A constitutional court judge in Uganda has justified the act by the country’s army to storm parliament during debate on the controversial age limit bill last year.
Justice Barishaki made these remarks while delivering his ruling on the Age Limit petition at the Mbale High Court.
“I do not agree with the petitioners that the involvement of the army in parliament was unjustified. There were life-threatening incidents in Parliament and therefore it was justified for the army to be called in to support the police,” he ruled.
He added, “The speaker can’t be faulted for the the forceful eviction of MPs. There’s evidence that an MP had entered with a gun & MPs had become unruly & there was threat to life – constituting an emergency situation so the army’s intervention is justified.”
Barishaki however concurred that excessive force was applied added.
“I find that excessive force was used in the situation at Parliament,” he said.
During the debate in September, members of the elite Special Forces Command dressed in plain cloth stormed parliament and forcefully dragged lawmakers opposed to the bill out of the house.
