The Uganda government chief whip Ruth Nankabirwa has scoffed at National Resistance Movement (NRM) members allegedly soliciting for money from the party so they can push through for a constitutional amendment to lift the presidential age limit.
A number of legislators are reported to be making financial demands in order to market the ‘project’ to make President Yoweri Museveni eligible to contest for the presidency when his current term ends. The Ugandan constitution limits the age of the president to 75.
President Museveni last year received a petition that seeks the removal of the presidential age limit.
It emanates from a bill tabled by Nakifuma MP Robert Kafeero Ssekitooleko.
The bill, among other things, seeks to remove limits on the tenure of commissioners of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and extend the retirement age for judges. Nakifuma MP Kafeero Ssekitooleko had initially been expected to table his bill, The Constitutional (Amendment) Bill 2016, on August 10, only to withdraw it at the last minute.
Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, is serving what was seen as likely to be his last five-year term after winning the elections in February last year. His current term will expire in 2021.
