Maintain the age limit for the President

By Elias Bwambale

The Constitution of the Republic of Uganda sets an age limit to the office of the President below the age of 75 years. To alter this provision, the Constitution must be amended-a role that is exclusively reserved for Parliament.

The Parliament of Uganda was established in 1962 soon after the country's independence. Significantly, since its promulgation in 1995, the Constitution of Uganda has been amended three times, with the most phenomenal amendment being that of September, 2005, which ushered in an unprecedented limitless tenure in the office of the President. Given the history of Constitutional amendments in our country, it is highly likely that we shall experience yet another Constitutional amendment, scraping off this age limit.

However, some people argue that age is not among the more critical criteria in an election for President. But how much does a President's age matter, if at all?

Research indicates that Presidents effectively age two years for every one year in office due to the amount of stress they are exposed to. While some people might argue that medically, there is a difference between being old and feeling old, old age is ordinarily accompanied by several health complications. There is no doubt that such complications would interfere with the President's performance.

Given our present situation, scrapping off this age limit implies that the current President, who is said to be 71 years of age, would still be eligible for election after his five year term in 2021.

It is said that if you want to leave your own footsteps, you must not walk in the footsteps of others. To this end, I call upon the Members of the 10th Parliament of Uganda, not to follow the footsteps of their predecessors, but to take a stand and maintain the 75 year age limit on the office of the President.

The writer is a lawyer