Think Thrice Before You Amend the Constitution

Richard Kagolobya

17 May 2011

opinion

To a lay person, the current Ugandan Constitution is not the cause of the current protests to warrant its amendment. However, our political visionaries believe otherwise, looking at the proposal to scrap the constitutional right to bail and protest. (NRM moves to scrap constitutional bail), Sunday Monitor, May 15, where it was noted: ‘The new NRM MPs for the Ninth Parliament have been tasked to ensure the Constitution is amended to deny bail to any rioters and those described as economic saboteurs. President Museveni… said he wanted the amendment to be considered seriously before any other business of the House’.

Given NRM’s past controversial constitutional amendments like the 2005 parliamentary amendment that scrapped presidential term limits and the recent Traditional Leaders Bill, this political behaviour from government seems to paint a dim picture about constitutionalism in Uganda.

For example, if the past ‘roguish’ regimes used unwritten decrees to rule Ugandans, it seems the NRM government is riding on the sycophantic parliamentary majority to controversially amend the Constitution at its own political whims in order to engrave itself on the Ugandan political landscape without reproach. We may as well brace ourselves for the Religious Leaders Bill!

The Constitution is soon losing its national image and turning into a mere NRM party governance instrument which is tantamount to crafty abrogation. However, it’s upon the 9th Parliament to prove commentators otherwise by behaving in a manner that befits independent-minded and patriotic MPs for the good of all Ugandans.

Turning to the flimsy ‘economic saboteurs’ clause in the proposed Bill, it seems in the near future, Ugandan workers protesting for their rights- proper working conditions and a genuine rise in pay to match the rising cost of living, will be shocked by being branded economic terrorists and saboteurs!

That will give way to their employers to legally exploit them. One also wonders about the fate of Bunyoro Kingdom which is nursing civil demands for its economic share from oil.

As the 9th Parliament ponders the amendment, it should think about the following: some of the people who are seemingly targeted by the proposed Bill, like Dr Kizza Besigye, were former NRM cadres who fell out with the regime purportedly on matters of political principles. Therefore, will the MPs be safe from the anti-bail and protest legislation in the near or far future if they help pass it?

Will the constitutional amendment be more effective in quelling the protests than pragmatically dealing with the pressing problems behind the demonstrations?

Going by the numbers that have lately been involved in the protests, if I were an MP, I would first authorise the government to get a loan from the African Development Bank to improve on the carrying capacity of the Ugandan prison facilities before the forthcoming anti- riots and bail Bill is drafted.

Otherwise, I would advise our honourable MPs to think thrice and look before they leap into the current Constitution amendment frenzy .

Mr Kagolobya is a lecturer at Makerere University

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