KAMPALA
As highly anticipated, President Museveni has finally signed the contentious UPDF (Amendment) Bill, 2025, into law, granting military courts sweeping powers to try civilians under certain circumstances, a move that critics say contradicts a January 31, 2025, Supreme Court ruling.
“President Museveni has assented to The Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (Amendment) Act, 2025,” a Monday afternoon statement posted Parliament’s X (Twitter ) platform reads.
Legislators subscribing to the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) on May 20 ,2025 passed the Bill seeking to return civilians to be tried in the army courts, but failed to clear up fuzzy clauses on what defines exceptional circumstances for their trial and what should be considered a military attire, as Opposition members walked out in protest.
Hours after the passing of the Bill, Mr Museveni, who has been in power for nearly four decades , applauded the MPs and “friendly opposition” legislators for preventing ” a serious collision between the army, parliament, and the courts of law” if it had not been passed.
“I want to congratulate the Members of Parliament for passing the UPDF Amendment Bill. There was going to be a serious problem because some people were saying if a soldier does commit a crime such as killing a person, involving in theft or rapes a woman, they should be taken to the sub county (civilian courts) instead of the court martial.
Those who were involved have to repent. There was going to be a serious collision between the army, parliament, and the courts of law, but they have saved us the embarrassment,” President Museveni said on May 21.
The Bill was approved amid heavy deployment within and outside the precinct of Parliament, with limited debate from the legislators , with the Opposition walking out barely 30 minutes into plenary debate