Few days before the first case of coronavirus (COVID-19) infection was recorded in Uganda, President Museveni suspended all kinds of mass gatherings that would escalate the spread of the disease in the population.
The Parliament, with over 426 members, continues to sit to this day, even though they moved House sessions from the smaller chambers to the spacious Parliament Conference Hall, and then outside in the tents with members sitting more than two meters apart to observe social distancing.
The Speaker, Rt. Hon. Rebecca Kadaga of course justified Parliament’s continued sitting but yesterday in Parliament, she revealed that there is need for them to stop meeting physically, but keep conducting House business virtually, just like a number of other Parliaments like Brazil, UK, and Albania among others.
“I want to instruct the Rules Committee to commence the process of amending our Rules of Procedure so that we can eventually proceed to a virtual Parliament,” Speaker Kadaga said.
She added, “We do not know how long this COVID-19 problem will last, so Rules Committee please start on that process so that we can examine how we can improve our interaction without all being together in the same room but carrying out our other responsibilities.”
With Parliament moving to incorporate technology into the way they work, we gave you five great video conferencing software to help teams interact as they are working from home.