BY JOHN NAGENDA

It is not a bad question to ask, accompanied by a shaking of the head, as if calamity lurks around the corner! In all probability Mengo itself has little idea, which must be extremely worrisome, especially to Mengo. The rest of the Republic will manage well enough, especially since Buganda minus Mengo will be with it. Kantuntunu in Luganda means being blindfolded, surely a hazardous way to embark on journeys, whether on foot or driving.

The odds are made deadly when speed is added, and even Mengoists must shudder at the crazy velocity at which they are travelling. Blindfolded persons on Life’s motorway, dicing with their lives and those of innocent others! Ideally it should be stopped with all available means. But by whom and how? We’ll come to that.

What game is Mengo playing at? Call it the one of chewing off the hand that feeds you. If Buganda (not necessarily synonymous with Mengo, although Mengo lies in it) has one ready ear in the Uganda Government it belongs to the President. This has been shown on every occasion in the last 30 years, going back to the thick of the Bush War. The majority of Baganda well know this, although not Mengo.

For reasons known only to itself, no sooner than Museveni (by which is meant the Leader of the Movement, the Movement itself, and the Government, but principally Museveni himself, through his own personal commitment) had given back Buganda property to its rightful owner, Buganda, than Mengo started a campaign to look for other partners. This included the “resting” Democratic Party, whose Constitution was specifically dismissive of Monarchies, the Johnny-come-lately FDC, and its no-hoper leader Dr Besigye, and even the hardly breathing UPC, which in the past had been the main causer of all Buganda pain, including the banning of the monarchies, followed by the poisoning of Kabaka Mutesa II in London in 1969. History is not a strong subject for Mengoist brains. Baganda, meanwhile, through Government’s initiative, and against abusive tirades from Mengo, now have a Land Bill better drawn to protect tenant and landlord.

The test (and taste) of this will be made clear, especially when kibanja (plot) holders themselves turn into landowners. Who do you suppose they will thank, Mengo or Government? And, of course, it must never be forgotten that gratitude easily turns into votes at the ballot box!

Let the Mengoists continue to abuse the Land Bill, to seem to support those responsible for fire-bombing the country during last year’s terrible Riots, to aggressively refuse to understand where their radio station, CBS, went far wrong in its attitude to Government. This attitude is so detrimental to Mengo’s profile amongst right-thinking, sober, citizens, that in the end it will stop Mengo in its tracks, to the joyous cry of Baganda: “Onward Buganda, in Uganda!”
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Kampala, “City of Seven Hills” (long ago in its infancy, now no doubt 10 times that number) is beautiful in parts but hardly ever when you are driving on its streets, so to call them. Over the last many years most are portholes bandaged together by anything, sometimes actual bandages inclusive.

For many years Government has promised, threatened, to take the sick creature over and run it better, but somehow, after you have prayed, “Please God let it be tomorrow”, the promise bites the dust, again (and again!) City Hall awakes the next morning, like a re-born corpse, feels its bits and pieces and finding them more or less in place, crosses its heart and starts anew.

My friend from Dar es Salaam, when a decade ago I congratulated him on how much of that city by the Indian Ocean was sparkling, said, “I’ll let you into a secret!” He proceeded to say that he would never waste time to stop someone calling himself Mister Mayor, or Hon Engineer or Town or City Clerk, or indeed to wear the regalia of those mighty offices, but it was he from his State House (for indeed that is where he lived at the time) who would run the City. So simple and yet so effective: I marvelled at its elegancy. Kampala is belly-up, stinkingly so. Why must we not do a Dar?

Every time this column suggests we take a leaf out of the Tanzanian book, there are those who thunder: Uganda is not Tanzania. Well, perhaps sometimes we should try and see. The environs of Kampala are strikingly pleasing, fabulously beautiful. The way Kampala is run is the opposite. It is only too easy to see the present mob running the city as corrupt, greedy and moronic. Why not be more charitable and see them as hopelessly inadequate to do the job: in training, experience and vision? Of course many have itching little palms too, eager to be smoothed. There is corruption aplenty in the Government also, but what President Ben Mkapa did was to have Dar directly under him, choosing those he knew he could trust to run the city. Is it not possible to borrow this Tanzanian concept before Kampala bursts in on itself?

Let me end on a note of apology regarding an article where I confused Naguru Reception Centre with the nearby Naguru Remand Home. I will eat, deservedly, more humble pie next week!