KAMPALA — Members of Parliament have urged Parliament to procure locally manufactured buses from Kiira Motors Corporation for its oversight activities, saying government institutions should lead efforts to promote home-grown innovations and turn public investment in research into commercially viable enterprises.
The legislators made the call while debating a report by the House Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation, which highlighted gaps in the commercialisation of research and innovations despite substantial government funding.
Committee chairperson, Hon. Samuel Opio, said public institutions should become deliberate consumers of locally developed technologies to create markets for domestic innovators and stimulate industrial growth.
He cited the limited uptake of locally manufactured products by government institutions, particularly the buses produced by Kiira Motors Corporation.
“There is low uptake of technology by the public sector, for example Kiira Motors. We have recommended that Parliament should use these buses in our oversight,” Opio said during Tuesday’s plenary sitting, November 3, 2026, chaired by Speaker Jacob Oboth.
Kitgum Municipality MP, Hon. Denis Oneka Lit, supported the proposal, citing the progress Kiira Motors had made since its origins as a vehicle innovation project at Makerere University.
“I was a guild President in 2011 when Makerere School of Technology invented a small car, now we have Eco buses on Kampala streets. Such innovations need a boost if we are to grow our economy,” he said.
According to the committee report, Kiira Motors has received Shs223 billion in government funding over the past 12 years but remains dependent on public financing.
The corporation’s manufacturing plant in Jinja has an installed production capacity of 2,500 vehicles annually, which can be expanded to 10,000.
The legislators argued that such investments should translate into sustainable production, wider market access, employment opportunities and reduced dependence on imported products.
Questions over returns on public investment
The debate also exposed concerns over the commercial performance of other government-supported science, technology and innovation initiatives.
The committee report indicated that the Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development had received Shs311 billion over the past 20 years but generated only Shs15.55 billion in revenue.
Hon. Boniface Okot (NRM, Kole South) questioned the prolonged government financing of projects that had not demonstrated sufficient commercial returns.
He proposed suspending the initiation of new science, technology and innovation projects until government strengthens supervision and improves the performance of existing initiatives.
Okot cited staffing challenges at the Science, Technology and Innovation Secretariat, noting that only 24 of its 151 approved positions had been filled, despite the institution being responsible for supervising 141 funded projects.
The report also raised concerns about the performance of business incubation programmes, revealing that only five of the 84 startups supported by the Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI) had successfully graduated from the incubation phase.
The figures prompted calls for stronger accountability, better project monitoring and clear performance indicators to establish whether public investments in research are delivering tangible economic benefits.
Hon. Emmanuel Banya (NRM, Koboko County) called for the establishment of a competitive commercialisation fund to support promising innovations developed by universities and other research institutions.
He cited innovations by students at Muni University, including a temperature-regulating cold room and GPS-assisted technology that alerts farmers when their cattle move beyond designated grazing boundaries.
“I would wish the committee to recommend government to come up with a competitive fund to commercialise these ideas. I am sure other universities have big technologies,” Banya said.
Shadow Minister for Science and Technology, Dr. Eunice Otuko, challenged government to demonstrate measurable returns from the money invested in the sector.
“A lot of funding has gone into this sector, we are asking: where are the patents, where are the jobs?” she asked.
Otuko called for periodic reporting on innovations developed, patents secured, products commercialised and jobs created through government-funded research programmes.
Opposition Whip, Hon. Paul Mwiru, questioned restrictions that prevent research institutions from commercialising their innovations, arguing that universities and other institutions should be enabled to turn their research into income-generating enterprises.
Bugangaizi East MP, Hon. Onesimus Twinamasiko, meanwhile, supported the expansion of the sericulture initiative in Kween District to other parts of the country, saying such programmes could create additional economic opportunities.
Government pledges to address commercialisation gap
Responding on behalf of the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, the Minister of Health, Hon. Chris Baryomunsi, acknowledged the need to strengthen the transition of research innovations from laboratories into the marketplace.
He agreed that government-funded research should not end at the development of prototypes or the completion of university projects, but should proceed to commercial production and wider market adoption.
“We take the point that it is not enough for universities to take up initiatives and stop at that. We should go beyond that, take the project to commercialisation stage,” Baryomunsi said.
The debate highlighted Parliament’s growing concern over the need to ensure that public investment in science, technology and innovation delivers practical economic benefits through industrial development, job creation, local manufacturing and improved competitiveness.
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