With fears of Uganda retrogressing towards a life presidency, political activists and some members of parliament have kicked off a campaign they hope will lead to an amendment of the Constitution to restore presidential term limits.

Just last week, as Kenya was swearing in Uhuru Kenyatta, its fourth president since Independence, the Kampala-based Centre for Constitutional Governance (CCG) handed a motion, with, attached to it, a private member’s Bill, to Speaker of parliament Rebecca Kadaga.

The Bill seeks to overturn the September 2005 decision of the Seventh Parliament that amended Article 105 of the Constitution to hand Museveni a third term in State House.

“This is a one-page Bill just to amend and return Article 105 to the 1995 constitutional order; hence any person elected twice under that arrangement is ineligible to contest again. Obviously that’s going to be big debate, but we are ready,” said Western Youth MP Gerald Karuhanga, the mover of the motion.

Now on the Speaker’s “in” tray, the motion is expected to enter the order paper soon, after which it gets a first reading before being referred to the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee. The second and third hearing, along with the vote on the Bill, will determine its fate.

Seconded by five other legislators across the political divide, the Bill could have far reaching governance, political and economic implications. For starters, restoring term limits would lead to the first peaceful transition since Independence, putting Uganda at par with its key EAC partners, especially Tanzania and Kenya, whose leaders have served two five-year terms since going multiparty.

According to Sarah Bireete, director of programmes at CCG, Uganda’s leadership of the region raises deeper questions about governance as the country is the only misfit in the EAC bloc, which is working towards a political federation.

“We are the only EAC country without presidential term limits. How are we supposed to federate if our system is out of sync with our neighbours? The report of the African Peer Review Mechanism also notes that Uganda has governance gaps because of lack of term limits,” she said.

Call for reforms

Activists also want Uganda’s Electoral Commission reconstituted as per the demands of political parties and key donors. One donor that has called for electoral reforms is the European Union, which weighed in after the 2011 elections, demanding that the government and the opposition bring forward the reforms ahead of the 2016 elections.

Yet again, this is a test of the Ninth Parliament’s mettle. Although dominated by ruling National Resistance Movement MPs, this parliament, in its initial months, flattered the population to believe that it is a legislature —led by single-minded Speaker Kadaga — that will give the executive a tough time.

Ms Kadaga recalled parliament in October 2011 for a two-day special session to debate corruption and secretive deals in the oil sector, which left a piqued, rattled and divided front bench.

But Museveni has since found his way around the House, often calling it to order by caucusing and holding NRM retreats to whip his party members into line.

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One of such caucus led to the controversial passing of Clause 9 of the Petroleum (Exploration, Development and Production) Bill 2012 that gave the minister powers to grant and revoke licences as well as to initiate, develop and implement oil and gas policy, which parliament and civil society had opposed at the outset as it meant handing the executive — in effect, the president — powers to do deals with oil firms.

Test for the House

“This motion is certainly going somewhere; it’s now got to the Speaker’s desk, and that’s a good step. But what’s happening here really is that this parliament is in the dock.

It has to prove that it is the people’s representative, because term limits are the demand of the people of Uganda. Failure to deliver on this will show where this country is going,” said Bishop Zac Niringiye, who is board chair of CCG and former chairman of Uganda’s APRM Governing Council.

“Everyone acknowledges, except perhaps Museveni, although I think privately he also does, that we lost it when term limits were removed in 2005. Parliament’s failure to do the right thing would be another a sad day for Uganda,” said Bishop Niringiye.

An informal poll of the House that by last week had sampled 150 MPs revealed that 110 of them overwhelmingly supported restoration of term limits. But this number is just over one-third of the Ninth Parliament.

The sponsors are encouraged that the five legislators who seconded the Karuhanga motion are Abdi Fadhil Kisos Chemaswet (NRM), Sam Otada (Independent), Alice Alaso (Forum for Democratic Change), Hussein Kyanjo (JEEMA) and national female youth MP Monica Amoding (NRM).

“Whatever reasons were provided for the removal of presidential term limits, seven years down the road, it is difficult to justify them any more,” the CCG argues, noting that Museveni shows no sign of stepping down, and besides, the guns in northern Uganda have gone quiet since 2006.

Various surveys have also pointed to the need for term limits.