Constitutional review team must meet our aspirations

Justice minister Kahinda Otafire has nominated 14 high-profile individuals, pending the President’s approval, to constitute a Constitutional Review Commission. Five of the proposed members are women. There is a mix of the young and elderly, lawyers and social scientists.
The Commission, if approved, will gather views of Ugandans on aspects of the supreme law they wish changed. This is seminal because Article One of the Constitution vests sovereign power in the people who shall determine who governs them, and how, through a free, fair and regular elections or referenda.

Parliament’s amendment of the Constitution last year to, among other things, scrapped the upper presidential age cap coursed through physical fights among members, a military raid on the House and attacks in the countryside on government lackeys.

In short, it polarised Ugandans and soiled the country’s reputation. The raw application of gun power peeled the layer off democratic pretene, placed Uganda on the self-destruct trajectory and radicalised political actors. We argue that the value of the Commission, if and when it starts its work, should be rebuilding citizens’ confidence in the governance of the country. Re-introducing constitutional safeguards is one crucial way to pull Uganda back from the precipice.

It is, therefore, our position and clarion call to the nominees, when eventually endorsed for the job, to satiate the high expectations and aspirations of citizens in the manner in which they do their work. This requires of them par-excellence rectitude so that the population can trust that the consultation will be no charade. It should also not be manipulated to circumvent alternative dispute resolution, including through planned political/national dialogues.

Whereas we do not intend to bias the team’s work, we draw its attention at the earliest to constitution amendment recommendations that eminent Supreme Court judges made in their judgments on 2016 presidential election petition and, before that, in 2001 and 2006.
We recap some of the key issues, as further enunciated by the Citizens Election Observers Net-work–Uganda (CEON-U), as: “Overhauling the Electoral Commission to ensure independence and impartiality; reforming and standardising demarcation of electoral boundaries; and, the establishment of an independent Judiciary to adjudicate on electoral disputes impartially.” Other internecine issues confronting the country include the land question, succession, natural resources utilisation and non-inclusive development.

Timely enactment of electoral laws; harmonisation of constitutional timelines to ensure that future ballots are free, fair and transparent are crucial as pointed out by a group of seven Makerere University legal scholars. Article 84 (7) of the Constitution should also be amended to restore voters’ right to recall Members of Parliament.