President Museveni has directed that the retirement age for civil servants be lowered to 50 years. Government officials have- in a bid to be seen to be outdoing the other-, jumped on the president's sermon with a tiger's vigour.

Much as the president's directive appears justified on the surface of it- in as far it intends to create jobs for the redundant youth-, on deeper reflection this directive creates more problems than it seeks to solve. Read on.

Law to create another mob of unemployed
It is laughable creating employment for a redundant person, by rendering another jobless.  

In a word, you don't fight unemployment by creating unemployment. Otherwise, you create a comical scene of a person washing clothes and then laying them on the bare ground to dry.

Law threatens bonnabagaggawale
At 50 years, one is beginning to attain financial stability in public service. This is because government is one of the employers that pays meager salaries.

Putting into account, the fact that one spends about 25 years at school, another ten years to get a job, it becomes evident that one starting work at 35 would not have saved enough money to sustain him in retirement, build himself a house, take his children to school, among other responsibilities.

Law incites civil servants to eat bribes
Because civil servants would have little time to work and save money, they would naturally be tempted to loot, embezzle and receive bribes so as to beat the 50 years deadline, when they have made money to keep them going in retirement.

Law robs country of experienced staff
Experience is much needed in most of the government jobs. Laying off staff at 50 years and replacing them with youths right from college, would no doubt leave the country at the mercy of inexperienced personel with its chilling effects.

I shudder seeing a doctor right from the medical school, carrying out life saving operations, after his seniors were laid off thanks to the law setting retirement at 50 years.

Law could be challenged in court
The constitution allows Ugandans to engage in gainful employment, so laying them off while they can still serve, appears to me a breach of the constitution which is the supreme law.

Political miscalculation
By giving jobs to the youth, the President obviously wants to reap votes from them. But, it should be remembered that the victims of the law in offing, are also voters, who may end up denying the president votes.

How will government know one has clocked 50 years?
It is a known fact here that many of our mothers attended, "ungazetted labour wards", meaning our births were not recorded.

How will government know exactly that one has clocked 50 years in absence of a birth certificate? Even where one gets a birth certificate from the registrar of births and deaths, its accuracy cannot be relied on as Ugandans are known to lie about their age.

If a whole country's executive cannot tell his age with certainty, how will other simple Ugandans be trusted to tell the truth about their true birthdays, in a situation where the truth will return to haunt them.

Law versus morality
Some people have already joked that Henry Kajura, who is about 80 plus years old, will cut a figure of a comedian signing retirement letters of  people whom he is 30 years their senior, while he still holds on to his ministerial post.

True, the law says Ministers are not civil servants and therefore not subject to the impending law. But, morality demands that promoters of a law, must not shift goal posts when it is about to be applied on them. And not all laws are good laws, for apartheid was a law, but did it make it a good law.

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