Plan B: Besigye explains constitutional backing

Opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye has asked Ugandans to get ready for Plan B, offering a constitutional explanation of the protracted plot he has severally hinted on.

On February 13 night, Besigye was not only concerned that 76-year-old President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni had appeared sleepy and yawned during his security address but was also bitter that the country’s longest serving leader had ‘arrogantly’ admitted that his government had kidnapped and illegally detained hundreds of Ugandans.

Besigye told Ugandans Plan B was “the way forward.”

He added that this plan “rests with ARTICLE 3 of Uganda’s Constitution.”

After reproducing the whole article, Besigye asked Ugandans if they were ready.

3. Defence of the Constitution.

(1) It is prohibited for any person or group of persons to take or retain control of the Government of Uganda, except in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.

(2) Any person who, singly or in concert with others, by any violent or other unlawful means, suspends, overthrows, abrogates or amends this Constitution or any part of it or attempts to do any such act, commits the offence of treason and shall be punished according to law.

(3) This Constitution shall not lose its force and effect even where its observance is interrupted by a government established by the force of arms; and in any case, as soon as the people recover their liberty, its observance shall be reestablished and all persons who have taken part in any rebellion or other activity which resulted in the interruption of the observance shall be tried in accordance with this Constitution and other laws consistent with it.

(4) All citizens of Uganda shall have the right and duty at all times—

(a) to defend this Constitution and, in particular, to resist any person or group of persons seeking to overthrow the established constitutional order; and

(b) to do all in their power to restore this Constitution after it has been suspended, overthrown, abrogated or amended contrary to its provisions.

(5) Any person or group of persons who, as required by clause (4) of this article, resists the suspension, overthrow, abrogation or amendment of this Constitution commits no offence.

(6) Where a person referred to in clause (5) of this article is punished for any act done under that clause, the punishment shall, on the restoration of this Constitution, be considered void from the time it was imposed, and that person shall be taken to be absolved from all liabilities arising out of the punishment.

After standing for president four times against his bush war comrade Museveni — Besigye was Museveni’s personal physician during the five-year war — the trained medical doctor-turned-politician opted out of the 2021 race.

Besigye had accused Museveni and the Electoral Commission (EC) of cheating in favor of Museveni in the four contests.

As his Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party stared at the reality of going to a poll without the country’s fiercest opposition politician in the Museveni era, Besigye told Ugandans he would focus on Plan B.

He said Plan A would be the elections — in which the FDC candidate Patrick Oboi Amuriat (POA) later managed three per cent of the just over 10 million votes cast.

With Museveni winning another term, Besigye says it is time for Plan B. He has been praising the Unity in Diversity efforts by his predecessor opposition leader Dr Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere.

Besigye’s Plan B remains largely misunderstood by most Ugandans but the politician says Ugandans must rise up and follow what article three of the constitution allows them to do.