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Uganda CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Uganda has adopted three constitutions since
independence.
The first was promulgated in 1962 and attempted a
quasi-federal
arrangement, granting various degrees of autonomy to
different
local governments established during the protectorate. Of
the
four kingdoms it recognized, only Buganda received
significant
federal powers allowing it to raise its own tax revenues,
pass
laws on specified subjects, enjoy entrenched protection
for land
tenure and its local courts, and even control through its
local
legislature the election of the kingdom's representatives
to the
national parliament. The other three kingdoms--Ankole,
Toro, and
Bunyoro--and the district of Busoga became "federal
states" with
fewer powers. The remaining districts, with the exception
of
Karamoja, retained sufficient autonomy to elect their own
councils and pass laws on specified topics but were
otherwise
governed directly by the national authorities. Because it
was the
least developed part of the country, Karamoja became a
"special
district" under central government control.
Nonfederal districts were permitted to elect
constitutional
heads, who occupied a position equivalent to that of the
kings in
Buganda, Bunyoro, Toro, and Ankole. The central government
held
no power to alter the constitutions or form of government
in
Buganda or the federal states. This complex distribution
of
powers increased local competition among districts and
thus
strengthened the bases of power of local leaders. After
four
years of independence, a struggle for power among local
leaders
seriously weakened the position of then Prime Minister
Milton
Obote
(see Independence: The Early Years
, ch. 1). He
responded by
suspending the 1962 constitution in April 1966.
At the same time and with a show of military force,
Obote
ordered members of parliament (MPs) to pass the 1966
constitution
without debate. Though understood to be merely an interim
constitution, it made sweeping changes that removed all
federal
provisions in favor of a centralized government. Buganda,
the
three federal states, and the non-federal districts lost
their
autonomy; Buganda lost its right to elect its MPs
indirectly; and
the king of Buganda (the kabaka) lost his
privileged
status. At the national level, the prime minister became
an
executive president, in place of the preceding ceremonial
president. These arrangements strengthened Obote's
precarious
hold on government while appearing to respect the rule of
law.
Obote became president in place of the king of Buganda,
who had
been elected to the position under the 1962 constitution.
A year later, a draft version of the 1967 constitution
was
introduced in parliament and debated at length. When it
was
passed three months later, it completed the process of
centralization begun the previous year. The 1967
constitution
confirmed the president's position as the chief executive.
It
also continued to sanction multiparty political
competition. Each
political party had the right to nominate a candidate for
president from among its candidates for parliament. Each
parliamentary candidate had to declare which candidate for
president he or she supported. The elected members of
parliament
then elected the president. The constitution defined
parliament
to include members of the National Assembly and the
president and
made it impossible for MPs to pass a law without the
concurrence
of the president. The president could also dismiss the
National
Assembly and legislate by decree in its absence. The 1967
constitution also took the fateful step of abolishing the
kings,
the kingdoms, and the constitutional heads of the
districts. In
the case of Buganda, Obote went even further by dividing
it into
four districts, thus removing official recognition of its
cultural unity. Parliament received the authority to
change the
form of district councils and to allow council members to
be
appointed rather than elected. The 1967 constitution also
empowered the government to employ preventive detention
during
states of emergency, or as the government deemed
necessary.
The 1967 constitution provided for citizenship on the
basis
of birth in Uganda to a parent (or grandparent) who was a
citizen
or birth outside Uganda to a father who was a citizen. It
also
recognized citizenship acquired prior to this
constitution, and
it gave the right to register for citizenship to women
married to
Ugandan citizens. According to the 1967 constitution,
Ugandan
nationals holding dual citizenship who failed to renounce
their
other citizenship would lose their Ugandan citizenship.
The most
important purpose of these provisions was to deprive
Indians
whose applications for Ugandan citizenship had not been
approved
by 1967, and those who had dual citizenship, of any claim
to be
Ugandan nationals, and thus it allowed the government to
treat
them as non-nationals. Citizenship was also the basic
criterion
for the right to vote, although a voter also had to be
twenty-one
and a resident in Uganda for six months.
