Parliament is set to debate, approve or reject the contentious Protection of Sovereignty Bill, 2026, with some of its new clauses seeking a stranglehold on financing opposition political parties, silencing critical civil society organisations (CSOs), and individuals.
President Museveni last week disowned sections of the proposed law, saying some of the restrictive clauses that had stirred public outcry were not what he had initiated in the Cabinet.
Mr Museveni said the initial Bill focused on sovereign or independent policy decision-making on women and army in legislation, socio-cultural, economic, and diplomatic issues.
He then tasked the ruling NRM Caucus chairperson, Mr Hamson Obua, and relevant parliamentary committee chairpersons to rework the Bill.
The Bill that Museveni rejected had sought to restrict, among other things, foreign direct investments (FDIs), external support for religious bodies, and remittances from Ugandans living or working abroad.
But some of the major clauses in the reworked Bill now target individuals engaged in political activism, publishing, criticising, or seeking to negatively impact or disrupt, or weaken the country’s image, fortunes, and economy, or promote the interests of foreigners.
Some of these prickly amendments, inserted at the weekend, led to a physical altercation between some of the MPs on the joint Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, and Defence and Internal Affairs.
The report on the amendments is expected to be tabled before Parliament today.
Political players and civil society actors that Daily Monitor spoke to for this article yesterday rejected the new amendments and called for the withdrawal of the entire Bill.
Mathias Mpuuga, the president of the Democratic Front (DF) party, said the Bill doesn’t pass the bi-partisan test because it allegedly intends to prolong the stay of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party in power.
Fred Ebil, the secretary general of the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) party, insisted: “Our earlier call remains; let the Bill be withdrawn because you cannot bring a law that stops [parties] from legally getting funding, yet political parties run on soliciting foreign funding to manage some of their activities.”
An amended section, defines an agent of a foreigner as anyone who solicit, collects, disburses, or dispenses contributions, loans, money, or other things of value for or in the interest of a foreigner, the purpose of financing or sponsoring political activities to further the interest of a foreigner.
These must be licensed by the minister of Internal Affairs upon application, which is determined between 14 days and three weeks, and their licences are subject to renewal every two years.
The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party president, Patrick Oboi Amuriat, said the interpretation of furthering the interest of a foreigner is subject to the interpretation of an individual and can be used to clamp down on Opposition political players.
However, the new amendments now exempt Ugandans living abroad from the list of foreigners, and also exclude some categories of funding from being affected by the proposed law.
These categories include a supervised institution or any other institution regulated by a regulatory body under an Act of Parliament for purposes of meeting its regulatory requirements, or undertaking its commercial licensed or permitted activity, a health or medical facility for purposes of performing an activity permitted under the laws, and an academic or research institution for purposes of funding research and innovation, or any other.
Also exempt are funds meant for educational activity permitted under the laws, a person for commercial, domestic, or family use; and a faith-based organisation for activities that are connected with the mission of the faith-based organisation.
The government was moved to make these critical changes after the majority of the stakeholders who had submitted their views before the joint committee rejected the proposed Bill, warning of its gross negative impact on the economy.
The most rigorous opposition came from the Governor of the Bank of Uganda, Michael Atingi-Ego, who warned that the proposed legislation, if passed as is, would retard the economic growth and bury Uganda’s big vision of expanding the economy from the current $66 billion (Shs247 trillion) to $500 billion by 2040 since the proposed law will prohibit financial inflows, which has a direct negative impact on FDI, remittances, affecting the country’s reserves.
Unlike in the earlier proposal, where a foreign agent was required to get clearance from the minister to directly or indirectly obtain, solicit, or receive any financial support, donation, loan, or other assistance exceeding Shs400m, they will now, in the new proposal, be required to declare the excess funds instead.
Ebil said such clauses are meant to frustrate the activities of Opposition political parties.
The proposed law now allows these institutions to criticise Uganda’s economic growth but not individuals.
Should the National Unity Platform (NUP) party president, Robert Kyagulanyi, encourage the European Union and the United States of America to stop funding the NRM government over his claims of widespread torture and human rights violations, when this Bill is passed and signed into law, he will be held liable.
MPs on the joint Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, and Defence and Internal Affairs, are sharply split on their report on the controversial Protection of Sovereignty Bill, 2026.
While one group is calling for a complete withdrawal of the Bill, even after the government made some revisions in some critical clauses that had stirred public outcries, the other is pushing for adoption of the revised amendments.
Some 24 members who supported the Bill yesterday signed the Majority Report, while their 11 counterparts opposed to it drafted a Minority Report.
The two reports will be presented and discussed on the floor of Parliament today.
Busiro East legislator Medard Lubega Ssegona said they want this whole Bill withdrawn.
Major clauses in the Bill that have been amended following President Museveni’s rejection of the earlier proposal last week now target individuals engaged in political activities that further the interests of foreigners.
But Mr Ssegona said they (Minority Report authors) do not see any need for the enactment of this law because its intended work has already been catered for by the existing laws.
Ssegona said the government is barring political parties and other good-hearted Ugandans from soliciting funds from abroad to come and implement services it should have established, like good healthcare, clean water extension, and funding public schools, among others.
TENSION AT PARLIAMENT AS PROTECTION OF SOVEREIGNTY BILL, 2026 RETURNS TO THE FLOOR
