PAP Revised Protocol: Ugandan Parliamentarians press for ratification

Hon. Jacqueline Amongin

There are indications that Uganda may soon ratify the Pan Africa Parliament's Revised Protocol following pressure by the Uganda’s parliamentary delegation to the Pan African Parliament (PAP) which has called on the Speaker of the Uganda’s Parliament to summon the country’s Foreign Minister Sam  Kotessa to brief the Parliament on the cause of the delay in the ratification of the PAP’s Revised Protocol.

Uganda’s delegation to the PAP include Hon. Jacqueline Amongin, Chairperson of PAP’s Permanent Committee on Rural Economy, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment  and also leader of the delegation; Prof. Morris Ogenga-Latigo; Hon. Anifa Bangirana Kawooya; Hon. Felix Okot Ogong and Hon. Veronica Babirye Kadogo.

The MPs wondered why Uganda with a president that is known as a Pan Africanist, has not ratified the protocol and then appealed to the Foreign Affairs Minister to expedite  the process of ratification of the Revised PAP Protocol since President Yoweri Museveni has already expressed readiness to have the protocol ratified;

“We have met the President several times and he is keen about the matter. He has already directed the Minister of Foreign Affairs to prepare and submit to the cabinet so that Uganda ratifies. It is now up to the Minister to act. We call upon him to act on the directive of the President” said Hon. Okot.

According to Hon. Kawooya, the Ugandan delegation to PAP are ready to boycott the next PAP committee sitting in March 2019 if urgent steps are not taken to expedite the ratification of the Revised PAP Protocol by Uganda.

“We must force the Minister of Foreign Affairs to explain why there has been such a delay in spite of the President’s directive. We are not going back to the next sitting without Uganda being on the list of countries that have ratified the protocol”.

It would be recalled that on June 27, 2014, in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, the Assembly of Heads of State and Governments of the African Union (AU), reached a landmark decision by adopting the Revised Protocol to the Constitutive Act of the African Union (AU) Relating to the Pan African Parliament (PAP). The Revised PAP protocol requires ratification by twenty eight (28) member states before it can come into force but so far, only about thirteen countries have ratified the Protocol. They include Mali, Togo, Sierra Leone, Gambia, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Cameroon, Madagascar, and Somalia