Parliament yet again dealt a blow to President Museveni’s to impose a permanent presence of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) on the lakes across the country, by declining yet again to pass into law a proposal to have the Army oversee the surveillance of fisheries sector.
Earlier this month, President Museveni declined to sign the Fisheries and Aquaculture Bill 2021 into law, asking Parliament to reconsider Iclause 13 of the Bill, where the Ministry of Agriculture had proposed for the establishment of Fisheries Monitoring Control and Surveillance Unit within the Directorate of Fisheries Resources, to protect fish and their environment, fish products and aquatic flora and fauna against fisheries malpractices and generally to enforce the provisions of this Act and any other applicable law.
Further in clause 13(2), Government proposed to have the Fisheries Monitoring Control and Surveillance Unit shall comprise persons appointed by the Service Commission and rained by 0re Uganda Peoples Defence Forces in para-military skills.
The proposal also sought to empower the Minister in charge of Fisheries in consultation with Minister of Defence by statutory instrument, make regulations to organize and deploy the Surveillance Unit as well as determine the terms and conditions of service grades, ranks and appointment and discipline of officers of the Surveillance Unit.
However, while reading the report by Parliament’s Agriculture Committee after reconsideration of the Bill, Janet Okori-Moe, Chairperson Agriculture Committee asked Parliament to maintain the earlier position taken by Parliament when the bill was passed into law by Parliament and have the Police Force train the fisheries Unit instead of the UPDF.
Okori-Moe defended the Committee’s position arguing that the President as Commander in Chief has the prerogative to deploy forces whenever need arises as mandated by the constitution.
“The Committee is of the view that the earlier position by parliament be maintained and in the event of any sophisticated way employed by people involved in illegal fishing as cited by the President, the UPDF may be deployed in accordance with the provision of the UPDF Act and the constitution,” said Okori-Moe.
She was backed by John Teira (Bugabula North) who argued that after looking at the atrocities that the people in the fisheries communities have faced, at the expense of our brothers in uniform, an inclusion of the UPDF would be legitimizing the acts that have happened to those people.
Budadiri West’s Nandala Mafabi also weighed into the debate rejecting claims made by Minister Jenifer Namuyangu that UPDF had restored sanity and responsible fishing within the water bodies, after local fishermen had established plots within lakes, arguing that the only group of people who are benefiting from this scheme are the foreigners under the watch of UPDF.
Nandala remarked, “I can tell you that anybody who is near the lake is supposed to utilize the lake, but these people can’t even eat mukene (silver fish) or emputa (Nile Perch) because if they arrest you with emputa, you are dead meat . in fact the plots being talked about owned by people inside the lakes are plots by the Chinese, non Ugandans are the ones owning the lake which we must fight, in fact the UPDF is protecting the foreigners.”
Leader of Opposition, Mathias Mpuuga warned that any legislation made by Parliament to let the Army have a permanent presence on lakes would lead to the collapse of the Uganda Police as an institution of government and asked Members of Parliament to sometimes have the courage to do the right thing.
“It is very important that even when you feel cowed, by the overbearing principle, you should do the right thing for the sake of posterity. The fisheries sector isn’t just for exports, for some communities it is what they have known as life and livelihood, before you even think of export, that is what they have known for the entirety of their life and therefore we as Parliament in what we do as policy and legislation, we owe them a duty of care,” said Mpuuga.
Deputy Speaker Tayebwa in response to the arguments stated warned MPs against enacting a law that would put one force against the other remarking, “My fear is if we pass here a clause and say we indict the UPDF or we indict the police because they are weak, the argument from one side is saying the police were weak and couldn’t handle, then the argument from the other side is saying the army were brutal. You are inviting us to do your work, you can’t legislate this way.”
Frank Tumwebaze, Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries backed Tayebwa noting, “I will also recommend that we don’t promote a debate that portrays one force against the other. I would concede the deletion of the clause, we don’t provide for the Police or UPDF we allow the Commander in Chief to deploy as he deems fit.”
This prompted Asuman Basalirwa (Bugiri Municipality) to propose to have the Fisheries Protection Unit be trained by the Police, “You collapse the idea of Uganda People’s Defence Forces to take away the feeling that we are pitting one force against the other and leaving details of regulations to be made by the Ministry of Fisheries in consultation with Ministry of Internal Affairs.”
When Deputy Speaker put the question up for vote, most MPs voted in support with the proposal kicking out UPDF of the lakes and have the fisheries protection unit be hired by Public Service Commission at Ministry of Agriculture and be trained by Police.
