The United States Ambassador to Uganda, Deborah Malac, has said that strong institutions, not one person or party, is the secret to longevity and stability of nations.
Malac was speaking on Wednesday night at the celebrations of America’s 241 Independence anniversary at the US Embassy in Kampala. She noted that a true democracy requires the collection of all voices, backgrounds and beliefs and a system in which every individual can and does have a say in how Government is run.
She says although this system is noisy, contentious and messy, it is a system that works.
Ambassador Malac attributed the success of the US to great institutions, laws and structures that have ensured that Americans stay true to their ideals which are guard-rails of democracy. She says the founding fathers of the US put in place a system to safeguard the rights of the citizens against the difficulties to come.
“As a result, we have a constitution that has stood the test of time and has been only lightly amended during the past 241 years,” she said.
According to Malac, the constitution installs checks on the power of every arm of Government and with this no arm of Government could gain total control over the other. She says at the same time the US is a country of laws and everyone is accountable for their actions, adding the Government is bound by the dictates of law and not men.
She says no Government is perfect, noting that although their institutions may occasionally bend, they do not break.
Malac also said Ugandans need the same opportunity to determine their future, to have a full say in how they develop and how they are governed.
DONE DEAL?
After months of speculation, the omnibus Constitution (Amendment) Bill, which contains a clause to remove the presidential age limit, has been lined up to be officially gazetted.
Many have seen a copy of The Uganda Gazette dated June 8, 2017 where the Constitution (Amendment) Bill is listed as one of the bills that are due to be published.
Sources told local newspaper Observer the bill shall be published in the gazette in a few weeks’ time. Interviewed for a confirmation on Friday, June 30, Maj Gen Kahinda Otafiire, the minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, said the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2017 awaits to be published in The Uganda Gazette before it can come to parliament for debate.
The Uganda Gazette, according to the ministry of Justice’s website, is the “official newspaper of government.”
Otafiire said: “Once the bill has been gazetted, a Constitutional Review Commission shall be appointed and it will gather views from the people.”
Otafiire added that all articles of the Constitution, including 102 that touches on the qualifications for one to be a president,will be up for possible amendment.
“What is so special about Article 102? Is it a commandment from God? If the public wants the age-limit amended, it will be amended. If they don’t want, we shall leave it,” Otafiire said.
Specifically, Article 102 (b) states that a person is not qualified for election as president of Uganda if he or she is “less than thirty-five years and or more than seventy-five years of age.”
The fiery minister continued: “The Constitution is not my property. I am just a custodian. If people want some articles to be amended, it is their right.”
Otafiire’s remarks confirm earlier speculation that government plans to have the presidential age cap abolished despite public denial by senior government officials.
In a 2012 interview that is now commonly shared on social media, President Museveni told NTV: “I don’t think someone can be an effective leader after 75 years.”
However, since his re-election last year, the president has been more circumspect, simply telling journalists that he will follow the Constitution.
Museveni, who turns 73 later this year, will be 76 by 2021 and thus ineligible to stand for president under the constitution as it is today. Political analysts predict that just as he did in the run-up to the lifting of presidential term limits in 2005, President Museveni will distance himself from the move to remove the age-limit, leaving it to his outspoken supporters in and out of the NRM-dominated parliament.
Some politicians, seeking to catch his attention, have already stoked the potentially fiery debate. In August 2016, the Kyankwanzi district leadership drafted a resolution in support of an amendment to lift the age-limit.
@Sourced.
