Speaker Among tasks government to operationalize newly passed Bills

Speaker of Parliament Anita Among has instructed the Executive to table attendant regulations to the Bills that have been passed and assented to in order to aid their enforcement.

She revealed that most of the Bills that have been processed by the 11th Parliament, and assented to by the President lack regulations that are supposed to aid their operationalisation and enforcement.

She made the remarks in her communication at the opening of the plenary sitting of Parliament of Tuesday, July 18.

‘’Honourable members, last week, I was notified that the Roads Act, 2019, does not have attendant regulations and, therefore, cannot be enforced,’’ she said.

Ms Among added that regulations are integral to the operationalisation and enforcement of Acts of Parliament. She argued that it is imperative that the Executive ensures timely formulation of these regulations to aid the attainment of objectives of the passed laws.

“We spend a lot of time debating and processing these bills that affect our people, but relatively underdiscussed has been the details of implementation and enforcement,” Ms Among said.

She tasked the Attorney General to appraise the various laws passed in the recent past to ascertain those that are without regulations and also ensure that the latter regulations are duly formulated, and report to the House on the same.

Ms Among’s comments come in the wake of the rising spate of   road accidents in the country that have claimed numerous lives.

At the weekend, 17 people perished on the Kagadi-Kyenjojo-Fort Portal highway when a trailer rammed into a commuter taxi, an incident that aroused the legislator’s demand for stringent road safety interventions.

They called for formulation of regulations to operationalise the Roads Act, 2019, periodic inspection of vehicles, regular road surveillance and rapid response, and prohibitive penalties for errant drivers, among others.