A critical analysis of the legal construction of the presidency in post 1995 Uganda

• Main Author: Sekindi, Fred
• Other Authors: Ssenyonjo, M.
• Published: Brunel University 2015
• Subjects: 342
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.675871

Fundamental laws in Uganda have demonstrated that the presidency must be granted command of the armed forces, as well as immunity from legal proceedings among other presidential privileges and powers. However, very few attempts have been made to question the origins of presidential authority and to circumscribe it exercise, in order to avoid the possibility of its misuse. As a result, the control of presidential authority in Uganda and in many other countries in Africa remains one of the most challenging issues in constitutional frameworks. This thesis argues that since its boundaries were drawn up by the British in 1894, up until 1995 when the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995 was adopted, Uganda has been ruled under fundamental laws authored under the leadership or the influence of heads of state and governments. Such laws were designed to permanently grant state powers to the heads of state and governments under whose leadership or influence they were created, and it is from those laws that presidential authority as commonly conceived in Uganda has emerged. Therefore, because of the purpose for which those laws were designed, they have not provided sufficient constraints on heads of state and governments. This thesis seeks to answer the principal question as to whether the 1995 Constitution of Uganda which was written under the leadership of President Museveni and his NRM government is another such fundamental law.