Members of Parliament in Western Equatoria State have disagreed over a bill that could sentence people who impregnate schoolgirls to between 7 and 14 years in prison.

The bill was presented to the state parliament six months ago. The assembly then called for public hearings on the main issues, which include punishing those behind the dropout of schoolgirls.

However, in the second reading in Yambio town on Tuesday, some MPs protested against the bill, saying they were not consulted.

Hon Karamati Yasona, who represents Mundri East, said the bill would not be applied in his county even if passed into law unless his people are consulted.

“I will not feel comfortable with this bill if the committee does not consult my people, because they consult people from other counties. They have known their opinion,” Hon Yasona protested.

The chairperson of the education committee in the state assembly, Elinama Daniel, said it was difficult to visit all the counties due to financial constraints.

Honorable Elinama said his team decided to visit greater counties.

“We sat and organized our program according to greater counties because of financial problems which would actually not make us cover all the ten counties in the state,” he said.

“Good enough, we have reached at least more than half of the counties – we reached 6 of the counties, and you know the parliament goes with majorities.”

However, the MPs passed the bill to the third reading.