The Speaker of Parliament, Jacob Oulanyah has asked the Indian Government to support new members of the Ugandan Parliament to enhance their debate.
Oulanyah was today meeting India’s Minister of State for External and Parliamentary Affairs, Shri V. Muraleedharan where they held discussions aimed at strengthening relations between the two Parliaments.
In the meeting held on Friday, Oulanyah said the two Parliaments can cooperate in areas of training and bench-marking especially for new members of 11th Parliament.
Oulanyah said that new legislators in the Uganda Parliament would benefit from training at the India Legislature on the best Parliamentary practices adding that many of the MPs were clueless about parliament’s practice and procedure.
He said that only 115 MPs returned to Parliament, but the 414 MPs are all new and need training. The Speaker says that he is looking forward to reviving the exchange support platform they had with the Parliament of India to help with capacity building of the Members, since he is a beneficiary and speaks on good authority.
He added that bench marking is an area of cooperation that needs to be exploited both by the Executive and Parliament.
Muraleedharan said that the two Parliaments have been working together and this has been strengthened by the high-level political visits between the two states. He welcomed the idea of an exchange program for the two countries.
Muraleedharan also invited the Speaker and MPs to attend the centenary celebrations of the Public Accounts Committee of India’s Parliament in December. Oulanyah confirmed that he will attend.
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