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The Politics of Constitution Making in Uganda © Copyright by the Endowment of the United States Institute of Peace

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The Politics of Constitution Making in Uganda © Copyright by the Endowment of the United States Institute of Peace 6 The Politics of Constitution Making in Uganda Aili Mari Tripp ince 1990, thirty-eight African consti- once was a broad-based government to a tutions have been rewritten, and eight much smaller circle of individuals. As Ann involved major revisions. Uganda re- Mugisha, a member of the opposition, wrote Swrote its constitution in 1995. Many of the in a 2004 Journal of Democracy article, “The constitutional changes witnessed throughout real transition taking place there is from a Africa have to do with individual rights and relatively enlightened and benevolent au- liberties, the rights of traditional authori- thoritarian regime . to a textbook case of © Copyrightties, the protection of customary by rights, the is- Endowmententrenched one-man rule.”1 A decade of after sues of land rights, and the rights of women. its passage, 119 amendments to the 1995 These issues were central to the constitution- constitution had been made, some of them themaking United process in Uganda; States however, the un- Institutekey changes to the ofearlier Peaceconstitution. It democratic outcomes in that country dem- was widely acknowledged that 70 percent of onstrate the ways in which these processes parliamentarians were openly bribed to give have often been politicized to serve the in- President Yoweri Museveni the two-thirds terests of those in power. vote needed to alter the constitution to allow Since the 1995 constitution was adopted, him a third term.2 Uganda has slid backward precipitously in How did such undemocratic outcomes respecting civil and political liberties. The emerge from a constitution-making process government increasingly has restricted the that was touted as unprecedented in its par- freedom of association, harassed and intimi- ticipatory character? To understand the prob- dated opposition members and media work- lems with Uganda’s constitution, one needs ers, attempted to ram through undemocratic to examine the broader context within which legislation in Parliament without a quorum, it was drafted, debated, and voted on. It is and narrowed political control from what especially important to look at the relation- 158 Framing the State in Times of Transition 159 ship between the process and the outcomes to the creation of autocratic and unstable because the constituent assembly elections regimes, highly polarized polities, and de- in 1994 marked the end of the broad-based cades of civil strife. In other words, Uganda’s coalition that had characterized the ruling substantive problems with its constitutions National Resistance Movement (NRM) have been related to the procedural frailties and the beginning of the NRM acting as a of constitution making. de facto single party under an increasingly Uganda’s first constitution—the 1962 in- authoritarian regime. President Museveni, dependence constitution—was established in who came to power in 1986, had envisioned the context of a newly formed alliance be- that the NRM—or the Movement, as it is tween Milton Obote’s Protestant-led Uganda referred to—would encompass all political People’s Congress (UPC) and the Baganda interests and parties in Uganda, suppress- Kabaka Yekka party (KY, or King Alone). ing sectarian tendencies in the country and The Baganda are the largest ethnic group in garnering legitimacy for himself. By the mid- Uganda, constituting 18 percent of the popu- 1990s, however, rather than ushering in a pe- lation, and Buganda, their area of origin, has riod of greater inclusiveness in the political always been regarded as the largest, wealthi- process as was purported, the constitution- est, and best educated of the country’s king- making process signaled the shrinking of doms. The two parties had come together in political space, as Museveni eliminated the an unlikely and ultimately untenable coali- non-NRM multipartyists from his cabinet tion to challenge the Catholic-led Demo- and other key positions. Later, in the early cratic Party (DP). The DP’s leader, Benedicto 2000s, the circle was to close even further, Kiwanuka, had become chief minister of as Museveni purged some of his staunchest Uganda in 1961. KY was focused on the fate NRM supporters from the cabinet, military, of Buganda and the kingship, rather than the and security agencies when they opposed his entire nation, and its members believed that bid for a third term. Meanwhile, Museveni the DP, though led by a Muganda, was not has strengthened his reliance on Uganda’s interested in the kingship. KY-UPC mem- military. bers outnumbered the DP in the new 1962 parliament, ensuring that Obote could form © Copyright by the Endowmenta government to oversee the transition of to in- Continuities from Past Constitution-Making dependence that same year. theEfforts United States InstituteThe first constitution, of negotiatedPeace in Lon- Many of the problems encountered in mak- don among various parties and interests, ing the 1995 