More than 10 speakers of parliament from the commonwealth countries have arrived for the 27th three-day Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers (CSPOC) organised at the refurbished Monyonyo Commonwealth Hotel in Kampala.
The arrivals started on Tuesday afternoon with delegates from Mauritius, Malaysia, Samao, Kiribati, Tonga, Ghana and Kenya forming part of the 43 member states that confirmed attendance out the 73.
Members of the CSPOCstanding committee which is responsible for overseeing the activities of the association will hold a meeting later this afternoon preceding the official opening on Thursday by President Yoweri Museveni.
CSPOC precedes the Non-Aligned Movement meeting and the G-77+China summit to be held within the month.
The Deputy Speaker of Parliament Thomas Tayebwa says it is unprecedented for Kampala to host the three huge events.
“It is a very huge vote of confidence in our county, in our government [and] in our people,” said Tayebwa adding that “I hope we can build on this momentum as a country with the world recovering from the effects of covid-19, the wars around the globe to see that visitors are flocking this country in this magnitude is very critical and we thank God for that”.
Tayebwa accompanied the Speaker of Parliament Anita Among in receiving the delegates at Entebbe International Airport.
The conference is themed around environment and climate change with a focus on the roles parliaments can play to mitigate the danger presented to humanity.
Mr. Moses Wetangula, the Speaker of the National Assembly of Kenya will deliver a keynote address on the topic on climate change.
Electric vehicles from Kira Motors a local automobile manufacturing plant owned by the government will be used by the delegates to tour Uganda Wildlife Centre, and the religious sites at Namugongo as a measure to curb carbon emission.
“NEMA is going to calculate for us and say you emitted this much carbon during this conference then we shall offset it through planting of trees” stated Tayebwa.
CSPOC is an independent group with no formal affiliation with Common wealth Parliamentary Association or Commonwealth Heads of Government. It was created in 1969 as an initiative of then Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada Lucien Lamoureux and its activities through a secretariat are provided by Canada.
The conferences are held every 2 years in early January.
