Key numbers that changed Uganda

50 men of the independence constitution
Following the 1959 Wild Constitution Report and the June Lord Munster Report which formed Uganda’s independence constitution, 50 Ugandans, including some Europeans and Asians (Indians), were selected from across the country to travel to London to debate what became Uganda’s first constitution at the Lancaster Conference.

Debating of the constitution, also known as the Lancaster Conference, started on September 18, 1961, and ended on October 9, 1961, which was the date when it was proclaimed as the independence constitution of Uganda. The conference was steered by Iain Macleod, a British Member of Parliament and also Secretary of State for Colonies.

56 MPs of the Pigeon-Hole Constitution
Five years after Uganda’s first constitution was promulgated in London, another constitution was on April 15, 1966, propagated. The new constitution also known as the “Pigeon-Hole Constitution” was debated and passed by 56 out of 91 Members of Parliament.

Only four members opposed it. Mr John Kangaho, MP Ankole South West, was the only non-Muganda who opposed it. The other three; Enoch Mulira, Masembe-Kabali and F.G. Sembeguya, were Baganda. Other members of the House were absent.

The 1966 Constitution was made to remove the president, Kabaka Edward Muteesa II of Buganda, from office. In the new constitution, the Office of the President was given executive power which president Muteesa did not have.

62 MPs of the Republican Constitution
On September 8, 1967, another constitution popularly known as the “Republican Constitution” was propagated. It was this constitution that abolished monarchies in Uganda. On that day, out of the 91 Members of Parliament, 62 voted in favour while no one voted against it.

The rest were absent.
Interesting to note is that Masembe-Kabali, Enoch Mulira and John Kangaho who in April 1966 voted against the “Pigeon-Hall Constitution”, voted for the “Republican Constitution”.
It was only F.G. Sembeguya of the ‘1966 rebel MPs’ that was among those who decided to absent themselves on that day.

77 men of the Moshi Conference
The Moshi Unity Conference which sat from March 23 to 26, 1979, in Moshi, Tanzania and drew the post-Idi Amin constitution for the Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF) government had 77 members.
The Moshi Conference came as a result of the January 1, 1979, meeting in Kenya, also known as the Nairobi Consultative Committee. Originally, the Moshi Conference had started off with 41 delegates representing 22 different anti-Amin political parties, movements and military groups.

On the first day, it was hastily agreed that 22 observers and 11 soldiers’ representatives be included on – and that is why Mr Yoweri Museveni was called from the frontline in Mbarara and arrived in Moshi on the second day of the conference.

It was also this conference that voted Prof Yusuf Lule the chairman of the UNLF which was the Uganda government in exile ready to be sworn-in upon the fall of Kampala. Upon the captured of Kampala on April 11, Lule flew from Tanzania the following day and was on April 13, 1979, sworn-in as president.

Six men of the Military Commission
From the UNLF constitution, it was agreed that besides the National Executive Council (NEC) which would serve as the Cabinet, the National Consultative Council (NCC) would serve as the interim Parliament.

Besides, a Military Commission was also established to oversee the NEC administration. The Military Commission was to be composed of six men with a military background. Interestingly, Paulo Muwanga, who was its chairman, had no any military background while his deputy Museveni was a soldier but had neither rank nor army number.

Museveni had, however, had military training in 1969 and 1970s in Mozambique. The six members of the Military Commission were Paulo Muwanga, Yoweri Museveni, Col Tito Okello Lutwa, Lt Col David Oyite Ojok, Lt Col William Omaria and Maj Zed Maruru.

The Military Commission is famous for the president Godfrey Binaisa ouster. While there was later the three-man Presidential Commission of justices Polycarp Nyamuchoncho, Saulo Musoke and Joel Hunter Walter Olwol, it was the Military Commission which had the real power.
Indeed, it was the Military Commission which on Friday, November 7, 1980, dissolved the NCC, the Parliament of Uganda pending the December 10, 1980, general election. The Military Commission was in office from April 1979 to December 15, 1981, when Muwanga officially handed over power to the newly elected president Milton Obote.

