Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, leader of Uganda’s opposition party National Unity Platform (NUP), has spoken out against the alleged plan to abolish the two-term presidential limit and set the age limit for running for the seat at 75.
The proposal by Fafi MP Salah Yakub, a UDA Party legislator, seeks to abolish the current two-term limit for presidents, arguing that it denies performing leaders the opportunity to further develop the country.
“I, together with some of my fellow MPs, are planning to push a Bill in Parliament that contests the two terms of serving as president,” Yakub said.
Yakub’s remarks have piqued the interest of Uganda’s opposition leader, who has dismissed them as a ridiculous attempt to amend the constitution.
Bobi Wine claimed that Uganda’s long-serving president, Yoweri Museveni, used similar “schemes” to end up at the helm of Kenya’s western neighbor for 36 years.
“Dear Kenyans, be vigilant. Save your country from Musevenism. This may come off as a lone MP making a ridiculous suggestion, but this is how it starts. Exactly how Museveni began schemes to remove term and age limits. Defend your Constitution before it’s too weak to defend you!” Mr Kyaguanyi tweeted on Tuesday.
The UDA party, led by President William Ruto, has since distanced itself from Yakub’s claims that a bill to extend the presidential term limit was already in the works.
UDA dismissed the claims in a tweet on Tuesday, calling them “a product of the legislator’s fertile imagination.”
“Remarks by Fafi MP Salah Yakub that there are plans to extend term limits for the President are a product of a fertile imagination by the legislator. UDA distances itself from the utterances by the MP. The Party has not been part of discussions in regard to term limits. The Party is busy implementing The Plan and will not be part of sideshows,” UDA stated.
Yakub believes that a president’s term should not be limited to two, three, or even four. “If the president is doing a good job,” he says, “he should extend his term.”
“We do not want to repeat the same mistakes we did during Mwai Kibaki’s time. He left office without accomplishing all his programmes because of the Constitution which allowed him to serve for only two terms,” he said.
