A section of legislators on the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee have expressed reservation on the recently returned Sexual Offences Bill, 2019.
Last week, the Deputy Speaker, Anita Among asked the committee to reconsider the bill following its return by the president.
Tabled by the former Kumi Woman MP, Monica Amoding and approved by the last parliament in May this year, the bill seeks to criminalize a range of practices such as indecent utterances, gestures and touches to the sexual organs of another person.
It stipulates that a person who performs a sexual act with another person without their consent is liable on conviction, to imprisonment for life.
Now, as the committee convened yesterday to start reconsidering the Bill, some MPs said the time frame for the bill return had elapsed, thus questioning why the President failed to return it within the 30 days provided for under the Constitution.
Kiryowa Kiwanuka, the Attorney General tasked MPs to present evidence indicating that the President returned the Bill after the elapse of the 30 days.
The MPs rejected the Attorney General’s argument, saying that their internal processes are not in the public domain and therefore cannot be relied upon.
