The Kira municiplailty Member of Parliament, Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, has rejected the proposal by the government to create a National Council for Kiswahili to promote the use of Kiswahili in Uganda.
This was after the Speaker of Parliament, Anita Annet Among, asked the government to clarify if the National Kiswahili Council Bill 2024 had been processed and reached its final stages.
If the government wants to popularize a language, Ssemujju suggested making it mandatory in schools.
‘’You have 12 million children who are in primary schools; why do you bother Parliament the whole afternoon debating the creation of a council, whether it should be here or there for purposes of promoting a language?” Ssemujju noted.
These remarks were made on Thursday, October 3, 2024, during the plenary meeting at parliament, where Ssemujju posed a question asking if there is a Council for English.
He further defended his opinion, saying Uganda doesn’t have a council for English, but people speak the language, and the same applies to the other local languages.
“I am disagreeing with the whole idea of creating a council. We study English, and all of you here speak English. Is there a Council for English? You speak your language, luganda, etc. Some of us who went to rural schools were beaten to speak English, but we are here as Members of Parliament,” Ssemujju said.
However, the Speaker of Parliament later realized that the bill was tabled before Parliament without the signature of the Minister of Gender, Betty Amongi, which prompted her to question the authenticity of the bill.
