Six top bills on Uganda’s 2022/2023 legislative agenda

Uganda is working to modernise old laws and improve regulation in key areas such as real estate, transport and competition. For example, lawmakers had no national competition law to refer to this year when they probed a controversial coffee processing deal that would grant an effective state-backed monopoly to a foreign investor. Now, a competition bill is among proposed legislation that President Yoweri Museveni laid out for the next year in his State of the Nation Address on 7 June. Here are six of the top bills on that agenda.

1.     Competition and consumer protection

Uganda relies on the East African Competition Act and sector-level rules such as the Communications (Fair Competition) Regulations 2005 in the absence of a national legal framework. More robust competition regulation has been proposed since 2004 and has received renewed attention in parliament this year. This is most recently in light of the government’s agreement with the Uganda Vinci Coffee Company, which is owned by an Italian businesswoman Enrica Pinetti who is backed by President Museveni. A separate consumer protection bill has also been proposed to be enacted over the next 12 months.

2.     Communication

The Communications Act was last amended in 2017 to empower the minister to set regulations for sectors including telecommunications and broadcasting without parliamentary approval. The legislation occurred as the government prepared to amend the constitution to remove presidential term limits. The objectives for new amendments have not yet been expressed.

3.     Land expropriation and valuation

Museveni wants to reintroduce a constitutional amendment bill that would set new terms for land expropriation. A bill was put forward in 2017 to “resolve the current problem of delayed implementation” of infrastructure projects, but it was withdrawn from parliament following a backlash. The bill would allow the government to deposit compensation in court and then take over property while any dispute arising from the expropriation is being decided.[1] The proposed East African Crude Oil Pipeline is one of major infrastructure projects to which amendments could be applied. A separate Valuation Bill will also be presented to set guidelines for determining compensation rates.

4.     Railways

Uganda is working to rebuild its mostly decrepit narrow-gauge railway network. An agreement was signed with the China Road and Bridge Corporation in May 2021 to rehabilitate a line connecting the capital Kampala to Malaba – near the Kenyan border. This is part of a Standard Gauge Railway project designed in 2014 to integrate the country’s railroads within a regional network called the Northern Economic Corridor, which includes Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan and Rwanda.

However, Uganda’s 30-year-old Railways Corporation Act did not envision the entry of these regional actors or private ones such as Rift Valley Railways whose concession of the country’s network was terminated in 2017. Now, the Uganda Law Reform Commission has recommended measures to modernise the law.[2] The recommendations include clarifying the regulatory and commercial roles of the Uganda Railways Corporation and setting the terms for private sector participation. These will likely feature in a bill proposed to amend the railway law in the next 12 months.

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[1] Constitution Amendment Bill (2017). Government of Uganda.

[2] Review of the Uganda Railways Corporation Act (2019). Uganda Law Reform Commission.