Parliament goes into recess

Parliament on Monday began its two-month recess with both chambers saying legislation was beyond their set target for the just-concluded ordinary session. Speaking to journalists, yesterday, Speaker Donatile Mukabalisa said during the session, they adopted the basis of 26 draft laws against the target of 17 that they had set when the session began in October.

Tuesday, December 06, 2016
Speaker Mukabalisa (C), her deputy Jeanne d'Arc Uwimanimpaye (R) and Senate vice president Jeanne d'Arc Gakuba at the news briefing yesterday. / Nadege Imbabazi

Parliament on Monday began its two-month recess with both chambers saying legislation was beyond their set target for the just-concluded ordinary session.

Speaking to journalists, yesterday, Speaker Donatile Mukabalisa said during the session, they adopted the basis of 26 draft laws against the target of 17 that they had set when the session began in October.

"Out of the 26 Bills tabled, 20 were adopted, one was forwarded to the Senate, 12 have been gazetted, while the rest are still under scrutiny at the committee level. We are looking forward to have them ready by the start of the ordinary session,” she said.

The Speaker attributed success to the hard work from lawmakers and promised a similar zeal in the future.

She, however, said some laws might take longer than anticipated in case they stir a lot of debate on the floor.

Mukabalisa said the Lower House undertook several other activities, citing parliamentary diplomacy, government oversight, and handling public petitions, adding that performance outweighed expectations.

Meanwhile, the Senate also achieved its overall targets in the closed session, at 92 per cent, although it also pushed forward final submissions of some key reports.

Citing exhaustive field outreach activities, Senate vice-president Fatou Harerimana told journalists on Monday that senatorial committees dwelt heavily on the gathering of information of some programmes.

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