The Ugandan Cabinet has approved the implementation of the 21st EAC Summit directive in Uganda to adopt Kiswahili as an official language of the community.
The Cabinet also recommended that the teaching of Kiswahili in primary and secondary should be made compulsory.
“Cabinet recommended that the teaching of Kiswahili language in primary and secondary should be made compulsory and examinable. It was also further agreed that training programmes for Parliament, Cabinet and the media be initiated,” a statement, released Tuesday, on the Cabinet resolutions read.
English has been Uganda’s only official language since independence in 1962. Kiswahili was proposed as the second official language in 2005 but is only taught as an optional subject in secondary schools since 2017.
While Kiswahili is the region’s lingua franca, spoken extensively in Tanzania as both national and official language, it was adopted as the official language of the EAC in 2017.
EAC member states are Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and most recently the Democratic Republic of Congo.
This came during the APRM Youth Symposium which started today 5th July, 2022 and was officially opened by President and keynote speaker Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.