Scattered MPs Ask For Offices Under Same Roof

Posted by: Kyeyune Andrew Jonathan in Uganda news July 8, 2022

Anita Among, the Speaker of Parliament has tasked the attorney general to quickly and swiftly work on the acquisition of offices for MPs under one roof.

This is due to the fact that legislators are ‘scattered’ in different buildings and parliament is spending colossal sums of money on rent.

Among told MPs that the parliamentary commission held a meeting with President Yoweri Museveni. During this meeting, they concluded that they should have a ‘one-stop centre’ to accommodate offices of for all legislators.

“Me, and the chair of the commission, we had a meeting with the president and the meeting resolved that we should have a ‘one-stop centre’. This is where all members of parliament should be accommodated as the office of MPs. Now, the only issue that we need is to get clearance as to whether that should happen… The attorney general therefore, we need clearance from your office on this matter. It is a very serious matter. Members are scattered everywhere in town. We even do not know where MP are,” she said.

Currently, some MPs have offices at Kingdom Kampala

Parliament is renting this at shs8bn and other offices at Queen’s Chambers at shs3.9bn. Kingdom Kampala is located along Nile Avenue and is about 400 meters from the Parliamentary building while Queen’s Chambers is located at Parliamentary Avenue.

In May 2022, URN reported a move by parliament to rent space at Kingdom Kampala building for Shs 18 billion to accommodate some MPs for two years as they wait for the completion of the new chambers.

They would then house 323 of the 529 MPs in the 11th parliament in one wing of Kingdom Kampala. The remaining 206 MPs would remain in the Parliamentary main building, Queens’s Chambers and Development House.

The main building apparently houses majorly committee chairpersons, their vice, the office of the speaker and deputy, and the 20 departments of parliament.

The main Parliament building houses about 100 legislators.

Former assistant director of communications and public affairs, Helen Kawesa, then said the parliament would spend shs800m on rent per month at Kingdom Kampala.

The figure translates to Shs 9 billion per year and Shs 18 billion for two years. This was also the projected time frame for the completion of the new parliamentary chambers.

The Shs206 billion chambers being constructed by ROKO would expectantly host 600 MPs. Previously, everyone hoped they would complete the building by 2021, but the Covid-19 pandemic affected the construction works.

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