Fallen ex-Kampala mayor and Democratic Party (DP) president general John Ssebaana Kizito was laid to rest at the weekend in Luweero, and the controversial presidential age limit debate came up as speakers eulogised the departed veteran politician and businessman.

Opposition strongman and President Yoweri Museveni four-time challenger Dr Kiiza Besigye suggested that Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Kahinda Otafiire was being used to front Museveni’s agenda.

“President Museveni has turned himself into the Constitution; what he wants is what will be in it, and what he doesn’t want will not be included in the Constitution,” Besigye said, then turned to Otafiire, the government’s representative at the funeral.

“Even Gen Otafiire here is not acting on his own but on what Museveni wants him to do,”

When Otafiire took to the microphone, Besigye blamed the makers of the constitution, including Besigye, for including a clause that allows the amendment of the country’s supreme law.

“You are blaming me for nothing because I did not put that [amendment] clause. My duty now is to institute a constitutional review commission to gather public views. Its report and what parliament will decide is what will matter,” said Otafiire.

Like Besigye, Otafiire was a member of the Constituent Assembly that drafted the 1995 Constitution.

“Besigye and I know this place [Mpande] very well because we fought from here during the war [that brought NRM to power], but we have gone past the era of armed rebellion. What we need now is to sit on a roundtable and talk for the good of our country.”