Echoes of 1966 as guns return to parliament over Constitution
Security forces patrol a Kampala street as university students protest against plans to scrap the presidential age limit from the Constitution. PHOTO | AFP
The Uganda government’s decision to surround Parliament with security forces ahead of debate over a planned motion to propose amendments to the Constitution to remove presidential age limits not only recalls unpleasant episodes from the country’s troubled history that the 1995 Constitution sought to cure for good, but could also reinforce the view that guns, not the law, rule Uganda.
Efforts by Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda to explain to the House that the heavy deployment on Thursday, September 21, which Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah had described as being “beyond what is necessary” and was an essential preventative measure, failed to wash with infuriated the opposition and some ruling party MPs.