27 armed PRA rebels
During the 1980 electioneering, Mr Museveni had vowed that if the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) rigged the elections to win power, he would start a people’s war to oust them.
On February 6, 1981, as vowed, Museveni led 27 armed fighters of the Popular Resistance Army (PRA), the predecessor of the National Resistance Army (NRA), launched the Bush War in what became the Luweero Triangle against the Obote regime.

Five years later, the NRA captured power.
Now, while it is said that only 27 men were armed – some with mere pistols – the actual number that started from Kampala and attacked Kabamba Barracks is disputable. While some say they were 42 men, including Museveni, others say they were 37, including Museveni.
Several historical sources, including President Museveni’s book Sowing the Mustard Seed, indicate that Sam Katabarwa was in Kenya as of February 6, 1981. Lt Fred Rubereza was left behind in Kampala. Nonetheless, the two are always published by different authors among the men who attacked Kabamba on the day the war started.

8 men of the Military Council
Following the July 27, 1985, coup, president Milton Obote was once again ousted by an army he was Command-In-Chief, a junta government was formed and two days later on July 29, Gen Tito Okello Lutwa was sworn-in as president.

The junta was led by an eight-man Military Council chaired by Gen Lutwa. Unlike the 1979/1980 Military Commission, all members of the 1985/1986 Military Council were soldiers, with the lowest member in rank being Capt Livingston Kalyebusula Kabaale of the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA) forces.

The Military Council is credited for initiating the September-December 1985 failed Nairobi Peace Talks. The junta was on January 26, 1986, ousted by the NRA rebels led by Museveni who was a signatory to the Nairobi Peace Accord signed on December 19, 1985.

21 men and women of Odoki Commission
On February 14, 1989, President Museveni appointed a 21-man team of the famous Uganda Constitution Review Commission headed by Supreme Court judge Benjamin Odoki. The Commission, also known as the “Odoki Commission”, was mandated to seek public views about the new constitution that Ugandans were about to start debating.

In March 1992, the Commission made the report to the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs. It was from the Odoki report that the members of the Constituency Assembly (CA) debated and made the 1995 Uganda Constitution. Of the 21 Constitution Commission, only two were female. They were Ms Miria Matembe and Ms Mary Maitum.

249 Ugandans of the 1995 Constitution
In April 1994, the Constituent Assembly (CA) started debating the new Constitution. This was Uganda’s fifth constitution that was promulgated in October 1995. The earlier constitutions Uganda had had were the 1962, 1966, 1967 and the little known 1979 UNLF constitution which was made at the Moshi Conference in Tanzania to govern the UNLF, the post-Amin government.

But also to note, on the day the constitution was proclaimed on October 8, 1995, some UPC Members of the Parliament including Ms Cecil Ogwal walked out in protest. The CA had a total membership of 249 delegates. The composition was: 38 National Resistance Council (NRC) historical members, 166 elected members, 11 army representatives, 20 nominated members and 34 women representatives from the 34 districts Uganda had then.

232 MPs of the term limits
On June 28, 2005, the Sixth Parliament voted to remove presidential term limits. The Constitution which was amended had been promulgated only 10 years earlier, in 1995, and the provision on term limits had not been tested. If the provision had not been removed, President Museveni, who had served the then maximum two terms, having served in the office for another decade before the coming in force of the Constitution, would have retired in 2006. The amendment enabled him to run for office again in 2006, 2011 and 2016. A total of 232 MPs voted in favour of the motion, 50 against and one abstained, then Speaker Edward Ssekandi, who is now vice president, announced.

317 MPs of the age limit
A dozen years since the term limits were removed by Parliament, 317 MPs voted in December 2017 to remove age limits for presidential candidates. In a Parliament of 436 members, 97 opposed the amendment and two abstained, with a number absent.

President Museveni, now 73 and set to be 77 at the time of the next election which had been scheduled for 2021, will be eligible to run again. The same vote also carried an amendment of the term of Parliament from five to seven years, with a referendum broached to also extend the term of President to seven years.

The extension of the terms is presumed to be retrospective, meaning that the current office bearers will serve until 2023 if the courts of law uphold the amendments.