When Kabaka sacked his ministers who campaigned for Kizza Besigye

In the early 2000s, Uganda’s political tensions rose as Buganda Kingdom’s ministers supported Kizza Besigye’s presidential bid. In response, Kabaka Mutebi sacked these ministers, reshaping political alliances ahead of the controversial 2001 election.

During the December 1980 general election, the Democratic Party, which at the time was headed by a Muganda, Dr Paul Ssemogerere, won all the parliamentary seats in Buganda, except the Mubende North-East seat, whose result was rigged by the chairperson of the Military Commission, Paul Muwanga, in favour of his friend and member of Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), Samwiri Mugwisa.

In May 1996, Ssemogerere competed with Museveni, a Munyankore, for presidency. And to Ssemogerere’s frustration, Museveni defeated him in Buganda. Museveni got 70% of the votes cast in Buganda, while Ssemogerere received only 29%.

After the 1996 election, the general sense within the Movement was that Museveni would seek another term in 2001. Actually, the Movement ideologues like Eriya Kategaya believed that the 2001 election would be Museveni’s last presidential bid.

For that matter, shrewd security chiefs like Lt. Col Noble Mayombo concentrated on taming promising presidential candidates from the political opposition. In April 1998, for example, Mayombo considered Alhajji Nasser Sebaggala alias Seya as a likely competitor to Museveni in 2001. This was, especially, after Sebaggala defeated four Movement-leaning candidates for the Kampala mayoral seat in 1998. He won with 60,592 votes. He defeated Wasswa Biriggwa (49,398), Christopher Iga (32,499), Merinah Konyonyo (741) and Senseko Kulubya (639).

Nasser Ntege Ssebaggala lacked the requirements to contest for the presidency.

Two months after the mayoral elections, Mayombo ruled out the likelihood of Sebaggala competing for presidency in 2001 following his arrest at the John F. Kennedy Airport in the US, on June 13.

He was then charged and convicted on bank fraud. But, when Sebaggala finished serving his jail sentence and returned to a rousing welcome in the early 2000s, Mayombo realised that Sebaggala was a potential competitor to Museveni.

In an attempt to spy on Sebaggala, Mayombo instructed his security informer, Kibirango, to identify for him a nice-looking lady, whom he wanted to spy on Sebaggala. Nakato was identified and planted in Sebaggala’s camp.

A few weeks later, Nakato stopped giving Mayombo information about Sebaggala’s operations. A surprised Mayombo then realised that Sebaggala had instead impregnated her. Nakato and Sebaggala, therefore, ended up as wife and husband, with two children.

By deploying Nakato, who had observable big bums, Mayombo overlooked a known fact that Sebaggala was a force to reckon with, as far as falling in love with women with big bums alias nyash, is concerned.

In the end, Sebaggala was unable to compete for the presidency in 2001 because he lacked the requisite academic qualification. He, instead, supported Col (rtd) Kizza Besigye.

Ministers campaign

It all started on January 8, 2001, when two of the Kabaka’s ministers, Joyce Ssebugwawo (women affairs) and Robert Ssebunnya (health), accompanied Besigye for official nomination as a presidential candidate at Kololo.

During the campaigns, Museveni’s minister for agriculture, Dr Kisamba Mugerwa, who was heading candidate Museveni’s campaigns in Buganda, complained that some of the Kabaka’s ministers were co-ordinating Besigye’s campaigns inside the Buganda Kingdom headquarters, Bulange.

He warned that in case Besigye was defeated after identifying with some of the Kabaka’s ministers, Buganda Kingdom would suffer a setback.

Kisamba made those statements when he was inaugurating the Kiira Movement Taskforce in Kampala.

First to respond to Kisamba’s statements was the Kabaka’s minister for local government, Kamala Kanamwangi. He asked: “If Besigye’s supporters come to my office on issues other than politics, does it mean that I am Besigye’s supporter? Why don’t they make noise when Movement supporters frequent Bulange?”

In her reaction, Ssebugwawo said that she was free to support any candidate. She vowed: “I can neither be threatened nor confused.

