Age limit: Chaotic MPs force Kadaga to postpone sitting

Speaker Rebecca Kadaga has adjourned the House sitting to 2 pm on Wednesday after Opposition legislators disrupted Igara West MP Raphael Magezi from moving a motion on removing the presidential age limit.

For the second time in five days, the legislators got up and started singing for more than 20 minutes inside Parliament Chambers in an attempt to block the motion which the Speaker had scheduled earlier in the day.

Speaker Kadaga was left powerless as her calls for the House to come back to order were ignored by the rowdy legislators who continuously sang the Uganda National Anthem.

"House is adjourned to 2pm tomorrow," said Ms Kadaga, as Opposition members broke into wild celebrations.

Speaker Kadaga had earlier in the day given Mr Magyezi a green light to present a motion seeking for the amendment of Article 102 (b) of the Constitution, paving way for the removal of presidential age limits.

At 7:05pm, after Parliament had handled all the other business of the day as highlighted on the Order Paper, the Clerk to Parliament, Ms Jane Kibirige called for the tabling of the motion seeking leave of Parliament to draft and present a private member's bill seeking the scrapping of the presidential age limit, which caps the President's age at 75 years.

But Shadow Attorney General Medard Lubega Sseggona moved on a point of procedure, submitting that Kassanda North MP Patrick Nsamba's motion on having a constitution review commission was filed earlier and so should be considered first.

"We are concerned that you are being stampeded by members who want their business handled," Mr Sseggona said. At this point, the delaying tactics started with Ntungamo Municipality MP Gerald Karuhanga standing to read from the Constitution without stating whether it was an issue of procedure or not.

Ms Kadaga, however, said the matter started when she was out of the country and that the then chair, deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah, ruled that the motion would be debated at an appropriate time. Ms Kadaga insisted that all motions will get time but bills take priority.

Lwemiyaga County MP, Mr Theodore Ssekikubo challenged Ms Kadaga saying that currently there is no bill but motions.

This is when chaos returned on the floor of Parliament with opposition MPs raising issues of procedure and order. They wore their red ribbons again, despite the fact that Kadaga had earlier ruled that they remove them, and stood up.

The Speaker, after a brief interaction with the Clerk, was seen writing down names of MPs singing in the House as she threatened: "I will suspend you." This too did not deter them from singing and banging tables.

It is at this point that the opposition MPs began singing the National Anthem non-stop while the government side looked on helplessly. And Speaker Kadaga had to adjourn the House, just like his deputy Jacob Oulanyah did on Thursday under similar circumstances.

After the adjournment, Opposition MPs jumped in celebrations while singing.