Wrangle Erupts Over Bujagali Money

By Robert KanusuA row has erupted between the traditional healers in Busoga and their chief representative to the Bujagali oracle, Nabamba Bujagali, over the compensation money from AES Nile power for the relocation of the ancestral shrine.The New Vision recently learnt that the traditional healers accused Nabamba Bujagali of betraying them by compromising with AES to destroy their ancestral shrine contrary to the resolution passed during their general assembly on October 5, 2001.The healers (popularly known as Abaswezi), said they had agreed with the chief oracle during the appeasement ceremony organised by AES at the falls, that Bujagali Nabamba would not make any major decision regarding the project without their consent. “But we just heard that he had been given the compensation money to relocate the ancestral shrine to another place. He did not even tell us about the money but we just see him constructing his palace and driving a landrover. That is why we want him to explain to us,” Siraje Mandwa Isabirye, the group chairman said.The healers accused Bujagali of playing double standards at their expense, saying he had no powers to sacrifice their shrine for money.“That is not personal property,” they said. Ends