TOPIC TWO LEGISLATION 12 HOURS

 Importance of legislation
 Application and Relevancy of Laws or Acts related to records and information
management
 Freedom to access to information act 2005
 National libraries act 2003
 National records& archives act 2001
 Deposit library and documentation centre act 1969

1. Legislation
Legislation comprises of laws for the establishment and maintenance of Libraries and
information which is called Library and information Legislation.

Legislation is a law or set of laws that are being created. Legislation refers to the preparation
and enactment of laws by a legislative body through its lawmaking process. The legislative
process includes evaluating, amending, and voting on proposed laws and is concerned with
the words used in the bill to communicate the values, judgments, and purposes of the
proposal. An idea becomes an item of legislative business when it is written as a bill. A bill is
a draft, or tentative version, of what might become part of the written law. A bill that is
enacted is called an act or statute.

legislation, the preparing and enacting of laws by local, state, or national legislatures. In

other contexts it is sometimes used to apply to municipal ordinances and to the rules and
regulations of administrative agencies passed in the exercise of delegated legislative
functions.

Legislation involves not only action by a legislative body, but also participation by
the executive. Concurrence by the executive is required to make legislation effective except
where the exercise of veto power is overridden by a sufficient majority of each house of
the legislature. Moreover, the role of the executive involves far more than mere acquiescence
or dissent. As the principal officer of state and as a political leader, the executive participates
extensively in the formulation of governmental policy and often in the actual preparation of
legislation.
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Importance of legislation
 To provide skilled labor for management of the information flow and delivery.
 To provide users with high quality information that is relevant and has positive
impact.
 To ensure that Organizational activities operate with in a defined framework.
 It enables organization to establish performance goal and to determine priorities.
 Enhance coordination of publishing activities in the country e.g., legal deposit laws.
 To guide in decision making that is to help the executives to protect the records
keepers.
 It determines the rights and responsibilities of individuals and authorities.
 It governs the relationship between the shareholders and management.
 It will transform the authorities from an administration drive to statutory performance.
2. Application and Relevancy of Laws or Acts related to records and information
management

Governments need to determine what records should be captured and retained as evidence in
case of legal and other challenges. That is they need to identify the records that could be
required as evidence of how the government conducts its business, the record that could be
used in defending the government or in prosecuting claims on the government’s behalf, the
records that document the legal bases of the government operations. These can only be
practically possible if there are proper legal and policy frameworks for records, information
and archives management.

Regarding Uganda’s situation there are several Acts, Regulations and policy documents,
which provide the framework for the creation, management and usage of data, records and
information (Okello-Obura 2008). Legislative and regulatory compliance often feature in
organizational objectives and act as part of the environmental and strategic framework for
records management. These laws provide the legal framework for records and archives
management to operate.

Some of the relevant laws in place include:

a) Freedom to access to information act 2005

The objective of this Act is to provide for the right of access to information pursuant to
Article 41 of the Constitution; to provide the classes of information referred to in that Article;
the procedure for obtaining access to that information, and for related matters.

The Act was assented to on July 7, 2005.

In Uganda, the right to access information is enshrined in Article 41 of the Constitution
(1995) which provides that, “Every citizen has a right of access to information in the
possession of the state or any other organ of the state except where the release of the
information is likely to interfere with the security of the state or the right to the privacy of any
other person”.

Uganda was among the first African countries to enact a right to information law, the Access
to Information Act (ATIA), 2005 and later the Access to Information Regulations, 2011. The
Act was enacted to promote the right to access information, promote an efficient, effective,
transparent and accountable Government and to enable the public to effectively access and
participate in decisions that affect them as citizens of the country. 

When making a request for access to information, one has to follow certain procedures. One
must comply with certain conditions, including amongst other things filling out specific
forms.

A government body also has obligations and has to put in place procedures to facilitate the
handling of requests. Any person that wants to make a request is entitled to receive support
from the government body to facilitate the request, and in principle a request has to be
processed within a period of 21 days.

Every government body should have an information officer that is responsible for following
these procedures. The information officer has to make available information on these
procedures. The officer also is responsible for making available information on what can be
accessed by the public without the need to make a request.  

Since the enactment of ATIA and its enabling regulations, the Government of Uganda has
taken significant steps to promote the right of access to information through a number of
programmes and initiatives such as: The establishment of the Ministry of ICT and National
Guidance (MoICT&NG) with a mandate to formulate and implement ICT policies; sustain,
manage and oversee ICT infrastructure in the country among others.