constitution have their origins provided for a Westminster form of govern- in earlier constitution-making efforts and ment. Executive powers were vested in the events. Oliver Furley and James Katalikawe prime minister, who, with his cabinet, was have argued that the prevalent view of draft- head of government. The British Queen re- ing constitutions in Uganda has been that if mained head of state and appointed a gov- one could come up with an adequate consti- ernor until 1963, when the constitution was tution, it would provide a basis for good and to be amended to install a president. Under democratic governance.3 But political, his- this constitution, Uganda instituted a uni- torical, and social conditions have conspired tary system, with Buganda enjoying autono- to create undemocratic and exclusionary pro- mous status—referred to as federal status in cesses for Uganda’s experience with constitu- Uganda—with greater rights and privileges tion making, which in turn has contributed than other districts in Uganda. The country’s 160 Aili Mari Tripp other three kingdoms, Ankole, Bunyoro, and The developments regarding the Lost Toro, enjoyed only quasi-autonomous status. Counties led to the constitutional crisis of Buganda’s Lukiiko (parliament) served as an 1966, in which Obote assumed full executive electoral college for its representatives to the powers and suspended the 1962 constitution, Ugandan national assembly. in direct violation of that document. The king Buganda’s special status became a source sought Buganda’s secession, demanding that of tension after independence, especially af- the central government remove itself from ter Buganda’s kabaka (king), Edward Mutesa, Bugandan soil and appealing to the United became the president of Uganda in 1963, Nations for support. Obote’s forces marched while the UPC head, Milton Obote, served on the Buganda stronghold in Mengo and as prime minister. The kabaka’s dual loyalties brutally suppressed the royalists, killing at least to Buganda and Uganda led to a constitu- two thousand civilians. Mutesa fled to exile tional crisis in 1966.4 in Britain and Obote seized the presidency. The matter came to a head when Uganda On April 15, 1966, parliamentarians found was to decide on the so-called Lost Counties a new draft constitution in their pigeonholes in a 1965 referendum. The issue of the Lost (mail compartments), and Obote, who came Counties arose from the animosity between to Parliament surrounded by troops, forced the Bunyoro and Baganda, who had been the members of Parliament to adopt what enemies throughout much of the nineteenth came to be known as the pigeonhole consti- century. The British had used Buganda to tution. He also ordered the national assembly conquer Bunyoro and rewarded Buganda by to become a constituent assembly; it debated giving it six counties of Bunyoro territory the constitution for three months before its that had particular cultural and historical sig- adoption in September 1967 in a controlled nificance to Bunyoro. The British preferential process. Obote then imposed the adoption treatment of Buganda created tension among of the new constitution and declared himself Ugandan citizens living outside of Buganda5; president without elections. in the referendum, which allowed the resi- The new constitution established a unitary dents of the Lost Counties to choose between and highly centralized state. It abolished the remaining part of Buganda or returning to position of the prime minister, placing all ©Bunyoro, Copyright the counties voted to byjoin Bun the- executive Endowment powers in the hands of the presiof- yoro, leading to a split between the Baganda dent. Moreover, the executive powers were leadership and Obote. The ill-fated anti-DP expanded at the expense of the judiciary and alliancethe between United Buganda’s (KY) States party and legislature. Institute The constitution of also abolishedPeace all Milton Obote’s UPC was already frayed, kingdoms in Uganda, and Buganda’s special but after the referendum, it crumbled. KY status was eliminated. Buganda was divided fell apart, and many of its members joined into four districts, wiping its name from the UPC to support the Buganda faction of the political map, and its parliament building (the UPC that had opposed Obote, who was a Bulange) was transformed into the headquar- Langi from northern Uganda. Mutesa, Bu- ters of Uganda’s Ministry of Defense. The ka- ganda’s king, sought military assistance from baka’s palace at Bamunanika outside Kampala the British, but before he and the Buganda became an army barracks. This enraged the faction of UPC could make a move, Obote Baganda; even though many were not enam- arrested five ministers and charged their fac- ored with the king himself, they were loyal to tion with plans to have Buganda secede from the idea of the kingship and the traditions it the rest of Uganda. represented. The new constitution paved the Framing the State in Times of Transition 161 way for further consolidation of the UPC as With 287 articles and seven schedules, the single ruling party, now that the Buganda the 1995 Ugandan constitution is one of the monarchy and the DP were out of the way.
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