The deployment of Ugandan troops abroad: the (un)constitutionality of section 38 of the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces Act (2005)

Abstract Article 210(d) of the Constitution empowers Parliament to make laws regulating ‘the deployment of troops outside Uganda.’ It does not expressly provide that the President is required to seek parliamentary approval before deploying troops abroad. However, the drafters of the Constitution expected legislation operationalising Article 210(d) to require the President to seek parliamentary approval before deploying troops abroad. The UPDF Bill (2003) was meant to, inter alia, operationalise Article 120(d). Clause 37(2) of the Bill (which would later become section 38(2) of the Act) provided that ‘where the President deploys troops…[abroad] he or she shall notify Parliament immediately, but in any case not later than fourteen days after the deployment.’ Parliament passed Clause 37 without amendment. However, when the Bill was sent for presidential assent, section 38(2) had been changed to read that ‘deployment of troops for purposes of peace keeping shall be done with the approval of Parliament.’ It is not clear when it was changed or who changed it. It is argued, inter alia, that the constitutionality of section 38(3) could successfully be challenged for being contrary to the drafting history of the Constitution. Section 38(2) could also be challenged for being contrary to the legislators’ intention.