Civil Society Organisations have come out to critisise the Protection of Sovereignty Bill 2026 that is under review before the Parliamentary Internal Affairs Committee.
The Bill drafted by the Ministry of Antennal Affairs and taken over by the Government, “The Protection of Sovereignty Bill, 2026”, is proposed to regulate foreign funding and political activity to protect national interests.
Government through the bill further contends that Uganda’s efforts to uphold sovereign control, several problems continue to threaten the nation’s ability to self-govern without undue external interference.
Currently, Uganda has no specific law upholding the sovereignty of the country which has resulted into continuous interference in the Government’s policies and programmes by foreign countries and agents of foreigners. This threatens the nation’s ability to self-govern without undue external interference they insist.
However in a breakfast meeting with different media institutions today in Kampala Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Governance (CCG), Sarah Bireete, the associate director at Great Lakes Institute for Strategic Studies Godber Tumushabe, have warned that the Bill, which they have described as draconian has been named in a cosmetic nature to hide its brutality to the livelihood of Ugandans.
They explain that the Bill if passed into law will cattail any form of income, local farmers, social media, institutions supported by foreign funding and all those earning from its sources, Ugandans who struggle to generate income from Arab Countries and send it for investments at home will all be crippled.
Uganda has got at least One Million citizens working abroad and their remittances amounted to USD 2.5Bn which has benefited families and national development but its far less compared to what neighbouring countries get from their citizens working abroad but it’s all due to motherly laws.
They contend that the Bill is one of the amendments aimed at dismantling the 1995 constitution by removing all clauses that were giving citizens some rights and freedom.
They cited the suffocation of the NGO’s and Civil Society Organisations with the aim of controlling their income and as if that was not enough they have now targeted the income of any person which many have not yet realized.
They challenged the media to amplify the loopholes in the bill for the society to get awareness and fight for themselves.
By Jjunju Francis
20th April 2026
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