Col. Abiriga disproves #Museveni on dangers of advanced age - #Uganda

Uganda's military dictator is obsessed with scrapping the constitutional age limit of 75 so that he will be eligible to contest in 2021 to renew his three and a half decades in power.  He recently told the country that "there is no scientific evidence showing that someone could not manage a country when they are above 75 years." Five years ago, the same military dictator in an interview with NTV had said that he would not seek to retain his job after hitting 75 years. He argued that "....at that old age, someone is not as physically strong and may not have the energy to fulfil the demanding tasks of running a country like Uganda."

Col. Abriga is the M.P for Arua whom Museveni helped by ordering the Electoral Commission to nominate Abiriga despite his lack of academic credentials. Once in parliament, Col. Abiriga opted to worship Museveni by donning the yellow party throughout and even painting his car in yellow. He has been one of the leading proponents of Museveni's age limit scrapping bid. However, on Monday he was sighted urinating on the perimeter fence of the Ministry of Finance in the city centre and a stone throw from the parliamentary building. His yellow car is also seen parked by the roadside while his Counter Terrorism bodyguard stood on alert a few metres from the scene. The following day he confirmed to the press in full view of the cameras that he had been the one photographed urinating on the wall. He argued that he had been so badly off with the urge to urinate that he could not push on with his journey. He said; "I was badly off. Should I have kept urine on my self? What is the problem with that?"

Col. Abiriga committed the criminal offence of Being a Nuisance, punishable with either imprisonment or a short jail period. On May 2013, a city resident, Ronald Binjingo (41) was convicted of being a public Nuisance by the Grade One Magistrate at City Hall Court in Kampala. The convict had been arrested by the city's Law Enforcement Officers after they found him urinating around the Traffic Lights in Wandegeya. He pleaded guilty and prayed for a lenient sentence arguing that; "Your Worship, I pray for a lenient sentence because that day I was unwell and since there was no toilet in the proximity, I chose to urinate on the street." He was sentenced to two hours of community service or one month imprisonment. On the same day, the same court issued criminal summons for singers Robert Kyagulanyi and Eddie Kenzo after they failed to show up to answer charges of illegally pinning up their posters in the city advertising their music shows.

The offence of public nuisance is a common-law offence involving environmental danger or loss of amenity or offensive public behaviour. The offence entails outraging public decency, indecent actions or displays that may cause offence to members of the public. Its ingredients are simply that, (a) the defendant intended to cause, or was reckless about causing, a nuisance to the public, (b) the defendant knew that he or she was or might be in a public place and that the act or display was such as to cause outrage to ordinary people. Besides the criminal offence of public nuisance, in civil law, nuisance is a tort that means any thing brought on the land and causing damage, annoyance or discomfort. The grader that Brig. Kasirye Gwanga burnt after it trespassed on his land was a nuisance.  The law allows the owner of the land to remove such nuisance. Col. Abiriga may not be charged because his bodyguard Police Officer gave full protection and approval of the commission of the crime.

Health wise, the loss of the bladder's control resulting in accidental leakage of urine from the body is called Urinary Incontinence (UI). It is partly associated with old age when the bladder muscles weaken over time leading to a decrease in the bladder's capacity to store urine. It is also as a result of a condition referred to as Overactive Bladder which occurs when abnormal nerves send signals to the bladder at the wrong time, causing its muscles to squeeze without enough warning time to get to the toilet.

Given Col. Abiriga's age, it is most likely that he has this condition. It is worse for Museveni because he is far older than Col Abiriga. In November 2011 Museveni made an official visit to Buhweju district to commission a hospital at Tunu. His convoy got stuck in the mud and he chose to walk the remaining five kms. His bodyguards struggled to carry the heavy mobile toilet which he used once to answer natures call during the walk. These days he has graduated to a fully fledged van that serves as his mobile toilet.

It also very common these days for Mjuseveni to briefly excuse himself from public functions to answer nature's call. What does any other scientific evidence does Museveni need when his close aide, Col. Abiriga has put it in black and white.  May be Ugandans should donate diapers to Col. Abiriga and all those others who are ashamed of old age.

INFORMATION IS POWER AND DEFIANCE IS THE WAY TO GO

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