The Government of Uganda rolled out a Government Communication Strategy in a bid to

establish an effective, well-coordinated and proactive communication system across
Government and with the public. As part of the strategy, the government secured public
education airtime on radio stations in every district across the country to sensitise the public
on service delivery and development issues.

Government also established the Government Citizens Interaction Centre (GCIC) to enhance

the monitoring of service delivery and provide a channel for feedback and suggestions from
the general public.
Despite all these initiatives, access to vital information by citizens remains a big challenge. In
principle, the right of access to information in Uganda covers all information held by
government bodies and agencies. However, certain types of information or information held
by certain government bodies are exempted where access to that information could infringe
on other important interests. For example, cabinet records, information that could infringe on
a person’s right to privacy, endanger the national security of Uganda or commercial
information provided by a third party are exempted from the right to access to information.

Secondly, there has been noncompliance, by Ministers, with section 43 of the ATIA which
requires every minister to submit an annual report to parliament on requests for records or for
access to information made to public bodies under his or her ministry, indicating granted or
rejected requests and reasons for rejection. However, there has never been such a report from
ministers since 2005 when the Law was passed. 

There is also widespread ignorance about the ATIA law which has affected the enjoyment of
this law. Government information officers routinely deny or delay to respond to citizens’
requests for information. Delays, cripple the usability of information, especially for
journalists, but also mean that vital stories cannot be published by the media. 

Application of the act

 This Act applies to all information and records of Government ministries
 Departments,
 Local Governments,
 Statutory corporations and bodies,
 Commissions
 Other Government organs and agencies, unless specifically exempted by this Act.
This Act does not apply to 2019 Page 15 of 32
 Cabinet records and those of its committees.
 Records of court proceedings before the conclusion of the case.
 Nothing in this Act detracts from the provisions of any other written law giving a
right of access to the record of a public body.
The relevance of this Act
 It promotes an efficient, effective, transparent, and accountable of Government
 Provides the right to access to information held by organs of the State
 Protects persons disclosing evidence of maladministration or corruption in
Government bodies.
 It promotes transparency and accountability
 Provides the public with timely, accessible, and accurate information
 Empowers the public to effectively scrutinize Government decisions that affect them.
 It has encouraged the public members to participate in Government decisions making
 It helps to exemption from access to Cabinet Minutes and those of Defense, security
 It also gives Protection of information relating to privacy of the person.

b) National libraries act 2003

The National Library of Uganda was established by the National Library Act, 2003. This Act
repealed the Public Libraries Act, 1964 which had established the Public Libraries Board.
The Board had been charged with the responsibility of establishing, equipping, managing and
maintaining libraries in Uganda. Following the enactment of the Local Governments Act,
1997, this responsibility was decentralized to the local governments. The Public Libraries
Board and later the National Library of Uganda retained the responsibility of laying down
national policies in regard to these libraries, giving advice, issuing standards, norms,
guidelines and work manuals, providing technical and professional advisory services and
coordinating and carrying out advocacy for these libraries at local and international levels.

With the enactment of the National Library Act, 2003, the NLU became the National
Bibliographic Control Agency responsible for ensuring legal deposit of materials by
publishers, publishing the National Bibliography of Uganda, allocating the International
Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) and International Standard Serial Numbers (ISSN) and
establishing and managing a National Collection of Uganda.

Mission

To collect, preserve and disseminate Uganda’s documented intellectual and cultural heritage,
provide professional leadership in library and information delivery and promote a reading
culture.

Objectives

 To develop sound library services, plans and policies related to national development
policies, priorities and aspirations;
 To make library services accessible to all for purposes of education, information, self
development and recreation;
 To promote and facilitate the provision of library services to all parts of Uganda
especially rural areas where most of the people live and work;
 To acquire, preserve and make accessible documents of cultural, historical, research
and educational value;
 To provide technical, professional and advisory services to local governments, the
public and private sectors in the field of library services;
  To ensure that the services are efficiently managed and that there is effective and
optimal utilization of both material and human resources available;
 To support the adult literacy and other continuing education programs by providing
follow up and relevant reading and information materials;
 To build institutional capacity for promotion and delivery of library and information
services.

Activities

One of the key activities of the National Library is to extend support to public and
community libraries are libraries by way of developing policies, providing technical support,
and inspection to ensure that these libraries adhere to the standards. (See the National Library
Act, 2003)

In addition to this, the staff from community and public libraries are trained and oriented to
running of their libraries. Workshops have been organized to give them skills in how to
market and run the libraries better.

