Speaker Jacob Marksons Oboth has tasked party whips to review the allocation of Members of Parliament to committees and ensure that Members are assigned according to their expertise.
The Speaker said Parliament risks losing valuable expertise when Members are placed on committees where they cannot effectively contribute, urging whips to realign the current committee composition.
Addressing MPs during plenary on Thursday, 16 July 2026, Oboth said committee assignments should be guided by the need to utilise Members’ competencies for better lawmaking, oversight and representation.
“Try to align your Members according to their professional competences. If there is an agriculturalist, you do not take that agriculturalist where he would not add value. Committees give Members the opportunity to serve this country better by bringing the best out of them,” Oboth said.
Parliament recently approved the composition of various standing and sectoral committees, following Members’ designation by party whips.
Oboth revealed that some MPs with expertise in specific areas had been assigned to committees unrelated to their professional training, while others with financial backgrounds had not been considered for the Budget Committee.
“There are some three Members that I know who are supposed to be in the Budget Committee. Given their expertise, they were not even put near the Budget Committee,” he said.
The Speaker directed the whips to address the matter at the earliest opportunity. “We are just beginning, but we cannot have excuses for the next six months when we have the right members in the wrong committees,” he added.
Hon. Solomon Silwany (NRM, Bukooli County Central) supported the Speaker’s guidance, urging Parliament’s records office to share Members’ curriculum vitae with party whips to enable informed committee appointments.
He said whips cannot be expected to know every member’s professional experience unless they have access to the relevant information.
“When Members of Parliament come, they share their CVs. Then these CVs should be shared with the different party whips, so that they realise and know the competencies of the different members,” Silwany said.
There are 16 sectoral and 15 standing committees in Parliament.
