The public order management bill has been widely criticised by members of the public with some politicians terming it as “a disaster to Ugandans and an infringement on the freedom of speech and after speech.”

After reading through the bill, the president of the Democratic Party, Norbert Mao got no kind words for it and he says that if this bill is passed into law Ugandans will be completely gagged.

The bill grants the inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Minister for internal affairs wide discretionary and unjustifiable powers over the management of public meetings. The bill places numerous extensive and impractical obligations on the organisers of public meetings, which are impossible to satisfy, and seeks not to regulate the conduct of public meetings but extend to regulate the content of the discussion of issues at such meetings, in contravention of the right to freedom of speech.

There is a provision in this bill which mandates the organizer of the meeting to write to the Inspector General of Police 5 days before the meeting/party/function.

This clause above rally doesn’t look at the miscellaneous circumstances like death which happen any time and people have to assemble. The bill provides that even 3 people gathering one has to first inform the Inspector General of police. If you have visitors home you inform the police. The critics anticipate that the government is about to regulate how people sleep in bed.

Walakira Nyanzi

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