Where is the amendment to allow for elders’ MPs?

Demanding. Elders pose for a photo after a meeting with the Equal Opportunities Commission in Bugolobi in Kampala in October 2017.PHOTO BY STEPHEN OTAGE

What you need to know:

  • The Deputy Attorney General, Mr Mwesigwa Rukutana, was recently quoted by this newspaper explaining what the government has so far done.
  • The feeling of exclusion seems to have compelled the older persons to adopt unusual tactics of arm-twisting the government.
  • We do sympathise with the demand by older persons to have representatives in Parliament.

The promise:
One of the things that the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM)party promised as it campaigned for re-election in 2016 was to continue promoting the empowerment of older persons within the communities to participate in economic development activities.
One of the ways in which NRM said it would do this was by “reviewing the Constitution to include representation of the elderly in Parliament”.
The party boasted that it had established and consolidated the participation of elderly persons in decision making at the local government level through Councils for the elderly.

The unspoken word was that it sounded only logical that the elders who were at the time estimated to constitute 4.7 per cent of the population or 1.6 million people, got representation in Parliament.
What prompted the party to include the issue of representation of elderly in Parliament in the campaign manifesto remains unknown, but the elderly first launched the campaign to have a representative in 2008 when they petitioned Parliament to make legislation that would pave way for them to have representatives at all decision making levels right from the local councils.

That petition was the catalyst that partially triggered off a chain of events that led to the enactment of the National Council for Older Persons Act 2013, and the formation of the National Council for Older Persons, with structures from the village to the national level.
The older persons once again raised the issue during the October 2016 celebrations of the International Day of Older Persons and President Museveni who presided over the function reechoed the promise, but nothing has been done.

It will serve well for one to remember that the Supreme Court while giving its ruling on the election petition filed by Mr Amama Mbabazi, a former NRM secretary general and Prime Minister, who broke ranks with his party to challenge Mr Museveni for the presidency, had recommended that government conducts reforms in areas including the period within which petitions are filed and determined, the nature of evidence to be adduced in an election petition, when fresh elections can be held following an annulment of an election and regulation of the use of technology.
Other recommendations were on the unequal use of State-owned media, the late enactment of relevant legislation, donations during elections, the involvement of public officers in campaigns, the role of the Attorney General in election petitions and the implementation of the Supreme Court’s recommendations.

The Supreme Court had in an unprecedented move given government two years to implement its recommendations.
Some of the court’s recommendations would require making amendments to the Constitution. Given that the promise to have representatives in Parliament would require having the Constitution amended, it was believed that it would be part of an omnibus bill that would be tabled along with several others and presented to Parliament by the Attorney General in order to beat the time that the court had set, but that did not happen.
Whereas the Constitution was amended thanks to the passing of Constitutional Amendment Bill 2017, which removed the upper and lower age limits for the president, and made a provision for the Electoral Commission to organise general elections in the first 30 days of the last 120 days before the expiry of the term of office of the President, Parliament or local government and extended the terms of office for the President, Members of Parliament and Local Councils from five to seven years, a decision which was quashed by the Constitutional Court, it did not deal with the issue of the elderly being represented in Parliament.
The Deputy Attorney General, Mr Mwesigwa Rukutana, was recently quoted by this newspaper explaining what the government has so far done.

“We have made a report to the Supreme Court. Some of the recommendations were made in Constitutional Amendment Number 1, which we passed. Other recommendations which have wider implications, we left them for the Constitutional Review Commission, which we are setting up,” he said.
Well, that means that more than two years since the promise was made there has been no visible effort to make the promise become a reality.

Impact
The agitation by elderly that government puts in place the legal framework for their representation in Parliament as a special interest group in the same way that Persons with Disability (PWDs), workers, women, youth and the army has continued.

On November 14, 2018 a delegation of 17 members of the National Council for Older Persons (NCOP) met the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Ms Janat Mukwaya, and handed her a fresh petition calling on the ministry to take lead in ensuring that electoral reforms are carried out to enable them have representation in Parliament during the next general elections.
The chairperson of NCOP, Mr Joram Tibasiimwa, argued that the elderly are the only constitutionally recognised special interest group which has no representation in Parliament, a situation which he described as ”very unfair”.

One of the issues that has been coming up is lack of funds for the operationalisation of the Councils for the older persons as provided for under the National Council for Older Persons Act 2013.
Many of the chairpersons and other officials who were elected under this act have never been inducted. As of October 2016, the council required Shs300m to carry out the induction, a figure which could have risen on account of inflationary pressures.
This is a situation that could be attributed to lack of direct representation in Parliament to legislate and draw attention to the issue of finances for the Councils and indeed any other issues concerning the elders.

However, the biggest impact that the failure by government to work towards ensuring that elders have representation in Parliament has been to make the older persons feel locked out or excluded, yet as the chairperson of National Network for Older Persons in Uganda (NNOPU), Mr John Orach, pointed out, a majority of them “go through a lot of difficulty, physical abuses, psychological, financial, relatives neglect and other forms of injustices”, which require consideration on the part of government.

The feeling of exclusion seems to have compelled the older persons to adopt unusual tactics of arm-twisting the government.
Last month when their delegation met Minister Mukwaya, Mr Tibasiima, issued an ultimatum to the government to either ensure that they have representation in Parliament or scrap representation by other special interest groups.

Official position

The commissioner in-Charge of the Elderly persons’ desk at the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Mr Sam Masaba Wekesa, said the ministry’s hands are tied in as far as putting into motion a process that will see the elderly persons get represented in Parliament.
“They wrote to us some time back and we in turn wrote to the Attorney General who advised that the only way around it would be to wait for a constitutional amendment. Now that we hear that a Constitutional Review Commission is being formed, the elder persons should be ready to present their views there,” Mr Wekesa said.

On May 23 and August 7 last year, the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Maj Gen Kahinda Otafiire, wrote to President Museveni recommending a 14-man team headed by former Attorney General, Prof Khiddu Makubuya, with the former Speaker of Parliament, Mr Francis Butagira as second in command, to head the constitutional review process.
The others are Nusura Tiperu Omar, Rev Amos Turyahabwe, Paul Wanyoto, Dr Diana Musoke, Dan Wandera Ogalo, Richard Angualia, Charles Elem Ogwal, Lillian Aber, Kamdi Byonabye, Ms Sarah Nyirabashitsi Mateke, Martha Katuntu and one Kabogoza Musoke. The President is however yet to respond to his minister’s proposal.

Monitor’s Position

We do sympathise with the demand by older persons to have representatives in Parliament. It is certainly unfair that they are the only constitutionally recognised special interest group that has no representation in Parliament. However, as a country we should not lose sight of the fact that we are buckling under a very big public expenditure bill. With more than 420 Members of Parliament, 127 district chairpersons, over 200 Resident District Commissioners (RDCs) and Deputy RDCs, more than 14 mayors of municipalities, a Cabinet of more than 80 Ministers and ministers of State, all for a population of about 40 million, we cannot be handling the national purse in un frugal manner.

One of the arguments that has been raised to back up the government’s plan to rationalise state agencies and authorities has been the issue of duplication and the need to free up resources for allocation to other priority areas. The same argument comes to the fore here. If a district such as Jinja District already has 4 directly elected Members of Parliament, who also attend to issues of women, the youth, Workers, PWDs and Soldiers, of what use is an MP for the women of the district or an MP for the youth of the region where Jinja falls?
Right now, the argument should be about downsizing. We should be talking of reducing the size of parliament.
That should entail scrapping of representation for special interest groups and redrawing merging districts and constituencies. We need to free up some resources to ensure that the people get better medical and education facilities in the villages.