Upon coming to power in January 1986, the NRM
government
issued a proclamation accepting the authority of the 1967
constitution but suspending portions that granted
executive and
legislative powers to the president and parliament.
Citizenship,
most fundamental rights, and government procedures
continued on
the basis of the 1967 document. With regard to executive
and
legislative powers, however, the NRM government declared
that the
National Resistance Council (NRC) "shall have supreme
authority
of the Government," including the power to pass laws and
to
choose the national president. Members of the NRC included
the
chair, representatives of the NRM, and representatives of
the
NRA. However, the 1986 proclamation noted that the NRC
would be
increased "from time to time" by adding members from other
"political forces" and districts. In addition, the NRC was
enjoined "to seek the views of the National Resistance
Army
Council (NRAC) "on all matters the National Resistance
Council
considers important." Finally, the proclamation declared
the NRM
regime an "interim government" to "hold office for a
period not
exceeding four years."
For the first time in Uganda's history, the national
army
acquired constitutional standing in the legislative
process by
virtue of the requirement in the 1986 proclamation that
the NRC
had to consult the NRAC on any matter the NRC thought
important.
In 1989 amendments to the original proclamation expanded
this
principle by declaring that both the NRC and the NRAC
"shall
participate in the discussion, adoption, and promulgation
of the
Constitution." These amendments also gave the NRC and NRAC
the
power to "assemble together and jointly elect or remove
the
President from office," or "approve a declaration of a
state of
emergency or insurgency." The effect of the changes in the
1967
constitution created by the 1986 proclamation, and
reinforced by
the 1989 amendments, was to give the NRM--although only
for a
four-year period--a monopoly of constitutional authority,
even
while it brought members of other political forces into
the
government.
In October 1989, the NRC extended the interim period
for five
more years until January 1995 in order to allow time to
draft,
debate, and adopt a permanent constitution, and to
complete the
political, economic, and rehabilitation programs that had
been
interrupted by the civil wars in the north and east. Thus,
by the
end of 1989, the membership of the NRC had been greatly
expanded
beyond the trusted followers of the NRM and NRA. The
government
retained the authority to legislate its own program over
the
objections of any other political forces and extended that
authority for an additional five years.
The NRM government had also declared its intention to
introduce a new constitution democratically. In November
1988,
the NRC passed the Constitutional Commission Act of 1988,
which
established a body to hear public testimony and draft a
new
constitution. The government also set guidelines, or
minimum
requirements, for the commission that included guarantees
of
fundamental individual rights; separation of the three
powers of
government, with checks and balances among them; an
independent
judiciary; a democratic, free, and fair electoral system;
and
popular accountability. These guidelines conformed to
conventional constitutional virtues, though the separation
of
powers and the imposition of checks and balances
represented a
change from the notion of parliamentary supremacy in the
British
Westminster tradition as well as in the original NRM
proclamation
of 1986.
The guidelines for the constitutional commission did
not
suggest the creation of a vanguard organization made up of
NRM
figures who had waged the guerrilla struggle, nor the
continuation of a political role for the army. They were
also
silent on the question of a single or multiparty system.
Many
Ugandans believed the old political parties would be
likely to
regain power in a multiparty system. Consequently, they
suspected
the NRM would need the shelter of a single party, or a ban
on all
parties, to remain the government after elections were
held.
Furthermore, the guidelines did not suggest how members of
the
constitutional commission would eliminate sectarian
politics or
ensure the achievement of the strategy for an independent
self-
sustaining economy proposed in the Ten-Point Program. In
May
1989, the newly appointed head of the commission announced
that
it would be two years before the draft was ready to be
debated by
the Constituent Assembly. The process of hearing public
testimony
began a few months later.
Data as of December 1990
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