Death of term, age limits to pave way for rule by decree

Parliament must kill the constitutional clause that defines the age when one can run for President of Uganda, and do so under the gun if needs be. That is the meaning of the current full-scale mobilisation of the security agencies especially in Kampala.

The change will free up President Yoweri Museveni to rule as he pleases, more than ever. Those NRM MPs who will pass the amendment may not realise it, but before President Museveni bows out in answer to nature’s ways, a lot will have happened. He will rule by presidential decree.
Let’s back up a little.

In 1986, President Museveni said he would hand over power in four years following elections. That never happened. Cleverly, he used the right channels to endorse his continued stay in power. He used the NRC, the legislative body at the time. With that, a sure-fire pattern was established: co-opt woolly-headed elected types (won’t call them leaders) to do your bidding.
In 2005, the elected types amended the 10-year-old Constitution to remove term limits and allow President Museveni to rule some more. Those who opposed the idea, like Ms Miria Matembe, were cast out.

Some proponents thought they were acting smart. They told themselves that because Mr Museveni has been good to Uganda, allowing him more terms was no big deal. After all, there was still the age limit clause that would be a brake, and deliver in 2021 that peaceful transition for the first time in Uganda’s history.
Many others warned that the slippery slide started with that NRC vote in 1989, opposed only by Wasswa Ziritwawula (an act that consigned him to political oblivion), would only get slipperier. The age limit thing would go and Mr Museveni would rule until God parted him with State House.

And so 2017 is here, and another generation of elected types is showing zero interest in the lessons of their country’s political history. This time, the language is more charged and more threatening.

Possibly anticipating tougher opposition than before to the continuation of Mr Museveni’s chokehold on power, a government minister came straight out to declare that the military would be involved to ensure the President had his way.
State minister for Investment Evelyn Anite’s recent “we have the support of the magye” statement was remarkable, and it is unlikely to have been made without authorisation from somewhere. It is one of the talking points those working behind the scenes on age limit removal have generated. The other talking point is the patently dishonest one — that the removal of age limit is not intended to benefit President Museveni. Okay, but why is it coming up ahead of age ruling him out of running again in 2021?
The minister’s magye talk nods to a phrase we have heard before in Uganda’s political parlance: where are your generals? What have the generals got to do with a free political debate?
A lot.
That is why we see heavily armed forces deployed around Parliament (redux 1966, hello!) and institutions of higher learning like Makerere University, homes of key politicians, and it is also why we see certain governance-focussed civil society organisations raided.
Either you shut up and let us keep our man in power, or we will clobber you into submission. There are no grey areas.

I wonder what men like Benjamin Odoki and Frederick Ssempebwa make of the constitutional writing and review processes they presided over and how things have turned out.
One misses a clear-eyed and thoroughgoing book on how come we are where we are. Where is that primer of a political history tome to chew over and make sense of Uganda’s stomach-churning world?
A totally loosed President Museveni will more likely rule by presidential fiat.

But, as always, he will hide behind legal and legislative process. He will pass or amend whichever law he pleases to give him ever more power. Those “obscurantists” who oppose him will be “dealt with accordingly”. Victims may include several of those who will pass the age-limit amendment. They will be Uganda’s own Frankensteins.
All this power will be amassed under the guise of accelerating “socio-economic transformation of society”. As we know well, it will be more of the same in the government: lethargy, corruption, incompetence, incoherence, patronage, and worse.
For now, if only the warlike mobilisation of firepower were in the service of stopping killings of women in Wakiso District!

Mr Tabaire is the co-founder and director of programmes at African Centre for Media Excellence in Kampala. [email protected]
Twitter:@btabaire