A committee has been set up to scrutinise the 2013 Public Order
Management Act (POMA) and draft guidelines on its implementation.
This was agreed at an Inter-Party Organisation for Dialogue (IPOD)
meeting held at Commonwealth Resort, Munyonyo on Thursday. The meeting was
attended by IPOD council members, political party representatives and a number
of ministers.
Government delegation was led by Prime Minister Ruhakana Ruganda. He was
accompanied by Deputy Attorney General Mwesigwa Rukutana, Security Minister
Gen. Elly Tumwiine, Internal Affairs Minister Gen. Jeje Odongo and Defense
Minister Adolf Mwesigye.
The on-going POMA review is actualization of the December IPOD summit
directive. The summit attended by President Museveni who is the Chairperson of
the National Resistance Movement, Democratic Party (DP) President Norbert Mao,
Uganda Peoples’ Congress President Jimmy Akena and JEMMA’s Asumani Basalirwa.
However, it was snubbed by Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) over
harassment by security agencies.
The political parties’ presidents agreed that there is a need to come up with a
harmonized approach for implementation of POMA.
The committee set up today is comprised of iPod council
members—secretary generals of political party—represented in umbrella and
Attorney General.
The IPOD council, DP Secretary General, Gerald Siranda says the committee is supposed
to report back in 10 days. The committee will examine POMA taking into account
harmonized interpretation by Attorney General Fred Ruhindi and then shadow
Attorney General Abdu Katuntu issued in 2015.
He says that the committee has been asked to take into account
experiences, developments and flaws in the POMA implementation and propose
draft regulations for streamlining and smoothening its implementation.
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Luganda
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The opposition parties have argued that the 2013 legislation has
been used by government to block their activities. The interpretation of the
act has been under contention since its enactment. Opposition politicians have
argued that police has no right to authorise their meetings.
The opposition politicians says they are only required to notify police of
their meetings and the role of police is offer them security but not to decide
if meetings should go on or not.
Rugunda said they had candid discussion on POMA implementation. He
is optimistic that all controversy around its implementation will be resolved
through dialogue.
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The Leader of Opposition, Betty Achan says opposition parties are tired of
police harassment. She says they have given government 20 days for discussion.
Blanshe Musinguzi
Freelancer