Article Outline
The unit of currency in Uganda is the Uganda shilling (1,781 Uganda shillings equal U.S.$1; 2005 average). The currency is issued by the Bank of Uganda, which was founded in 1966, in Kampala. There are also several private banks. Uganda has a stock exchange, founded in 1997, in Kampala.
In the 1970s and early 1980s brutal dictatorships and bloody wars wracked Uganda. Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986, bringing to a close a violent chapter in the country’s history. Museveni established a unique system of nonparty popular democracy. In Museveni’s view, all existing Ugandan political parties competed on the basis of religion and ethnicity, and these divisions helped bring about the conflicts and chaos of the previous decades. For this reason, only the National Resistance Movement (NRM), open to all Ugandans, was allowed to contest elections until political parties based on issues of development could develop. This nonparty system was upheld in a 2000 national referendum, but in 2005 Ugandan voters chose to switch to a multiparty system.
In 1995 Uganda adopted the country’s third constitution, which divides powers among the executive, legislature, and judiciary. The constitution guarantees human rights, limits the use of imprisonment without trial, and establishes an independent Human Rights Commission to investigate potential human rights violations. It also creates an office of inspector-general to combat corruption and abuse of power at all levels of government. It restores titles to traditional leaders, abolished under the previous constitution, but denies them political power. Its most novel feature gives citizens the right to hold regular referenda on the structure of the country’s political system. All citizens 18 years of age or older have the right to vote.
Under the 1995 constitution, the president is both head of state and head of government, and is elected by popular vote for a term of five years. Government policies are decided by a cabinet consisting of the president, vice president, and ministers who are appointed by the president and who must be approved by parliament. The president also appoints the vice president, subject to the approval of parliament. The vice president and cabinet ministers do not hold fixed terms of office, and are replaced at the discretion of the president.
Legislative power rests in a unicameral (single-chamber) parliament, whose 308 members serve five-year terms. Of these members, 214 are directly elected by the general public, while 94 are specially elected to represent particular interest groups (69 women, one popularly elected from each district; 10 army personnel to represent the army; 5 youth representatives; 5 workers’ representatives; and 5 representatives for persons with disabilities).
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