Whereas the Nnabagereka and the Kabaka have no vote, I have my vote and I will vote Besigye because his manifesto is more appealing to me.” She also disclosed that Museveni and his wife, Janet and the then vice-president, Specioza Kazibwe, had been pressuring her to support the Movement government, but she strongly declined.

As the presidential campaigns progressed, Kanamwangi accompanied Besigye to Ntwetwe in Kiboga. In his address, Kanamwangi told the people that Buganda had decided to vote for Besigye because his manifesto had what Buganda seeks. In the same month, Kanamwangi and other Kabaka’s ministers, Ssebugwawo and Sewava Serubiri, campaigned for Besigye in Mukono, where Serubiri urged the people to vote for Besigye, whom he described as a person who would grant federo (federal system of government) to Buganda.

During his campaign trail in Luwero, Besigye was accompanied by Ssebugwawo and Ssebunnya.

Ssebugwawo told the people of Luwero that they (Kabaka’s ministers) decided to close their offices at Mengo in order to take part in open, public campaigns for Besigye. She added that for 15 years, Buganda ‘knelt down’ before President Museveni, begging him to return its properties, but he did not.

Museveni team reacts

As the Kabaka’s ministers intensified their support for Besigye, the head of candidate Museveni’s taskforce, Moses Kigongo, told the people of Kayunga in February that Besigye’s federo promise was hot air.

Uganda’s envoy to New York, Prof. Semakula Kiwanuka, also attacked Besigye on the issue of federo in Gayaza in March.

He said: “How can he (Besigye) be excused when his manifesto is silent on federo? Do not be used and deceived by selfish people.

Where was he at the Kabaka’s coronation at Naggalabi and during the royal wedding preparations? Isn’t he fooling Baganda?”

Byaruhanga’s missive

The Kabaka’s ministers campaigning for Besigye were criticised by the secretary of candidate Museveni’s taskforce, Moses Byaruhanga. In his February letter to the editor in New Vision, he wrote the following.

“Presidential candidate Dr Kizza Besigye has been telling people in Buganda that he will grant them ‘federo.’ This, he has been doing with some Mengo ministers.

What is interesting about these Mengo ministers moving with Dr Besigye, is that they themselves, their Mengoism’ notwithstanding, stood for political office and were rejected by the very Baganda they were leading. For instance, Mr Robert Ssebunnya, the Mengo minister of health, stood for LC5 in Mpigi and lost despite the fact that he promised ‘federo.’ Joyce Ssebugwawo, another Mengo minister supporting Besigye, stood for CA (Constituent Assembly) on a federo ticket and lost to Wasswa Lule.

During the CA and parliamentary elections, Mengo de-campaigned people like Bidandi Ssali, Steven Kavuma, Mulindwa Birimumaso, Kintu Musoke and others, who stood for decentralisation.

“If Besigye and his Mengo people were to offer federo, the first thing they would have done would have been to put it in Besigye’s manifesto. Was it an oversight to have the federo issue left out in Besigye’s manifesto? If Besigye is genuine about federo, he should come out clear and tell the country who Buganda will federate with.

You cannot have federo in Buganda while the rest of Uganda is left to a republic. What the Mengo people's understanding of Federo is giving executive powers to Buganda, Toro, Bunyoro, Ankole, Acholi, Lango, Teso and so on. In the case of Ankole, doesn’t federo mean bringing back obugabe? “Besigye should tell Ugandans whether he is a republican or a federalist. He cannot be both. The best thing for Buganda is what Museveni has done for them. He restored the Kabaka of Buganda and returned to Buganda ebyaffe. Those who want to drag the Kabaka into politics are enemies of Buganda.

The Kabaka should be above partisan politics because those who want federo and those who do not are his subjects.”

Kabaka reshuffles

In the aftermath of the 2001 presidential elections, Kabaka Ronald Mutebi carried out a cabinet reshuffle in which he dropped those who participated in Besigye’s campaigns. He replaced Ssebugwawo with Apolonia Lugemwa, Ssebunnya with Nelson Kawalya and Kanamwangi with Arthur Bagunywa. Ssebugwawo and Ssebunnya have since joined Museveni’s governments.

The writer/researcher, Muwonge, wrote a book, President Idi Amin: A Narrative of His Rule (1971-1979). It costs sh100,000 at Uganda Bookshop, Kampala.