The question of the retirement of Uganda’s three-decade leader Yoweri Museveni has dominated the heckles at two national functions that happened within 36 hours in the capital Kampala.

Museveni delivered the state of the Nation Address on Tuesday and appeared at the same venue – Kampala Serena Hotel – for the budget reading event on Thursday.

On Tuesday, Museveni told heckling opposition MPs who wanted to know when he would leave power that it was not a bad idea to overstay in power.
In 1986 while he took over power after a five-year bush war, Museveni said Africa’s problem was leaders who overstayed in power – and he has ruled the east African land-locked nation for over three decades now.

Museveni on Thursday hinted at his retirement, albeit both coyly and cautiously.

The president said he would leave power but it would not be because of pressure from the opposition politicians. He added that the will of the people and the supreme law of the land would prevail.

“Yes, I will go. But the one who decides when I will go is the Constitution and people of Uganda, not you [opposition politicians].”

But there are fears that the Constitution could once again be altered as it was tampered with to remove term limits.

In 2005, majority ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) MPs were reportedly given money to support an amendment to allow Museveni stand for another term – without that amendment he would have been ineligible.

And once again Uganda faces the same dilemma. Museveni is 72 and will be over the age limit of 75 by the end of his term in 2021.

His NRM party has the numbers it needs to amend the constitution.

And when this happens, Ugandans are likely to realise that, as the president said today, the “NRM was cursed with blessings. That is why it has been in power for so long”.