Ugandan ministers to start taking Kiswahili language lessons

Uganda’s cabinet, which sits every Monday and is chaired by the president, has resolved to start getting Kiswahili lessons for a few hours in the morning for the next one year. This is according to the country’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African Community Affairs Rebecca Kadaga.

Speaking during the opening of the ongoing second annual East African Court of Justice judicial conference in Kampala, the Minister for East African Affairs Rebbeca Kadaga noted that the Ugandan government attaches special importance to the issue of integration and to this she said is committed to ensuring a common language adopted by the East African Community.

Kadaga said this will enable members to start holding meetings in Kiswahili. In July this year, Uganda approved Swahili as the second official language after English and instructed schools to make the teaching of the language compulsory.

Kiswahili is the most spoken African language on the continent from southern Somalia, eastern DRC, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, and the Comoros Islands to South Sudan. The African Union made it an official language in 2004, in addition to English, Portuguese, Arabic, and French.