He said Museveni was finding it hard to tolerate the opposition because of his
leadership style.
Govt to Appeal On Referendum
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The Monitor (Kampala)
June 28, 2004
Posted to the web June 28, 2004
Richard Mutumba & Halima Abdallah
Kampala
The government will appeal against the Constitution Court ruling that nullified the
Referendum (Political Systems) Act 2000 and the June 29, 2000 Referendum, Justice and
Constitution Affairs minister Janat Mukwaya said yesterday.
She told The Monitor yesterday the government was studying the judgement, but will
definitely appeal against the decision. "We shall appeal. This is a flawed judgment.
The Judges erred when they ruled on thequestion of a referendum that was not in
contention," acting head of civil Litigation, Mr Joseph Matsiko said.
"They erred when they declared the referendum, which was not before them null and
void," he said. Matsiko said the judges should not have gone into the validity or
invalidity of the referendum.
The State Minister for Housing, Capt. Francis Babu later added his voice to that of
Mukwaya and Matsiko, during the Monitor FM talk show 'Straight from the Heart' hosted
by Desree Barlow. The Rukiga county MP, Jack Sabiti featured on the same show.
Babu said the government had set up a committee to study the judgement and advise it
on the way forward. He dismissed talk that there is a constitutional crisis.
He said the Judiciary was overstepping its boundaries by interfering with the roles of
the Executive and the Legislature. "I don't agree with the way the judiciary
interferes with the affairs of Parliament. If this does not stop, we might have the
judiciary running the legislature," Babu warned.
He said he had a right to question any arm of government which interfered with the
roles of another arm of government. Sabiti, said the judiciary was empowered to
interprete the Constitution, and not the Executive or the Legislature. He said the
Judiciary had powers to say no when the Parliament is messing up things.
"We should admit that we erred in the way we put the political system in place.
Article 74 which authorised us to put the system in place is dead.
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"We should therefore get back to the drawing table and see how we move forward,"
Sabiti advised. He criticised the management style of President Yoweri Museveni,
saying the President had failed to adjust to the modern age. He said people ought to
be governed legally and not the way it was being done during the bush war.
He said Museveni was finding it hard to tolerate the opposition because of his
leadership style.
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