It’s a fallacy that Buganda ever got special treatment
Jan 16, 2006
<b>Peter Mulira Mayanja</b><br><br><b>A learned friend With a historical perspective</b><br><br>When I accepted to take over Abu Mayanja’s column in this paper after his death, I was both humbled and challenged.
Peter Mulira Mayanja
A learned friend With a historical perspective
When I accepted to take over Abu Mayanja’s column in this paper after his death, I was both humbled and challenged.
Abu was a colossus in our political history who, unfortunately like others from the central region who started the independence movement in the early fifties, lost its leadership to “outsidersâ€. At the same time, Buganda itself gradually suffered a reversal in her fortunes leading to the events of 1966/7.
As homage to Abu and his likes I decided to concentrate in these columns on examining the issues which led to this twin development.
Buganda had been a sovereign kingdom for 600 years when she signed its 1900 agreement with the British under which she ceded her sovereignty to the British crown. She did so as the kingdom of “Uganda†when the Uganda protectorate and its jurisdiction had not been established yet.
Under Section 3 of the agreement, Buganda agreed to rank as a province of equal rank with any other province into which a future protectorate might be divided for the purposes of administration of the protectorate and under Section 9 the kingdom was divided into 20 counties for its local administration.
This means that the local government in Buganda was set up by agreement based on its 20 counties before the national administration was established.
Article 6 of the Uganda Order in Council, 1902, permitted the governor to divide the territory constituting the protectorate into provinces and districts and the governor did this pursuant to a general notice issued on July 1, 1908.
Buganda as a province was divided into three districts for central government administration while the rest of the country was divided into the northern province with four districts. eastern and western provinces with three and four districts respectively.
Under the African Administrations (Incorporation) Ordinance, the native administration of Buganda was incorporated under the title of “Buganda Government†comprising of the Kabaka and the Lukiiko and all the district administrations elsewhere became incorporated bodies or governments under the titles of their districts like Bukedi African Local Administration.
District councils were established under these governments by proclamation by the governor made pursuant to the African Local Governments Ordinance. Accordingly, elsewhere in the country the district as a unit represented both the central and local governments.
Any rational person will see that claims that Buganda was given special treatment is mere humbug.
It joined the protectorate administration in 1908 at provincial level as an entity and with its own local administration already in place and in this context one cannot talk of a special status being given to her. She agreed to join the protectorate administration at a provincial level before the protectorate was formed.
This consideration must be the basis of any debate of the Buganda issue and lack of its appreciation has led to so many wrong-headed decisions and tendencies since 1966. The local governments so formed had a big impact on the political development of the country. When political parties were formed in Buganda starting from 1952, they faced resistance from leaders of local governments throughout Uganda who saw them as threats to their positions because of their demands for independence from the British.
In Buganda, the deportation of the Kabaka to London by the British government temporarily saw a shift of the political initiative from the Mengo government to the elites who fought for his return. Out of their efforts, the Hancock constitutional committee was appointed which in its composition represented the elite. As soon as the Hancock report was published, the Lukiiko appointed a more conservative committee headed by a saza chief, Michael Kintu, to study the proposals and make its own recommendations.
The Buganda agreement of 1955 resulted from the work of these two committees. The agreement had two major implications for the rest of the country. It was agreed that in 1957 the British government would review the recommendation for direct elections of African members in the Legco, the colonial parliament. This resulted in the direct elections of 1958 which brought people like Apollo Milton Obote to national prominence. It was also agreed that no major amendment to the agreement would be made until 1961 thus opening up the possibility of self-rule for Uganda in that year.
The election of Michael Kintu’s committee heralded the rebirth of neoconservatism at Mengo which had been effectively suppressed in 1949 when the government outlawed an ultraconservative society variously known as the Bataka Party, Bataka Uganda or Bataka Community declaring it to be dangerous to good government. Under its new form, this tendency of people who did not share its thinking were regarded as enemies of the Kabaka and Buganda and were persecuted.
Political parties were openly denounced by Mengo. The bataka grouping which had been formed was revived under a new name of Bataka Council and at the same time the Lukiiko decided to boycott the direct elections in 1958 which it had recommended itself. In the midst of all this a vacuum was created when all the Baganda leaders of political parties, save DP were deported by the British government in 1959. This left African leadership in the Legco to the 14 members elected from the rest of the districts since Buganda had boycotted the elections.
These leaders did not share Mengo’s neoconservative tendencies. This group which included Apollo Milton Obote soon formed the Uganda People’s Congress and this had two results.
First, the Baganda political leaders who started the struggle for independence were replaced on the political stage and secondly, Mengo held sway in Buganda’s political affairs in the absence of the party leaders.
Although Ben Kiwanuka would have certainly been independent Uganda’s first leader, this crown was snatched from him by Mengo’s pact with UPC under which all the 21 Parliamentary representatives from Buganda were elected by the Lukiiko and handed over to UPC thus enabling it to have the majority in Parliament to form the government. With Mengo now openly in the political arena, the battlelines were drawn for a direct confrontation with UPC but when this came it was for the wrong reasons.
