Vice President Jesica Alupo presented a statement on the National Campaign against Defilement, Early Marriages and Failed Parenthood which will run for 12 months.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the leadership of parliament will be very instrumental in leading the campaign,” VP Alupo told MPs in Parliament.
 
 During the debate, the deputy speaker of parliament Anita Among said she has been approached by women complaining about irresponsible fathers who happen to be MPs.
 
 “I am tired of counselling women here. Women come here with children. It is the MPs who impregnate these girls. And they abandon these girls. Imagine if this girl is your child, your daughter? Members if you do not believe me, I will start naming them,” The deputy speaker said.
 
 The debate attracted so much attention that the women MP for Tororo district Sarah Opendi revealed that a woman had come to parliament with a six-month-old baby alleging that the father had denied her help.

“The father is one of us here. And, he has failed to take responsibility,” Opendi told the parliament.
 
 Opendi says the problem is serious and that the office of the speaker of parliament is handling the matter.
 
 “It has been on and in every parliament, we get cases of MPs who have abandoned, either their families or their children,” Opendi told NTV Uganda.
 
 The government chief whip Thomas Tayebwa admits that there is a problem.
 
 “I have talked to some people. We have counselled some people. We have guided them to take responsibility. Some of the MPs would think that their life would continue as normal. They do not know that now they are under serious scrutiny,” Tayebwa told NTV Uganda.
 
 Some MPs say that parliament is a mirror of society so they are not any different.
 
 “It is not only happening here in Parliament. It happens in society. You hear stories of a woman giving birth to triplets and the husband considers it a curse,” Nakawa West MP Joel Ssenyonyi says.

“We have cases where some of the people want to extort because they are MPs. Someone knows that you are now a minister and that you would rather fork out UGX 10 million than allow to get bad publicity,” Tayebwa says.
 
 According to Susan Baluka, a legal advisor at FIDA Uganda, they have received many complaints about high profile people denying them child support.
 
 “They include leaders at different levels. They may not necessarily be MPs but could be leaders at different levels,” Baluka says.
 
 Baluka highlighted the need for sensitisation on this matter.
 
 “Men and women both have a responsibility, by law, to provide for the children in equal measure,” Baluku says.
 
 Some argue that these leaders are held in high esteem so they should be exemplary by meeting their responsibilities.