The Red Pepper newspaper of
09/03/2013 cited Hon. Miria Matembe having fired a salvo at the outgoing EU
Ambassador, Roberto Rudolfi. Amb Rudolfi had suggested that President Museveni is right to reappoint Justice Benjamin Odoki as Chief Justice despite having attained the maximum age of 70 years as per Constitutional provision. Ms Matembe’s outrage is understandable
and is, perhaps long overdue. Matembe’s point is that it is high time we
started taking our autonomy and constitutional rights seriously. She cautioned
that we do not have to wait for EU leaders and Americans to
interpret for us our own Constitution as if we are a nation of imbeciles, a colony - on
top of being country of thieves.
The gut instincts have guided me to
a different interpretation of Amb Rudolfi's statements. I think Amb. Rudolfi is
being misunderstood. I believe that Amb. Rudolfi was trying to state that it is
within the mandate of the President to (re)appoint whoever he deems fit for the
dispensation of the duties of the office of Chief Justice. But the unspoken sense
behind this suggestion is also that it is incumbent upon sound minded Ugandans
to call on the President in regards to the provision of the Constitution on this reappointment. Amb Rudolfi and many of us have subtle consensus that Attorney General Peter Nyombi is severely incapacitated with correct interpretation
of the Constitution. Lawyers like Nyombi pose unnecessary legal challenge to Uganda's statehood because of the zeal to be loyal to the establishment.
Given the variety of talents and legal
skills in Uganda, the President still has limited options of credible and
principled lawyers to appoint Chief Justice. It is perhaps the lack of credible, measured and loyal
cadres like Justice Odoki that his reappointment has become inevitable. The
current Deputy Chief Justice, for instance, is an NRM-O promoter and so are his immediate
followers. So, the issue of impartiality looms large over their heads.
I mean, we all know that it takes
many righteous characters to restrain the President from his own ego. With the
legal flip-floppers that have engulfed the government, it is only understandable
that Justice Odoki’s credibility and public image gives him an edge and yet it
is also the very Odoki to blame for this blatant attempt at abrogating the constitution.
This article contends that any averagely educated person in Uganda can read, understand and interpret the Constitution of
Uganda much better than the pitiful office of Attorney General – based on his
recent interpretations. I mean, to understand the constitution, we must look at
it as a supreme law of the land, not some ad hoc supplemental document that be easily manipulated to
appease the President. The problem with AG Nyombi is that he is so Born-Again
that he may be interpreting the Constitution in the same manner as he does to
the Bible.
This legal mess makes us all
stressed out that the President does not listen to advice. To some extent, the
President is actually let down by lazy, egocentric and callous fellows who
abuse their powers. They compel the president into submitting to fraudulent intentions and
making decisions where some public good become available for squandering.
However, the imperatives that compels us to hold the person of Justice Odoki accountable are dictated by the fact that he served as the
longest Chief Justice of Uganda since independence; that he was the author of this
very Constitution which he is conspiring to abrogate. Justice Odoki knows very well that the Article 144(1)(a) of
the 1995 Constitution places age limit of 70 years on any serving CJ. That
Article 144(1)(a) was not inserted yesterday in the constitution, it was inserted at the same time
that the Presidential term limit was proposed by Justice
Odoki's team and later promulgated in 1995. Odoki should therefore be in the know and to particularly
advise the President correctly not to reappoint him - and, he should decline
the offer if the President insisted. That he has not done so, and that he
appears to be the one fronting for the idea of his reappointment, truly dents
his credibility and character as anti-constitutional.
Justice Odoki recently gave a media
interview where he claimed that he is still young and strong to serve Uganda.
His highest pinnacle of mockery came when he posited that he will continue to
respect the constitution of Uganda even when he will be serving beyond the age
of 70. This is by all means a travesty - a twisted logic because by his failure to restrain
his own ego of respecting Constitutional age limit, the Justice is willingly participating
in abrogating the Constitution treacherously. Disregarding age limit depicts a
gloomy future because the President will use this opportunity to gauge whether to
remove the Constitutional age limit for serving President as well. The other
implications are that cases that Justice Odoki will be presiding over can be successfully
challenged in courts because of the constitutional illegality involving his
tenure on the bench.
Justice Odoki’s insistence in
being appointed and his claim that he is strong enough is not only ridiculous,
but symbolic of the very symptoms of power hunger that keeps African Presidents
in power past expiry date to the detriment of their Countries.
END
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