Application of the act

 This act applies to national library and national library board
 It applies to establishment of national library of Uganda
 Applies to financial provisions of national library
 It applies to common seal and other instruments of national library ge 16 of 32
 It applies to publishers during legal deposit
 It also applies to functions of the national library
 It applies to special powers of the national library
 To the director and other staff of the library

The relevance of this Act

 It helps to define some key terms relating to library and information
 It helps to guide in the establishment of the national library
 It outlines the functions of the national library
 It gives special powers to the national library
 It gives instruction to the library board about their functions and conduct meetings
 It explains how funds of the national library are to be got
 It gives the national library power on how to us their common seal
 It outlines the duty publishers in deposit

c) National records& archives act 2001

An Act to provide for the rationalised management of all Government and other public
records and archives under one single authority, for the preservation, utilisation and disposal
of such records and archives, for the repeal of the Records (Disposal) Act, and for other
connected matters.

Act was enacted in 2001 to “provide for the rationalized management of all Government and
other public records and archives under one single authority, for the preservation, utilization
and disposal of such records and archives, for the repeal of the Records (Disposal) Act and
for other connected matters”

Part II of the Act stipulates the Establishment and Functions of A National Records and
Archives Agency and the Agency shall be managed by a Director. The Act states that the
Director and the other staff of the Agency shall be officers in the public Service of the
Republic of Uganda and shall be appointed by the appropriate appointing authority.

Implementation of the Act

Uganda is the only country in East and Southern Africa that does not have an independent
national archive, although the institution was established by law and the first archived records
acquired and preserved in 1955 in Entebbe

Part II of the Act, spells out the establishment and functions of a National Records and
Archives Agency that should be headed by a Director. Ten years now, there is no Agency and
Director in place. How can then the Act be implemented? Political will from the government
is required.

Application of the act

 This act applies to national records and archives agency advisory committee
 It applies to establishment of national records and archives agency
 Applies to the functions of national records and archives agency
 It applies to responsibilities of the creators of public records
 It applies to local government records and access to archives
 It also applies to financial provision national records and archives agency archives
 It applies to penalty for removal destruction or mutilation of public records and
archives

The relevance of this Act

 It guides national records and archives agency archives agency advisory committee
 It helps in establishment of national records and archives agency
 It helps defines the functions of national records and archives agency
 Outlines the responsibilities of the creators of public records
 It protects the local government records and access to archives
 It guides during export of historical documents
 It gives the penalty for removal, destruction or mutilation of public records and
archives

Conclusion and Recommendations

“A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a
prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance:
and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power
which knowledge gives.” - James Madison, 4th President of the United States of America 4
August 1822.

Way to achieve this is to make records and archives laws operate

Recommendations
 Asamatterofurgency,theNationalRecordsandArchivesAgencyas stipulated in Records and
Archives Act 2001 should be established and the Director appointed to execute the duties
assigned.
 TheGovernmentofUgandashouldconsiderinformation,records and archives as a
cornerstone to ensuring democratic governance, accountability and promotion of human
rights and allocate resources for the construction of the National Records and Archives
Center.
 Part VI Section 24 (b) of the Act says that the funds of the Agency consist of grants, gifts,
donations and loans that may be received by the Agency from any source within or
outside Uganda. This provision as earlier noted is too open that it allows even soliciting
or receiving funds from countries considered hostile to Uganda. Sometimes donations
from hostile countries have hidden strings attached that should be avoided. This section
should be amended to exclude countries considered hostile to Uganda.
 The Records and Archives Act 2001 states that the Director and the other staff of the
Agency shall be officers in the public Service of the Republic of Uganda and shall be
appointed by the appropriate appointing authority. As earlier noted, I find this
professionally unacceptable. There should be a statement indicating that these officers
should be with adequate education, training and experience in information, records and
archives management.
 While parliament may pass a strong access law, bureaucrats can effectively undermine its
impact by promulgating regulations or implementing internal rules which restrict its
ambit. To avoid this kind of scenarios, government bureaucrats should widely consult
when designing policy documents to operationalize relevant records and archives
legislations.

d) Deposit library and documentation centre act 1969

The Institute of Public Administration (IPA) was founded in 1963 with the aim of conducting
courses for the Uganda civil servants. In 1969, the Parliament of Uganda passed the Deposit
Library and Documentation Centre Act. This is an Act:

“to make provision for the deposit and preservation of copies of books written or
printed and published in Uganda” (Laws of Uganda, 1970, p. 350)

The Act provided for the establishment of a Deposit Library and Documentation Centre
(DLDC) under the administration of the Institute of Public Administration (IPA) currently
known as the Uganda Management Institute (UMI). This Act introduced a legal obligation for
the publishers of the books published in Uganda or any other person ordinarily resident in
Uganda who may be authors of books published outside the country, to deliver at their own
expenses a copy of the books to the DLDC within one month of the release of the publication.

