The Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Mathias Mpuuga has urged Ugandans to support the Opposition as they move to advocate for the formulation of a new national constitution that favors all citizens equally.
Speaking during the Christmas service on Sunday at Kitovu Cathedral in Masaka, the Nyendo Mukungwe lawmaker, said the current Constitution needs an overhaul because it’s not representing the needs and aspirations of the citizenry apart from a few.
Mpuuga revealed that their priority as the opposition for the year 2023 is to move around the country to seek the views of the people as far as the formulation of the new constitution is concerned.
“We are going to move around the country informing citizens that our current constitution is no longer valid. A constitution is an agreement between the people who have agreed to be led and the leader. The foundations on which it was made in 1995 no longer exist since a lot has changed for the benefit of a small group of individuals at the cost of the majority of Ugandans,” he said.
“This is the time Ugandans embrace the formulation of the new constitution. Those in government don’t see the need for this move because they are benefiting from it yet in an actual sense the current constitution is now old and has a lot of loopholes that leave out citizens of Uganda. This is the right time to form a new constitution therefore I call upon all Ugandans to come and listen to us and give us your views.”
The move to change the current constitution started in September 2022 by Mpuuga during the launch of the multiparty youth forum, a platform that brings together youth leaders from different political parties and civil society groups to build a generational consensus for progress.
Mpuuga alluded that a constitution is an outcome of the people’s consensus. At least there was some basic consultation that led to the promulgation of the 1995 Constitution. Is it still the same document? Is it a culmination of the people’s consensus? Why are we running away from that conversation?
Meanwhile, Uganda has had four constitutions since independence and three of them never satisfactorily answered the needs and aspirations of the people. Because of the manner in which the constitutions were made and unmade, the suitability of the institutions and processes that were established, and the extent to which they were viable and acceptable have long been a subject of debate and controversy.
The major problem was that Ugandans failed to agree on the most appropriate socioeconomic and political framework for their governance. As a result, the country experienced a crisis of political and constitutional instability that lasted thirty years. To address the above problem the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government initiated the constitution-making process in 1988 in order to provide an adequate opportunity for freely determining the system of governance.
On 8 October 1995, the process was successfully concluded and the people of Uganda promulgated their fourth constitution after a lengthy and wide consultation. However, after 27 years, the current constitution according to analysts and politicians needs to be overhauled because most of its foundations and fundamentals have shifted.
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