Age limit debate: 'I will give my views at the right time,' says Museveni

Ugandan president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has finally spoken about the controversial age limit debate. According to him, the debate was just starting and everyone needed to speak their minds on it without threats.

Incidentally, the 73-year-old chose the last paragraph of a political response to an opponent to send across his views. His target was a popular entertainer turn lawmaker, Kyagulanyi Bobi Wine.

In the statement titled ‘President Responds to Hon. Kyagulanyi’s statement (s),’ Museveni listed government efforts on tackling Uganda’s challenges whiles rebutting claims made by the Bobi Wine pointing to the East African country being in a downward spiral mode.

“The Age Limit Debate is starting. I will give my views at the right time. What is not acceptable, however, is intimidation and violence. Those are fascist methods. Let everybody speak his mind freely and without threats. We shall confront and defeat anybody who intimidates or threatens our peace,” his statement concluded.

For two successive days, there was chaos in the country’s parliament when the age limit motion was being moved. MPs exchanged blows and threw chairs at each other on both occasions. The speaker ordered opposition MPs to be led outside which order resulted in further chaos.

In 2005, a constitutional amendment was made removing two-term limit for the presidency to allow the president to run for a third-term which he won in February last year, even though opposition unsuccessfully contested the outcome.

73-year Museveni, will be two years older than the current age limit of 75 by the time Ugandans head back to the polls in 2021.

Museveni is aiming to join the ranks of Equatorial Guinea’s Theodore Obiang Nguema, Congo Republic’s Denis Sassou Nguesso, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and Cameroon’s Paul Biya among others.

There is no presidential limits in their respective countries allowing them to rule for as long as they wished. He has meanwhile yet to comment on the agitation around the law.