President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, speaking at the London Summit on Family Planning by DFID. Flickr. Some rights reserved.A few weeks ago, reggae star Bobi Wine won a landslide victory in a parliamentary by-election on the outskirts of the capital Kampala. The ‘Ghetto President’, as he is known by his fans, portrays himself as a representative of the youth that feels left behind by government: At 35 years old, the political newcomer has thus just passed the minimum constitutional age limit for the real-life presidency some rumour him to aspire to.
And yet, with a median age of 15 years, Ugandans are likely to continue to be ruled by a man who could easily be their great grandfather. Efforts to remove the constitutional age limit of 75 years for the presidency that currently bars three decade ruler Yoweri Museveni from running again in 2021 are now in full swing.
The president has strongly distanced himself from any proposal to lift the age limit contained in the Constitution, dismissing it as a waste of time when he is busy with work. In a 2012 interview, Museveni had flatly denied intentions to stay on beyond the age of 75 .
