MPs okay sh3.25b for integrating Kiswahili in Uganda

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Parliament has approved sh3.25b for integrating the Kiswahili language in Uganda as one of the steps to fully achieve East African integration.

The sh3.25b is contained in the budget committee report on the National Budget Framework Paper for the financial year 2024/25 to 2028/29, which Parliament approved last week.

Kachumbala County MP Patrick Isiagi Opolot presented the report to the House that was chaired by Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa and said efforts had been made to integrate the language in Uganda.

He said the Judiciary, Cabinet as well as Parliament were conducting Kiswahili training sessions.

“In addition, strategic partnerships with training institutions have been done. However, in the financial year 2024/25, the activity remains unfunded with a funding requirement of sh3.25b,” Opolot said.

The committee, therefore, recommend that sh3.25b be provided to the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development to enable it to implement the activities under Kiswahili integration.

Kiswahili is widely spoken in Tanzania, Kenya, and DR Congo, and considerably spoken in Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

In 2022, Cabinet passed a resolution under the revised curriculum that Kiswahili as a language be made compulsory in both primary and secondary schools.