Kampala: July 15, 2015– It was a jovial mood in a well attended session of Parliament on Tuesday July 14, when the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon Jacob Olaunyah invited the House on the question of whether the Tobacco Control Bill should be supported for the second reading, to which the answer was overwhelmingly YES.
When the report of the Health Committee on the Tobacco Control Bill was first presented to the floor of Parliament on July 9, it attracted irresistible support from both government and the opposition members of parliament.
Tuesday’s debate gave an opportunity to both the champions of the Bill and the detractors to air out their views before the report could be discussed in detail, clause by clause.
The Champions gave clarification, information, points of Order and the Speaker rightly guided the debate from degenerating to a discussion of weather tobacco should be banned or not, adding that the bill seeks to control seeks to control the sale and consumption of tobacco products.
The House later constituted itself into a committee stage, where the amendments made to the bill will now be read clause by clause. During this stage, clause 1 of the Bill was passed with amendment to the effect the implementation of the law will be effected immediately with specific provisions to be implemented within six months by Statutory Instrument.
Parliament is expected to continue with the debate of the bill this week, and to eventually pass it into law.
According to the new mover of the motion, Hon. . Nyakikongoro Rosemary, Woman Representative Sheema, the Committee did a good job, and as such, there should not be cause for alarm as there are not many contentious issues.