and because stakeholders have been informed by dissenting views, the government decided to allow a three-year transition to make sure that stakeholders' concerns are flagged so that we move forward,” he said.

Chaos erupted at about 2:57pm after Speaker Among tried to have the House slide into the mid and final stages of processing the National Coffee Amendment Bill, 2024. She put a question to the House to vote on whether to read the Bill for the second time or not.

In unusual circumstances, the majority of the Opposition-leaning MPs led by the LoP stood as Speaker Among announced that the voice voting had been the majority and, therefore, endorsed that the Bill be read for the second time.

But Mr Ssenyonyi sustained his stand that was supported by his camp, thereby making it hard for proceedings into the Bill to go on.

This went on for a short while and for about five minutes, lawmakers on Mr Ssenyonyi's side kept heckling, thereby compelling Ms Among to accord the LoP attention.

"I can ask my colleagues to just be calm and listen as I draw your attention to Rule 101," Mr Ssenyonyi said.

He added: "So I would like to draw your attention to this our rule to conduct the voting the other way by roll call so that it is clear. Because of what you have announced, we believe that the "Nos" carried the day but you announced ‘Yes’ and that is why we have stood up so that it is clarified clearly."

Physical voting

Consequently, Speaker Among ordered the physical voting by having the House split into two sides.

At about 4:13 pm, Speaker Among announced the results from the physical vote tally. “And as the custodian of the rules, I listened to all sides and, therefore, I really want to urge members to have faith in the capacity of the presiding officers other than being impartial,” Ms Among said.

She added: "The ‘Nays’ had 77. Congratulations. The ‘Ayes’ had 159. Abstainers are nil. So the Ayes have it. And I adjourn the House Sine Dine."

ABOUT THE BILL

The Bill, which is an amendment of the National Coffee Act, 2021, seeks to dissolve the Uganda Coffee Development Authority and transfer its functions to the Ministry of Agriculture. The policy behind the Bill is to give effect to the government policy for Rationalisation of Government Agencies and Public Expenditure (RAPEX).