Buganda was not favoured by the British as claimed
Nov 28, 2005
<b>By Peter Mulira</b><br><br>Sir Edward Mutesa II, the late Kabaka of Buganda, whose eightieth birthday was celebrated on November 19, was, until his death, in exile in London in 1969 at the centre of what came to be known as the Buganda problem, which has dogged resolution to this day.
By Peter Mulira
Sir Edward Mutesa II, the late Kabaka of Buganda, whose eightieth birthday was celebrated on November 19, was, until his death, in exile in London in 1969 at the centre of what came to be known as the Buganda problem, which has dogged resolution to this day.
The problem which concerns the Buganda agreement traces its immediate cause to the 1955 Buganda agreement under which the colonial government conferred more autonomy and responsibilities on Buganda government and its local governments which were based on its 20 counties.
The agreement also provided that no constitutional changes would take place for the next six years which, in effect, suggested the possibility of self-government for the country as a whole around 1961.
This led to agitation by mengo for assurance from Britain that Buaganda would not lose its autonomy in a self-governing Uganda. The agitation for assurances went into high gear towards the end of the ‘50s and when they were not forthcoming, Buganda tested her position in a constitutional case in which the Legislative council (Legco) proceedings which had just been made by the colonial government was a major constitutional change which breached the 1955 agreement and thereby ended British protection over Buganda.
Although Buganda lost the case, she continues to pursue her cause and around this time, her minister of finance, Amos Sempa, visited the United states on a tour sponsored by the state department to study the workings of the federal government there and on his return via Switzerland he announced at a press conference that a federal system would be the best government for independent Uganda. He noted that some cantons in Switzerland were smaller that our districts.
In the end, in what appeared to be a partial concession to Buganda’s demands in April, 1960, the colonial Secretary wrote a letter to the Kabaka on the eve of a review of Buganda’s future in which he confirmed that the development of the kingdom “increasingly responsible for the conduct of its own affairs but integrated nonetheless into Uganda as a whole required considerable local thought†thereby officially the door for Buganda’s demand for a federal status in an independent Uganda. Buganda’s position on the constitutional developments of the country received a rebuff from the leader of the Uganda People’s congress, Dr Apollo Milton Obote, who announced at a rally at Walukuba, Jinja, on August 15, 1960, that “the UPC has no connection with the kabaka, let alone a tacit arrangement with him.
Above all, the party is opposed to the views of the Kabaka’s government and does not visualise any reconciliation between the two forcesâ€. Concurrently with the demand for a federal status, Buganda started to demand that the Kabaka should be the first President of Uganda, a move which did not please the other kingdoms and the rest of the country and a young Chango Macho, one of the Presidential Advisers today, in a letter to the Uganda Argus showed a lot of prescience when he argued appropriately that the best policy would be to divorce hereditary rulers from national politics and “no one would interfere with the status quo as long as their respective subjects still want themâ€.
Later in August 1960, the Buganda Lukiiko escalated the stakes when I declared Buganda’s independence from Britain as from December 31, 1960, although as expected, this came to naught. A statement by a spokesman for the Mengo government explained that the move was taken in order to counter moves by those who favoured a unitary form of government and that Buganda would always fight for the recognition of her institutions.
At the independence constitutional conference which was held in London in 1961 in an apparent change of heart, UPC decided to support Buganda’s demands in exchange for being given all the 21 MPs from Buganda who were to be indirectly elected by the Lukiiko, a move which ensured it of winning the elections. Buganda’s seed of destruction may have been planted at this point because UPC, as later events showed, may not have genuinely dropped its antipathy to Buganda’s position as expressed by its president at the rally in Jinja just months earlier.
After independence in 1964, UPC got Mutesa elected as the first President but two years later Obote deposed him and ordered an attack on his palace by the army in search of a cache of arms Mutesa was alleged to have intended to use in a coup to overthrow the government.
Although no arms were found which suggests Mutesa’s innocence he was forced into exile in London where he died in 1969 two years after his kingdom and government had been abolished under Obote’s 1967 constitution.
As we consider reconciliation in the country as proposed by president Yoweri Museveni, it is incumbent upon us to first review our perceptions of the causes of the country’s problems especially since there is evidence that Buganda never committed the offences which she has been accused of by our leaders for the last 40 years remembering in particular that: The attack on the Kabaka’s palace was unnecessary since he had not stocked there a cache of arms as had been alleged.
The Buganda Lukiiko never passed a resolution ordering the government of Uganda to leave Buganda land and that when the motion was introduced on may 26, 1966, the entire Mengo cabinet opposed it before the speaker threw it out as being illegal.
Accordingly, the abolition of Buganda’s federal government a year later was baseless. Buganda was not favoured by the British as is claimed by our new politicians. It negotiated its constitutional status through agreements with Britain and it cannot be blamed if others did not do so.
Federo was not based on the rantings of traditionalists as is commonly alleged. It is a viable alternative to a unitary system and has nothing to do with kings.
