OPINION

By Ahmed Kateregga Musaazi

On Saturday, August 19, 2023, a section of Buganda clan leaders (Abataka b’obusolya ne bakatikkiro baabwe) held a public meeting with their laity (bazzukulu) at Masaka Recreation Ground.

This was the first time, in history, for the Bataka to hold a joint meeting with their bazzukulu, other than separate meetings at specific clan sites.

The Office of the President through the Office of Masaka City Resident Commissioner and his deputies, gave all the necessary assistance to the local organising committee chaired by the “Katikkiro” of the Kinyomo clan Peter Ssenkungu, who is also the Masaka district NRM chairperson.

The UPDF Armoured Brigade Kasijagirwa Masaka under the command of Brig. Gen. Deus Sande, provided tents and security, among others.

According to the Bataka, they intend to supplement the efforts of the Government in poverty eradication programmes, mobilise bazzukulu in order to increase production in agriculture like banana and coffee, processing and value addition.

They seek to acquire land for a demonstration farm and since a government team led by the state minister for privatisation and investment, Evelyn Anite (nicknamed Namazzi Awooma in Masaka), identified at least 100 hectares for the regional industrial park in Masaka for local and foreign investors. Bataka can also get a share for their farm.

A week before the meeting of the Bataka, a regional meeting held by Office of the President officially opened by Mrs Amelia Kyambadde on behalf of Minister for Presidency Mrs. Milly Babalanda and addressed, by among others, the Secretary Office of the President, Haji Yunus Kakande, at Hotel Brovad Masaka, RDCs and their deputies and DISOs realised that the Lukaya medal has never been awarded to our people that participated in the 1979 war that ousted Idi Amin.

Two elders who were “wakomboozi”, then, and are still alive, Mzee Robert Ssebunya, the Senior Presidential Adviser on Buganda Affairs and Mzee Israel Mayengo, a former National Resistance Council member and former minister at Mengo, deserve it. The deceased include former vice-president Paulo Muwanga and former agriculture minister Samwiri Mugwisa.

At the same meeting it was suggested that since Liberation Square was the place where the interim chairman of NRM and chairman of NRA High Command, Gen. Yoweri Museveni, addressed a meeting that was also attended by Ssabataka of Buganda Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II, in early January 1986, the former with NRM vice-chairperson Haji Moses Kigongo, external co-ordinator, the late Dr. Samson Kisekka and Mobile Brigade commander Gen. Salim Saleh and the latter with the late John Nagenda and the late Besweri Mulondo, where the NRA supreme commander promised to restore traditional/cultural institutions, if people cherished them and fulfilled the promise in 1993, Kabaka Ronald Mutebi should be awarded a medal, and so shoulf Nagenda and Mulondo posthumously. The Bataka and Bazzukulu expressed gratitude to the President for awarding Sir Edward Mutesa II the Golden Jubilee independence medal posthumously.

Combined efforts of central government, local governments, the Kingdom of Buganda and religious institutions will enable greater Masaka to regain its past glory in production and commerce, and this time, under Operation Wealth Creation, spearheaded by the NRM Government, under the guidance of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, it shall include processing, value addition, domestic and foreign marketing.

The writer is a journalist by profession and deputy resident city commissioner Masaka in charge of Kimaanya Kabonera city division