Today in History: Constitutional Court upholds removal of presidential age limit

What the report says

Nile Post revisits a major moment in Uganda’s constitutional history: the July 26, 2018 ruling in which the Constitutional Court upheld the removal of the presidential age limit. The decision validated changes to Article 102(b) of the Constitution, which had previously barred presidential candidates older than 75, and allowed President Yoweri Museveni to run again beyond that threshold.

According to the report, the case followed Parliament’s passage of the Constitutional Amendment Act, 2018, after a period of intense political and legal dispute. A five-judge panel sitting at the High Court in Mbale, led by Deputy Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo, delivered a lengthy judgment and ruled 4-1 that removing the age cap was constitutional. The majority included Justices Remmy Kasule, Elizabeth Musoke and Cheborion Barishaki, who allowed valid parts of the amendment to stand while discarding provisions they found unlawful.

The court unanimously struck down Parliament’s attempt to extend its own term, and that of local councils, from five to seven years, finding that such a move required approval through a referendum. Justice Kenneth Kakuru dissented on the wider case, arguing that the amendment process itself was flawed, citing issues including limited public consultation and security deployment inside Parliament during debate.

Nile Post notes that the matter later moved to the Supreme Court after appeals by petitioners including Male Mabirizi, the Uganda Law Society and opposition legislators, while government challenged the rejection of the term extension. On April 18, 2019, the Supreme Court also upheld the age-limit removal by a narrow majority, while agreeing unanimously that Parliament could not extend its own mandate.