By Aggrey Baba
Busiro East Member of Parliament (MP) and lawyer, Hon. Medard Lubega Sseggona, has strongly criticized the UPDF Amendment Bill 2025, which is expected to be tabled in Parliament today.
While speaking on NBS Morning Breeze today morning, Sseggona said the bill is being used to protect powerful individuals, especially President Museveni’s son, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who has been involved in misconduct without facing any consequences.
“You can’t say this bill is meant to promote discipline in the army, yet your own son behaves badly and is never punished,” Sseggona said, adding that if Museveni really wanted discipline, he would have prosecuted his son for torturing Ugandans, reckless tweets, and many other actions, just like he dealt with Gen. Kayihura, Gen. Ssejusa, and many others.
He said the Executive has a right to bring bills, but this particular one is dangerous. “The way this amendment is being pushed shows they want to weaken the Supreme Court and give more power to the army,” he warned.
Sseggona was also surprised that the two people leading this amendment, the Attorney General and Hon. Oboth Oboth are both lawyers who understand the law very well, yet they can’t advise the president on what is right. “I can forgive Museveni for not knowing the law, but not these two,” he said.
He explained that the Supreme Court had already ruled that the Court Martial is not a fair and independent court, and there was no need to change the law.
“Why not just follow the court’s decision and allow people to be tried in civilian courts?” he asked.
The MP also said he doesn’t mind a ban on wearing military uniforms, but warned against turning it into a political fight. “Our NUP red beret is different from the army one. No sober person can confuse the two,” he said.
Sseggona added that if the Judiciary is not strong enough to handle military cases, the solution is training, not giving that role to the army.
“If we trained judges to handle corruption, we can also train them to handle military cases,” he said.
He accused the government of trying to create a second judiciary controlled by the Ministry of Defence instead of the Ministry of Justice. “That’s not how the Constitution was designed to work. Each arm of government should operate independently.”
In a strong message to those behind the bill, Sseggona reminded them that the country belongs to all Ugandans, not just the army. “The UPDF is there to protect us. They are guards, not rulers.”
