DP TO SUE GOVERNMENT OVER TRADITIONAL LEADERS BILL

The Democratic Party (DP) has said it will sue the government over the cultural leaders Bill, 2010. DP Deputy National Spokesperson Keneth Kakande yesterday said the party National Executive Committee (NEC) has assembled 10 lawyers led by the party legal adviser, Mr Mukasa Mbidde, to challenge the Bill in the Constitutional Court.
Mr Mbidde said the Bill causes disharmony and encroaches on the people’s rights to honour and show loyalty to their traditional leaders. “We can’t sit back and relax when government is mixing up issues. There is no reason why Mr Museveni is creating term limits on our cultural leaders when they are not playing a political role,” Mr Kakande told journalists yesterday in Kampala.
But Internal Affairs Minister Hajj Kirunda Kivejinja on Sunday said absence of such a regulation was responsible for the unnecessary clashes between the government and cultural institutions, citing the September 2009 riots in Kampala.
The Bill, among others, seeks to operationalise Article 246 of the Constitution and bans traditional leaders from engaging in partisan politics.
Mr Kakande said DP will participate in demonstrations organised against the Bill and will provide legal support to any Ugandan ready to oppose it.