When constitutional idealism meets Museveni’s raw power

A leopard has retractile talons. But even when it retracts its talons, it is still a leopard; driven by its leonine character and attributes - lithe, nimble, supple yet brutal.
My mother advised me never to swear Ngakuha Ngwe (death at the hands of the leopard). It killed her great grandfather. Of course, I also learnt from ‘the old man with a hat’ never to touch the anus of a leopard.
Among the Bakonzo, there is this tradition of mock enmity between clans. Every clan is paired to exercise this mock enmity. Unfortunately, my Babinga Clan (Nkima) and the Baswagha Clan (Leopard) are paired as mock enemies.
At the sight of a new moon, I (a bona fide Mubinga clansman) am supposed to stand on an anthill and hurl insults and declare the death of all Baswagha clansmen (and how we, the Nkima clan, have taken all their girls as the spoils of war). The Baswagha clan are known for greed and gourmand. They are said to have sold their throne to the Antelope (Ngabi) Clan for a piece of meat. This is the source of the adage: Greed begins like an appetite; and it consumes the throne.
In 1990, President Museveni sought the extension of his four-year self-declared tenure at the presidency. The most compelling justification for this extension was that he wanted to write a new Constitution.
With the bon volonte (goodwill) of Ugandans, anyone challenging Museveni on this matter looked out of place. The extension in the bag, Museveni delivered the new Constitution on October 8, 1995 via an elected Constituent Assembly.
The significance of the Constituent Assembly is that its election enjoys near unanimous characterisation as the only clean poll under the lengthy leadership of Museveni.
Another significance of the Constituent Assembly is that it was the body that birthed the 1995 Constitution, which is the biggest democratic dividend from the MLP (Museveni’s Luweero Project).The tag ‘democratic dividend’ derives from the fact that the 1995 Constitution, in spite of Museveni influence on the process of making it, was fairly representative of a minimum national consensus achieved under some kind of national dialogue platform.
And boy, oh boy, the idealism that was packed (and parked) in the Constitution characterised our ‘Oh Uganda!’ moment. Even the phrase ‘We the People…’ became such an emotional line evoking passionate parallels with the sanctity of the American Constitution.
For me as a citizen, the most important thing in the Constitution was the doctrine of Parliament Supremacy (residing in the parliamentary role of appropriation of budgetary resources and superintending over the President).
And the President was chained: Two terms of office; two age limit (35-75) for eligibility; regular briefing to Parliament; only Parliament can sanction the military operations outside Uganda. Super Constitution.
As I said, October 8, 1995 was our ‘Oh Uganda…!’ moment. And the man of the moment was a certain Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
But that was then… In 2017, the idealism of the Constitution is meeting Museveni’s raw power in a head-on collision. It is now clear the justifiable extension of Museveni’s self-declared presidency in 1990, was actually the beginning of a manifest that can only be characterised as ‘exercising raw power’.
Ugandans have done almost everything to appease Museveni’s continued hold unto power. The proposed amendment of Article 102(b) of the Constitution is one of those acts of appeasement.
But the truth is that Museveni’s love for raw power is in a climactic conflict with the idealism of the Constitution (the people of Uganda). Someone tell Museveni that the Bakonzo’s Leopard Clan lost their throne because of their huge appetite for meat.

Mr Bisiika is the executive editor of East African Flagpost.