The new members of parliament of the ruling political party, National Resistance Movement (NRM) will for two weeks starting April 7, be reoriented about the party’s ideology and core values ahead of their five year term which starts in May.
Unlike the previous retreats of this nature, incumbent party MPs will not be allowed to attend the upcoming meeting which will end on April 29, according to deputy NRM Secretary General, Richard Todwong.
Todwong who was Thursday addressing reporters revealed that the retreat will be attended by a total of 243 newly elected NRM MPs as well as the 27 Central Executive Committee members and those from the East African Legislative Assembly.
He explained that its should have been a good thing for the incumbent MPs to attend but their tight schedule at parliament couldn’t facilitate the same.
Although both the Speaker of Parliament Rt Hon Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga and her Deputy Jacob Oulanyah are members of CEC who are meant to be part of the retreat, they will as well not attend for the same reasons.
“We were guided out of consultation from the parliamentary commission that helped us understand the timetable of parliament and the speaker chaired meetings. It was from parliament that were were advised that the current Members of Parliament will not be able to attend because there is a constitutional requirement to pass the national budget. Definitely parliament can’t sit minus the speaker and deputy speaker,” said Tondwong.
He said the core objective for the retreat is to ideologically re-orient the NRM leadership to enable them refocus on the socio-economic transformation of Uganda within the broader context of the survival of the African race given the current global pressures and challenge.
The deputy NRM Secretary General further said that participants will be taken through the ideological foundation of the party, challenges and opportunities for Uganda, East Africa and Africa, assessment of the NRM’s past manifestos and priotizing commitments of the 2021/26 NRM manifesto.