{UAH} 19 years on, they remain good wishes in the Uganda constitution

Today marks 19 years since the Uganda constitution was promulgated. In October 1995 when it was promulgated Ugandans said the usual rhetoric "NEVER AGAIN" President Museveni then promised to rule for the next 10 years and leave (two terms).

I remember 9 years after it came into force, my friend Tumwine Patrick asked me to be part of the campaign on access to information. What was strange about it was that 9 years on, government had not made a law to enforce a part of the constitution which guarantees a right to Ugandans. I later discovered that actually many provisions in that book were not enforceable because no laws to enforce them have been made. 19 years on, they remain good wishes. for example:

a. Under article 50, parliament is supposed to make laws for enforcement of human rights (enforcement of chapter 4), 19 years on we do not have this law and the guidelines made by the Chief Justice were ruled unconstitutional
b. Under article 8A parliament is meant to make laws for enforcement of state objectives. Since 2005 no law has been made.
C. Under article 61 Local Council (LC) elections should be held with 90 days after expiry of government. 13 years on, we've not had such elections. These and many more aspects have made this book remain on the shelves and not implementable.

Again Ten years after, in 2005, Ugandans (politicians) changed the constitution, they introduced changes that will shape the nature of the county (and possibly determine peace or war). Among the major changes of 2005 were:

1. The removed term limits and effectively created a life presidency
2. The ownership of Oil, gas and minerals was changed. In fact the 2005 amendment removed ownership of oil and gas plus minerals from citizens to some unknown entity called government. The old wording of "Minerals are owned by the government in trust of citizens" was replaced with "Petroleum and Minerals are owned by the Government on behalf of the state" (the word Citizens was replaced with state!
3. The power of citizens to recall their MPs was removed. Today neither citizens, nor political parties can recall a member of parliament no matter the wrong he/she does. (You can only wish him bad lack, to die or ran mad such that he is removed on medial grounds)
4. gave parliament powers to determine which elections can be secret ballot or not (article 68(6) as amended). In effect we can have elections that are not by secret ballot.
5. Gave parliament powers to determine their own salary and benefits (today we see them raid the treasury with reckless abandon)
6. Provided for easy ways of declaring a presidential candidate unopposed and hence the only president. (An indirect attempt on this was seen when rape charges were slapped on Kiiza Besigye and the AG, Kidhu Makubuya advised govt that he could not stand since he was a suspect in prison, Makubuya's advice was later ignored. Had it been followed there was a possibility of Museveni going unopposed and no elections would be held).
These and more changes could have brought what in feature may result into conflicts.

AUTHORED BY: Magelah Peter Gwayaka

--
H.OGWAPITI
-----------------------------------------------------
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that  we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic  and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
---Theodore Roosevelt

--
UAH forum is devoted to matters of interest to Ugandans. Individuals are responsible for whatever they post on this forum.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com or Abbey Semuwemba at: abbeysemuwemba@gmail.com.