When Museveni promised to go back to the bush if anyone tampered with constitution

The legal and parliamentary affairs committee is today expected to table the age limit report to parliament for discussion.

If  this happens, it will be the start of an advanced stage to have the presidential age limit removed.

Meanwhile, President Museveni, the man expected to benefit most from this Bill is currently chairing a caucus meeting with Members of Parliament from the ruling NRM.

While, we are not yet aware what will come out of this meeting, it is very clear they are charting a way forward on how to tackle the Bill when it lands in the chambers, most importantly making sure they have their votes counted before casting.

It is no longer news, President Museveni wants the Bill passed into law, so does his army of yes men in parliament.

But President Museveni was the same person who in 1995 said, he would return to the bush to smoke out whoever tampers with the constitution.

“I am ready to go back to the bush if anyone tampers with the constitution. This constitution is the best in the whole world,” Museveni said while receiving the 1995 constitution from the Constituent Assembly (CA).

Indeed, while addressing students of Cavendish University in Kamwokya in May, former Supreme Court Judge, George Kanyeihamba accused Museveni of being arrogant and forgetful.

“Museveni is forgetful. He should not have tampered with the constitution, an instrument he received himself and appreciated during the CA,” Kanyeihamba said.

“While receiving the 1995 constitution, President Museveni, who was guest of honor, said, he will go back to the bush for the second time if any organisation, any person or group tampered with the constitution. I am shocked the same Museveni forgets his statements of protecting the legal instrument and he himself tampers with the same (constitution) he vowed to fight for,” he added.

Museveni’s praise for the constitution and the CA has even creeped into his own presidential manifesto. In the 2016-2021 Manifesto, Museveni brags about how he turned down the opportunity to address the CA for the purpose of avoiding influence peddling.  He chose to address the legal affairs committee of parliament in 2017 on the other hand.

“Although the law entitled him, as President, to address the Constituent Assembly on any issue he wished, he deliberately refused to influence the proceedings. As a result, no individual or political faction can dub the new Constitution a ‘Museveni’ document. This was a great contribution to the constitution-making process,” the manifesto says.

The question today is? Does Museveni still want to keep away from making this his document?

When the Constituent Assembly was opened on May 18th, 1994, President Museveni challenged the delegates: “We must ensure that our political institutions spring from our social structure. If we are to develop, we must evolve institutional models which will liberate us from our backwardness. We must modernise our societies and lay the foundation for industrialisation. We cannot modernise, industrialise or develop without creating an appropriate institutional framework within which to work. It is the historic responsibility of this Constituent Assembly to set our country on the path to development and prosperity.”

Museveni says in his manifesto: “The NRM has been like a political doctor trying to solve the problems of Uganda. In order to treat a disease, however, you must, first of all, diagnose the illness.”

“Ugandans agree that the new Constitution went a long way towards healing the political and social ills, which Uganda had suffered since independence. It also laid a firm foundation for the stability of the country for generations to come,” he adds.

Does Museveni still want to go back to the bush to guard the same constitution he so much appreciated? There is a lot to see today and all will be on Nile Post.