Buganda saw it as the solution to our problems after a careful study and under international conventions including the African charter on human and People’s rights which was signed in Banjul in 1981, she is entitled to be governed under a federal status if its people desire it.
The writer is a Kampala advocate
Sir Edward Mutesa II, the late Kabaka of Buganda, whose eightieth birthday was celebrated on November 19, was, until his death, in exile in London in 1969 at the centre of what came to be known as the Buganda problem, which has dogged resolution to this day.
The problem which concerns the Buganda agreement traces its immediate cause to the 1955 Buganda agreement under which the colonial government conferred more autonomy and responsibilities on Buganda government and its local governments which were based on its 20 counties.
The agreement also provided that no constitutional changes would take place for the next six years which, in effect, suggested the possibility of self-government for the country as a whole around 1961.
This led to agitation by mengo for assurance from Britain that Buaganda would not lose its autonomy in a self-governing Uganda. The agitation for assurances went into high gear towards the end of the ‘50s and when they were not forthcoming, Buganda tested her position in a constitutional case in which the Legislative council (Legco) proceedings which had just been made by the colonial government was a major constitutional change which breached the 1955 agreement and thereby ended British protection over Buganda.
Although Buganda lost the case, she continues to pursue her cause and around this time, her minister of finance, Amos Sempa, visited the United states on a tour sponsored by the state department to study the workings of the federal government there and on his return via Switzerland he announced at a press conference that a federal system would be the best government for independent Uganda. He noted that some cantons in Switzerland were smaller that our districts.
In the end, in what appeared to be a partial concession to Buganda’s demands in April, 1960, the colonial Secretary wrote a letter to the Kabaka on the eve of a review of Buganda’s future in which he confirmed that the development of the kingdom “increasingly responsible for the conduct of its own affairs but integrated nonetheless into Uganda as a whole required considerable local thought†thereby officially the door for Buganda’s demand for a federal status in an independent Uganda. Buganda’s position on the constitutional developments of the country received a rebuff from the leader of the Uganda People’s congress, Dr Apollo Milton Obote, who announced at a rally at Walukuba, Jinja, on August 15, 1960, that “the UPC has no connection with the kabaka, let alone a tacit arrangement with him.
Above all, the party is opposed to the views of the Kabaka’s government and does not visualise any reconciliation between the two forcesâ€. Concurrently with the demand for a federal status, Buganda started to demand that the Kabaka should be the first President of Uganda, a move which did not please the other kingdoms and the rest of the country and a young Chango Macho, one of the Presidential Advisers today, in a letter to the Uganda Argus showed a lot of prescience when he argued appropriately that the best policy would be to divorce hereditary rulers from national politics and “no one would interfere with the status quo as long as their respective subjects still want themâ€.
Later in August 1960, the Buganda Lukiiko escalated the stakes when I declared Buganda’s independence from Britain as from December 31, 1960, although as expected, this came to naught. A statement by a spokesman for the Mengo government explained that the move was taken in order to counter moves by those who favoured a unitary form of government and that Buganda would always fight for the recognition of her institutions.
At the independence constitutional conference which was held in London in 1961 in an apparent change of heart, UPC decided to support Buganda’s demands in exchange for being given all the 21 MPs from Buganda who were to be indirectly elected by the Lukiiko, a move which ensured it of winning the elections. Buganda’s seed of destruction may have been planted at this point because UPC, as later events showed, may not have genuinely dropped its antipathy to Buganda’s position as expressed by its president at the rally in Jinja just months earlier.
After independence in 1964, UPC got Mutesa elected as the first President but two years later Obote deposed him and ordered an attack on his palace by the army in search of a cache of arms Mutesa was alleged to have intended to use in a coup to overthrow the government.
Although no arms were found which suggests Mutesa’s innocence he was forced into exile in London where he died in 1969 two years after his kingdom and government had been abolished under Obote’s 1967 constitution.
As we consider reconciliation in the country as proposed by president Yoweri Museveni, it is incumbent upon us to first review our perceptions of the causes of the country’s problems especially since there is evidence that Buganda never committed the offences which she has been accused of by our leaders for the last 40 years remembering in particular that: The attack on the Kabaka’s palace was unnecessary since he had not stocked there a cache of arms as had been alleged.
The Buganda Lukiiko never passed a resolution ordering the government of Uganda to leave Buganda land and that when the motion was introduced on may 26, 1966, the entire Mengo cabinet opposed it before the speaker threw it out as being illegal.
Accordingly, the abolition of Buganda’s federal government a year later was baseless. Buganda was not favoured by the British as is claimed by our new politicians. It negotiated its constitutional status through agreements with Britain and it cannot be blamed if others did not do so.
Federo was not based on the rantings of traditionalists as is commonly alleged. It is a viable alternative to a unitary system and has nothing to do with kings.
Buganda saw it as the solution to our problems after a careful study and under international conventions including the African charter on human and People’s rights which was signed in Banjul in 1981, she is entitled to be governed under a federal status if its people desire it.
The writer is a Kampala advocate