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Uganda police break up protest against removal of age limits

Tuesday September 13 2016

Uganda police Tuesday arrested at least two dozen women activists after breaking up a protest against a move to remove the age limit for judges.

The activists said they suspected that the private member Bill tabled in Parliament by Nakifuma County MP Robert Kafeero Sekitoleko is a ruse to pave way for the amendment of Article 102 (b) of the Constitution to remove presidential age cap from the current 75 years.

“We as the women’s movement in Uganda, we are committed to working for a people-centred government and we disagree with the intent and the spirit of the motion. Therefore, we felt that today we needed to come out as well and elicit public support” said Ms Eunice Musiime, the executive director Akina Mama Wa Africa.

The protesters had planned to walk from the Constitution Square to the Chogm gardens near Parliament before handing over a memorandum to Parliament only to find that the police had cordoned off the entire route.

They ended up being holed in the National Theatre compound near Parliament from where police dispersed them and arrested some.

Among those arrested was former Uganda’s ambassador to Washington Edith Ssempala and Sheila Muwanga, the deputy executive director at the Foundation for Human Rights initiative (FHRI), among others. The women were later released without charge after brief detention at Kiira Police station outside Kampala.

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The women activists accused the police of using the excuse of unauthorised assembly to break the meeting.

“We were being tossed between Parliament, the Police and KCCA, each sending us to the other when we tried to get permission to demonstrate and then finally the police turned around to claim we were not authorised,” Ms Jackie Asiimwe Mwesige said.

On August 25, 2016 Mr Kafeero Sekitoleko tabled a motion before Parliament seeking to amend the Constitution to remove the retirement age of judges from the current 70 years.

The motion has however elicited a lot of suspicion from the public who see it as a move to that would enable President Yoweri Museveni, 72, be eligible for another term in office.

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