Peace ambassadors led by Milton Kambula have appealed to President Museveni not to assent to the recently passed UPDF Amendment bill 2025 that legalized trying civilians before the Military Court Martial.
This week, Parliament passed the UPDF Amendment bill (2025) which among others sought to reinstate trying of civilians before the court martial which the Supreme Court had overruled.
In light of this, Kambula says the president should understand that the bill doesn’t represent the views of Ugandans since they were never consulted.
“I trust that the objective of this law by the UPDF and the National Security Council was to basically make sure that they control the army supplies not to be misused by or faked by the public or being used to do espionage,” Kambula said.
He said that all that would be okay noting however that the decision to try civilians before the court martial has left every citizen in fear of what lays ahead in the nearing general elections.
“Ugandans should now brass for the worst since many may end up being framed with the prohibited military stores and later arrested and aligned before the court martial.”
Kambula observed that it’s very unfortunate that the very legislators that passed the law will be the first ones to test its wrath since they are heading for a very competitive elections.
The president Global Peace Foundation (GPF) Uganda Chapter noted that with all due respect, Parliament would have left civilians to be only tried before the civilian courts that have full mandate.
“It’s wrong to take civilians to be tried in the court martial. The court martial should remain a disciplinary kind of framework for the army. But it is also correct that any soldier who is not satisfied with the ruling before this court should seek redress before the High court.”
“The way they manage trials in the court martial is really not fair; it’s already partisan because the one who’s in front there as the judge is a military general and now looking for a way to actually penalize you before you even defend yourself.”
The passing of the UPDF amendment bill has been criticized by a section of the public for having been passed to benefit a few individuals whose aim is to contain the population so that they are controlled.
Now the onus is on President Museveni to either ascent to the bill or decline signing it into law.
However with the circumstances under which the law was passed there are no chances that he will declining to signing it into law.
Kambula has thus appealed to President Museveni to save Ugandans by not signing the bill into law.
“Mr. President, as a young man in my generation and my time, I think we don’t need such a kind of the repeated rudimentary laws in our law books. So I believe that the strategic laws we need to make are progressive laws where people can enjoy their rights to assemble, rights to life, freedom to speak, right for cautiousness,” Kambula emphasized.
