President Yoweri Museveni’s Private Secretary for Political Affairs, David Mafabi is unhappy with some NRM Members of Parliament, who he says have not done enough to mobilize the ruling party’s base to support the constitutional amendment to remove the presidential age limit.
He expressed dismay yesterday that the NRM MPs were being browbeaten by threats and violence from their opposition counterparts.
Mafabi, who heads a group that calls itself the “Diverse Members of NRM,” was yesterday meeting NRM leaders from the six Kigezi districts of Kabale, Rukungiri, Rubanda, Rukiga, Kanungu and Kisoro at Cephas Inn in Kabale Municipality.
During the meeting, Mafabi criticized NRM MPs for what he said was their silence on the Age Limit Bill.
Kigezi NRM district leaders in the meeting
He said there was no reason for the MPs to be shy or timid about the amendment, noting, “The law serves man but man does not serve the law.”
Mafabi therefore urged the NRM cadres in the meeting to put pressure on their MPs to start speaking out and openly in support for the bill.
The President’s aide also observed that changing Article 102(b) is not just about helping Uganda as country, but Africa as a continent. It is in fact about the survival of the continent itself, he added.
The amendment he said would ensure that President Museveni “finishes the work that was started by revolutionary leaders such as Mzee Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Kambarage Nyerere.”
He went on to castigate the opposition leaders and some NRM MPs who tried to block the tabling of the age limit amendment motion by MP Raphael Magezi last week, terming these as blind and unfocused.
The meeting closed with a bunch of resolutions to the NRM Central Executive Committee (CEC) and other organs of the party to begin nationwide consultations, coordinate and ensure that the amendment Bill gets through parliament.
They also resolved to work vigorously to strengthen the structures of the NRM party.