Why Rwenzururu king Mumbere reshuffled cabinet

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Obusinga bwa Rwenzururu (OBR) king Charles Wesley Mumbere has reshuffled his cabinet.

The new cabinet was elected and sworn in on Thursday, March 25, 2024 during a function presided over by Mumbere at the multipurpose hall located in central division of Kasese municipality. The event was witnessed by Kasese Resident District Commissioner (RDC) and district LC5 chairperson.

The development follows Mumbere's release from house arrest in Kampala a few months ago after close to seven years having been held over several charges, including treason, aggravated robbery and attempted murder.

While under captivity in Kampala, On August 17, 2020, Mumbere elected a tentative cabinet that was led by Joseph Kule Muranga as the prime minister and Edwin Kugonza as the deputy premier. These staged a peace bridging committee which worked with various stakeholders including religious leaders to plead and bargain with the Government on behalf of the OBR institution and over 200 subjects to be forgiven for their role in 2016 that left over 100 people dead as a result of a deadly clash between the then King's royal guards and security.

On June 13, 2023, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) dropped all the charges against Mumbere and his over 200 subjects granting him a chance to step in his Kingdom again.

On delivering his speech during the swearing in function, Mumbere disclosed that one of the many reasons why he boldly dropped some men and women who tirelessly worked to see him back in his Kingdom, was maintaining the institution non-partisan in accordance to Article 246 of the Constitution of Uganda and completely distancing the institution from matters of politics.

He clarified that through his intelligence team and other sources, some members of his tentative cabinet had started showing interest to aspire on different political seats in the forthcoming 2026 general elections.

"I am happy some wrote to us resignation letters but others have deliberately refused to write. Unfortunately, they are pursuing their political interests in the name of OBR institution," Mumbere said.

Mumbere ordered that with immediate effect, the dropped ministers who are still adamant to tender in their resignation letters to do so immediately or else risk being petitioned in courts of law for continuing to use the OBR to buy favour from their intended voters.

"We have the authority to fail you to aspire on any political seat should you fail to comply, but if you write to us, we shall bid farewell to you and bless you," he said.

It should be noted that late 2023, Mumbere made an official statement calling upon his minister who intended to participate in politics to resign.

Benson Kule Baritazale who replaced Edwin Kugonza as deputy premium being sworn in by King Charles. (Credit: Samuel Amanyire)

How politics disrupted the OBR in 2016

On August 7, 2023, during an engagement meeting with various Kasese district National Resistance Movement (NRM) party leaders in Kasese municipality, Godfrey Kabbyanga (currrent ICT state minister in the central government) who was also a leader in the OBR explained that they divided themselves into three groups with contradicting intensions.

“I have been in the leadership of OBR for a very long time and whatever mistakes we did, we did them as leaders. We had three groups but unfortunately each group didn’t know the intention of the other. We had a group of politicians who intentions was to use the institution to win elections. There was another category of old men whose original intention was to create a state (YIRA state) then there were those whose intension was an issue of a pure cultural institution intended to identify the bayira and this was the most genuine group,” Kabbyanga said.

He added that the different intensions and ideologies amongst the three groups confused the general public but also brought about confusion amongst themselves as each group felt betrayed hence sparking off fights within the kingdom.

“So, we would all be in the vehicle of cultural identity but with different intension and we ended up confusing the population.” He added.

Kabbyanga, however, pledged that they will never repeat the mistakes that tarnished the reputation of the kingdom as they long to have a rebranded Obusinga Bwa Rwenzururu.

Mumbere praises government 

Mumbere heaped praise on the Government of Uganda led by President Yoweri Museveni for allowing a tentative cabinet, which he instituted in 2020 to run the day-to-day activities of the institution even when he was away.

He also commended the tentative members of his cabinet, especially the outgoing ones for standing strong and sacrificing all they had until he (Mumbere) was released.

Muranga speaks out

Joseph Kule Muranga who maintained his position as OBR prime minister, said he and the other ministers serving the kingdom in the absence of the king was challenging socially, economically and politically.

He pledged that they will work tirelessly to practically implement the five pillars of the rebranded institution, including peace, unity, reconciliation, mindset change and social economic transformation.

RDC speaks out

RDC Lt. Joe Walusimbi urged the new cabinet to mobilise its subjects into groups so that they can easily benefit from government programmes, especially the Parish development Model.