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MPs react to Museveni’s New Year’s address
MP Bernabas Tinkasimire
Both current and former legislators continue to criticize President Yoweri Museveni’s recent address regarding the enactment of the Constitutional Amendment Bill Number two of 2017 by Parliament.
While delivering his New Year’s Address from his country home in Rwakitura, President Museveni praised the 317 legislators who supported the amendments saying they played a great role when the country was at crossroads.
Museveni compared the 317 MPs to the role played by the 27 NRA fighters who started the war that brought him to power 32 years ago.
But Museveni’s praise has been regarded as a sign of continued defiance of the will of the people, majority of whom opposed the amendment.
Bugabula County South Member of Parliament Maurice Kibalya told The Sunrise that the 317 MPs who voted for the amendment of the constitution are not heroes or heroines as the President puts it, but rather enemies of Uganda who are destroying the country.
Kibalya who is one of the brave NRM MPs who defied immense pressure to vote along party lines, said it is not good to build one’s own house and later start destroying it. He appealed to all peace-loving Ugandans to stick to legal means to challenge the unfortunate constitutional amendment.
But for MP Barnabas Tinkasimire, the Buyaga County MP, the government’s failure to listen to people’s views could push the country into violence.
Former Rukiga County Member of Parliament Jack Sabiiti, says that Ugandans will soon regret the age limit removal because it is not aiming at developing the country but only to satisfy President Museveni.
Sabiiti says that President Museveni no longer has anything to add on Uganda’s development.
He adds that President Museveni has been in power for over 30 years and the controversial constitutional amendment will not lead to better service delivery but rather it is meant to satisfy the interests of just one individual – the president and his family.
“Therefore, I am appealing to the young generation to take note of that but if you are not careful all the institutions that we put in place are going to be useless. Already we are regretting what value can Museveni add now after 35 years, so my worry is the crisis which is likely to come and cause more problems,” Sabiiti stressed.
Meanwhile, Bukoto East Member of Parliament Florence Namayanja says President Yoweri Museveni should leave the religious leaders to guide the Nation instead of attacking them about what they preach.
Still in his New Year message, President Museveni blasted Religious Leaders who criticized the age limit constitutional amendment calling them traitors.
Museveni accused the clergy of pushing the agenda of foreign forces striving to meddle into the affairs of Uganda instead of talking more about what he calls the “the strategic goals of our dear Africa.”
It’s upon this that MP Namayanja asked President Museveni to look into the reasons why religious leaders are preaching the way they do, adding that may be there is a problem where he needs to change.
Namayanja, a devoted catholic, thinks President Museveni is doing a lot of interference whenever religious leaders come out on matters of national importance especially those relating to governance.
“He is going beyond. He should know that religious leaders are there to guide him and society. They are there to tell us where we are going wrong. He should first of all ask himself why are they attacking him the way they are doing’?
Nearly all the top clergy among Christian denominations used the Christmas and New Year sermons to condemn leaders for being selfish and greedy when they amended the constitution.
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