ARMY TO REGULATE PREGNANCY
By Milton Olupot

February 23, 2004 – (New Vision - Kampala) The Ministry of Defence is seeking to regulate pregnancy timing for Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) cadets.

The UPDF Bill 2003 which is currently under consideration by the defence and internal affairs committee, states that a cadet who conceives while on training automatically gets dismissed from the force.The Bill also seeks to restrict a female officer from getting pregnant within four years from the time they are recruited into the army and sets a period of three years between pregnancies.

The committee chaired by Simon Mayende (Samia Bugwe South) wondered whether the law was not harsh and intended to discourage women from joining the army.

Lt. Col. Phenihas Katirima (UPDF), however, said the law was meant to encourage women to join the army, otherwise higher standards that would automatically cut women out would have been set.

Katirima said cadets are deployed at platoon level which is a field assignment involving a lot of fatigue and would not be favourable for expectant women.
He said in about four years a cadet would have risen to a rank with logistics favourable for an expectant mother such as an office assignment and a car.

He said military training was rigorous and a pregnant woman would not be able to cope.

The Bill wants dismissal with disgrace as a penalty for officers who make women officers pregnant.

"There should be a law to punish civilian men equally if found guilty of making a cadet pregnant," the members said.

The committee recommended that UPDF recruitment be based on district quotas.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200402230649.html