The Lukiiko was accused of passing a resolution demanding the removal of the central government from Buganda soil which it never passed according to the available official records.
Buganda was accused of having a special status. This was unfair because her position was historically justified.
A learned friend With a historical perspective
When I accepted to take over Abu Mayanja’s column in this paper after his death, I was both humbled and challenged.
Abu was a colossus in our political history who, unfortunately like others from the central region who started the independence movement in the early fifties, lost its leadership to “outsidersâ€. At the same time, Buganda itself gradually suffered a reversal in her fortunes leading to the events of 1966/7.
As homage to Abu and his likes I decided to concentrate in these columns on examining the issues which led to this twin development.
Buganda had been a sovereign kingdom for 600 years when she signed its 1900 agreement with the British under which she ceded her sovereignty to the British crown. She did so as the kingdom of “Uganda†when the Uganda protectorate and its jurisdiction had not been established yet.
Under Section 3 of the agreement, Buganda agreed to rank as a province of equal rank with any other province into which a future protectorate might be divided for the purposes of administration of the protectorate and under Section 9 the kingdom was divided into 20 counties for its local administration.
This means that the local government in Buganda was set up by agreement based on its 20 counties before the national administration was established.
Article 6 of the Uganda Order in Council, 1902, permitted the governor to divide the territory constituting the protectorate into provinces and districts and the governor did this pursuant to a general notice issued on July 1, 1908.
Buganda as a province was divided into three districts for central government administration while the rest of the country was divided into the northern province with four districts. eastern and western provinces with three and four districts respectively.
Under the African Administrations (Incorporation) Ordinance, the native administration of Buganda was incorporated under the title of “Buganda Government†comprising of the Kabaka and the Lukiiko and all the district administrations elsewhere became incorporated bodies or governments under the titles of their districts like Bukedi African Local Administration.
District councils were established under these governments by proclamation by the governor made pursuant to the African Local Governments Ordinance. Accordingly, elsewhere in the country the district as a unit represented both the central and local governments.
Any rational person will see that claims that Buganda was given special treatment is mere humbug.
It joined the protectorate administration in 1908 at provincial level as an entity and with its own local administration already in place and in this context one cannot talk of a special status being given to her. She agreed to join the protectorate administration at a provincial level before the protectorate was formed.
This consideration must be the basis of any debate of the Buganda issue and lack of its appreciation has led to so many wrong-headed decisions and tendencies since 1966. The local governments so formed had a big impact on the political development of the country. When political parties were formed in Buganda starting from 1952, they faced resistance from leaders of local governments throughout Uganda who saw them as threats to their positions because of their demands for independence from the British.
In Buganda, the deportation of the Kabaka to London by the British government temporarily saw a shift of the political initiative from the Mengo government to the elites who fought for his return. Out of their efforts, the Hancock constitutional committee was appointed which in its composition represented the elite. As soon as the Hancock report was published, the Lukiiko appointed a more conservative committee headed by a saza chief, Michael Kintu, to study the proposals and make its own recommendations.
The Buganda agreement of 1955 resulted from the work of these two committees. The agreement had two major implications for the rest of the country. It was agreed that in 1957 the British government would review the recommendation for direct elections of African members in the Legco, the colonial parliament. This resulted in the direct elections of 1958 which brought people like Apollo Milton Obote to national prominence. It was also agreed that no major amendment to the agreement would be made until 1961 thus opening up the possibility of self-rule for Uganda in that year.
The election of Michael Kintu’s committee heralded the rebirth of neoconservatism at Mengo which had been effectively suppressed in 1949 when the government outlawed an ultraconservative society variously known as the Bataka Party, Bataka Uganda or Bataka Community declaring it to be dangerous to good government. Under its new form, this tendency of people who did not share its thinking were regarded as enemies of the Kabaka and Buganda and were persecuted.
Political parties were openly denounced by Mengo. The bataka grouping which had been formed was revived under a new name of Bataka Council and at the same time the Lukiiko decided to boycott the direct elections in 1958 which it had recommended itself. In the midst of all this a vacuum was created when all the Baganda leaders of political parties, save DP were deported by the British government in 1959. This left African leadership in the Legco to the 14 members elected from the rest of the districts since Buganda had boycotted the elections.
These leaders did not share Mengo’s neoconservative tendencies. This group which included Apollo Milton Obote soon formed the Uganda People’s Congress and this had two results.
First, the Baganda political leaders who started the struggle for independence were replaced on the political stage and secondly, Mengo held sway in Buganda’s political affairs in the absence of the party leaders.
Although Ben Kiwanuka would have certainly been independent Uganda’s first leader, this crown was snatched from him by Mengo’s pact with UPC under which all the 21 Parliamentary representatives from Buganda were elected by the Lukiiko and handed over to UPC thus enabling it to have the majority in Parliament to form the government. With Mengo now openly in the political arena, the battlelines were drawn for a direct confrontation with UPC but when this came it was for the wrong reasons.
The Lukiiko was accused of passing a resolution demanding the removal of the central government from Buganda soil which it never passed according to the available official records.
Buganda was accused of having a special status. This was unfair because her position was historically justified.