| KAMPALA
The United States Ambassador, Mr Jimmy Kolker, has said retaining presidential term limits would be a key tenet of true democracy in Uganda.
Term limits are one way in which institutions can survive an individual. Uganda has had peace since 1986, prosperity and institutions put in place. The question is, will that survive the current president? That President Yoweri Museveni is the only guarantor that prosperity will continue in Uganda?
If so, it is very dangerous because one day he will no longer be president, and if those institutions and those positives of Ugandan society cannot survive him personally, then Uganda is in big trouble, the diplomat said.
Kolker was speaking on Tonight with Andrew Mwenda talk show on 93.3 Kfm on Thursday. He said Parliament has not been independent in the Constitution amendment process.
He cited two MPs who confided in him last year that they were opposed to lifting the term limits, but had turned round and vo
ted in
favour of removing them. Parliament last week passed the Constitution Amendment Bill to proceed to the committee stage. Musevenis last term expires next year.
We are a country that has term limits. We have advocated term limits in other countries. I think it allows methods by which institutions can survive an individual certainly in the case of Uganda its necessary, Kolker said.
The term limits give leaders and the public to go out and say I have done my part, here is my successor, here is the person I want you to elect, here is the policy and platform on which this person is going to be elected so that my legacy can continue, he said.
Kolker, whose diplomatic tenure in Uganda ends in September, said people have suffered for presidents not handing over power peacefully.
To me this is a very important principle in any country and certainly is important in a country like Uganda where it has never happened, where we have never had a leader leave
power
peacefully, he said.
Kolker said what has been happening in Uganda is every successor trying to erase all the envisages of his predecessor.
It seems to me that term limits allow situations where there can be leaders who have successors. I and my country believe term limits contribute to democracy, Kolker said.
He also said he was disappointed at the ongoing referendum campaigns because both the government and the opposition, who advocate a boycott, have missed the point.
The US policy is to strengthen institutions, to give peoples views to get better ideas.
But no one in Uganda is giving that vision. Political parties have a bad history. This is the time to re-invent political parties I hope that government and the opposition will campaign, I hope that people will realise that multi-party competition influences government policy and allows citizens to change power peacefully, he said | 
