LC1 chairman petitions Constitutional Court on age limits

The Local Council (LC) 1 chairperson of Muyenga Hill village Yasin Omar has petitioned the Constitutional Court challenging several articles of the constitution relating to mandatory retirement of public servants and political figures on attaining stipulated age limits.

Omar wants court to declare that it’s unconstitutional to lock out the youth who have not yet attained the age of 35 from executive positions like that of President and Vice President yet they form majority of Uganda’s population.

Omar together with two others, Peter Ndyomugyenyi and Mable Namutebi, want the Constitutional Court to declare that it’s discriminatory and unconstitutional to retire a person basing on age rather than assessing physical and mental capabilities to perform their duties.

The petition has been filed against the Attorney General of Uganda.

The three contend  that Uganda stands  to loose out on experts and academicians due to this  mandatory retirement age-limit yet the same people are hired as consultants in outside countries .

Omar  cited  an example of professors  and lecturers who attain high qualifications at ages of 45-50 and must retire at 60, but remain productive to the outside world.

They have listed a number of public servants with their respective retirement ages. Police, Army officers,teachers and doctors retire upon attaining 60 years of age.

According to article 144 , a chief justice and his deputy make  are bound to retire as per the constitution at 70 while the Principle Judge and High court  judges must not exceed 65 years in service.