The failure to comply with the provisions of this Act is regarded as an offence liable to
conviction and a fine of Shs 100. The exemption of any publication by statutory order from
the provisions of this Act is made the authority of the Minister responsible. The “Book” is
defined as “every part of the division of the book, newspaper, periodical, magazine, review,
gazette, pamphlet, sheet of letter press, sheet of music, map, plan, chart or table separately
published” (Laws of Uganda, 1970, p.350).
The DLDC had to provide the decision makers in the government with relevant information.
When introducing the Deposit Library and Documentation Centre Bill to Parliament, the
Minister responsible indicated that “the DLDC will improve the knowledge and skills of the
public officers. At that time, documents were lying in archives and districts without funding
and trained personnel to organize them. Public officers and students wasted time in search for
lost, scattered and misfiled documents. Many valuable documents were produced but had
limited circulation. It was essential that a record was kept of Uganda’s historical and current
developments (Hansard, 1969). The Minister then suggested that the centre would be
responsible for centralizing all documents of historical and political importance particularly
relating to the government service, process and store documents under correct conditions.
The DLDC would also compile a bibliography, carry out research, encourage local authorities
and other bodies to deposit their publications for safe keeping, create awareness of the
general public about the history and activities of the government, and make efforts to collect
documents on Uganda which will be made available to public officers (Hansard, 1969).

Abidi and Kiyimba, (1983) indicated that the DLDC had the advantages for being directly
under government, because they could easily access international assistance to further
development. They gave the example of the Commonwealth Secretariat, which provided a
documentation expert, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) provided a
documentation specialist, staff training, and a vehicle; and the German Foundation for
International Development (DSE) and UNDP offered staff training.

Collections, preservation and dissemination

In 1975, the DLDC started collecting documents from government departments and
convinced the district authorities to deposit their proceedings regularly. However, the UNDP
assistance ended, the vehicle broke down and the collection of documents ceased. Thereafter,
very few departments responded to depositing their publications. The government
publications which used to be collected from the Government Printer at Entebbe could not be
collected on regular basis. The collection is composed of books, government documents,
District team and planning committee minutes, theses and dissertations and newspapers.
There are no preservation activities in DLDC. Since 1993, the DLDC produces the
Accessions List which is annual and regular. The majority of the publications listed in it are
government documents.

e) The Local Governments Act, 1997

The Local Governments Act, 1997, is: “an Act to amend, consolidate and streamline the
existing law on Local Governments in line with the Constitution give effect to the
decentralization and devolution of functions, powers and services; and to provide for
decentralization at all levels of Local governments to ensure good governance and democratic
participation in, and control of decision making by the people; and to provide for revenue and
the political and administrative set-up of Local Governments; and to provide for election of
Local Councils and any other matters connected to the above”.

The first objective of the Act was: 8 “to give full effect to the decentralization of functions,
powers, responsibilities and services at all levels of Local Governments” (Local Government
Act, 1997, p. 9).

The Local Government Act, 1997 led to the decentralization of all services including public
libraries to the districts. This means that the districts are now responsible for establishing,
equipping, managing and maintaining public libraries. This situation left the PLB
headquarters with few functions of coordination and supervision of the public libraries. The
PLB staff came up with the idea of establishing the National Library of Uganda (NLU) which
led to the legislation of the National Library Act, 2003. This is an Act: “to provide for the
establishment of the National Library of Uganda, the depositing and preservation of
publications, the setting up of an information referral service and library co-ordination and to
provide for other related matters” (National Library Act, 2003, p.3).

The functions of the NLU which are related to the collection, preservation and dissemination
of the national memory include the following clauses:

4l) to acquire and organise for use, a comprehensive collection of library material published
in Uganda, by Ugandans, and on Uganda;

4m) to act as a depository for the national and foreign governments’ publications as well as
for United Nations and other international organisations for purposes of promoting research
and scholarship and for the preservation of published national culture and intellectual output;

4n) to compile and publish a national bibliography of books in Uganda as a means of

promoting the awareness of the availability of these books and encouraging the sale of these
books in the country and abroad (National Library Act, 2003, p. 6)

5. It is a requirement that every publisher of a book or document in Uganda at his or her cost
to deposit three copies of the book or document or one copy of the videogram of film and ten
copies in the case of any Government department with the National Library. (National
Library Act, 2003, p.7)