A majority of the Members pf Parliament have approved the government’s proposed bill that aims at abolition of the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) for a second reading.
According to the rules governing the conduct of business in parliament, if a bill is read a second time, it is close to passing and it is rare for the bill to fail to pass.
The government of Uganda would like the UCDA be dissolved and transfer its responsibilities to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock.
Amidst the tension in parliament that was caused by hot exchanges between several Members of Parliament who wanted the agency to remain and those who supported the government plan, the speaker was forced to adjourn the session for a while, to allow the clerk of parliament to count the number of MPs against and in favor of the bill read a second time.
In the end, 77 MPs opposed the second reading of the bill, while 159 MPs voted for the second reading of the bill.
Once the speaker of parliament announced that the bill was read by a majority, he sent it to indefinite recess.
It is expected that when parliament returns from recess the bill will be read a second time, then parliament will consider the articles on which the government relied to abolish the UCDA later passed.
The same speaker, ordered that any list of MPs who supported and opposed the abolition of the agency be posted on parliamentary websites for future generations to read.
The UCDA, according to the government, was suspended for three years while the government rectified the irregularities in the Ministry of Agriculture, which will take over the responsibility it has been doing.
Various MPs who did not support the bill, remained critical of the government for its plan which they said would destroy the banana crop and keep the citizens in poverty.
