Renowned legal scholar and politician Professor George Kanyeihamba has today said that Ugandans should recognise Dr. Milton Obote’s contribution towards Uganda’s attainment of Independence on October 9, 1962.
Kanyeihamba, a Constitutional Law scholar and one of the key figures that participated in drafting the 1995 Constitution, said Obote’s photo should have graced the front pages of today’s national newspapers as a symbol of remembering the country’s political journey over the last 55 years.
“The child (Uganda) started very healthy with vibrant energy but over the years, it has been starved with no future,” Kanyeihamba, a former Supreme Court Judge, said, adding: “Uganda is living a contradiction of Independence and even recently, it is living a contradiction of National Resistance Movement (NRM).”
“Independence Day celebrations should be aimed at what we remember and what we hope for our children,” Kanyeihamba, who is also an outspoken critic of human rights abuses, said while appearing on a local TV talkshow.
Kanyeihamba, a Museveni supporter-turned-critic, said the President has performed poorly in the respect for human rights.
And, reflecting on the recent ugly scenes in Parliament, where several opposition MPs were roughed up, Kanyeihamba said: “Obote never allowed people to fight and damage Parliament. Some of us have done badly.”
Among the MPs who faced the wrath of security personnel were Betty Nambooze Bakireke (Mukono Municipality); Angelina Osegge (Soroti Woman) and Francis Zaake Butebi (Mityana Municipality).
“Economically President Museveni might have done well, politically, human rights he has done worse than all past presidents,” Kanyeihamba said.
Meanwhile, Kanyeihamba, 78, one of the Ugandan elites who advocate for the retention of the 75-year age limit clause in the Constitution, has said it is time President Museveni retired.
“President Museveni has reached his political ceiling both mentally and physically,” he said, before imploring Ugandans to recognize the President’s contribution to Uganda.
