Soldiers in parliament: Military power and legislative authority in Uganda.

This article examines the unique practice of reserving 10 parliamentary seats in Uganda's legislature for members of the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF), a provision enshrined in the 1995 Constitution and sustained through successive parliaments. It argues that this arrangement reflects Uganda's integrated mode of civil–military relations, where ideology rooted in the National Resistance Movement (NRM), patronage rewarding loyal military officers, and political influence exercised by army MPs collectively serve to maintain the regime stability and dominance of President Yoweri Museveni and the NRM. While the UPDF's presence in parliament is officially justified as a stabilizing and democratic measure, it also functions to intimidate opposition, enforce party discipline, and secure key constitutional amendments that extend Museveni's rule. This fusion of military and political power challenges conventional notions of civilian control and raises questions about the independence of Uganda's legislature and the broader implications for democratization and governance in the country.