Uganda’s Parliament this week passed the Protection of Sovereignty Bill, 2026, after amendments softened some earlier provisions but preserved the law’s central thrust — regulating foreign-linked political activity and criminalising conduct deemed to advance foreign interests against Uganda’s national interests. The legislation now awaits presidential assent.
Parliament passed the Protection of Sovereignty Bill despite widespread criticism from economists, legal experts and civil society.
The bill generated unusually broad institutional resistance.
The Bank of Uganda, the Uganda Law Society, Makerere University, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, civil society actors, religious leaders and the World Bank all raised concerns over the bill’s constitutional, economic and civic implications.
The central concern among critics was not whether sovereignty matters — it does — but whether the law creates broad discretionary state power that could be turned against dissent, advocacy, academic debate, journalism and civic organisation.
Bank of Uganda’s warning: “economic disaster”
Among the most consequential interventions came from Michael Atingi-Ego.
The governor warned lawmakers that, in its earlier form, the bill risked discouraging remittances, foreign exchange inflows and development financing — flows that are critical to Uganda’s macroeconomic stability.
He warned Parliament that tampering with those inflows could run down reserves and create what he described as “economic disaster for our country.”
That warning altered the debate.
Parliament eventually amended the legislation so that registration and disclosure requirements apply more narrowly to foreign funding used for political purposes. Yet many legal and civic observers maintain that the amended law still retains vague language capable of expansive interpretation.
