Mengo must strive to rid herself of two main evils
Jan 09, 2006
<b>A learned friend With a historical perspective</b><br><b>Peter Mulira Mayanja</b><br><br>Many people were surprised by one of the ministers who recently resigned from the Mengo government when he claimed that religious conflicts were frustrating the implementation of projects at Mengo.
A learned friend With a historical perspective
Peter Mulira Mayanja
Many people were surprised by one of the ministers who recently resigned from the Mengo government when he claimed that religious conflicts were frustrating the implementation of projects at Mengo.
The former minister was one of the most successful ones in the previous government and definitely the most amiable among his colleagues who never had cause to suspect that below the surface, their colleague was harbouring religious anger and frustration.
Such is the nature of complexes which relate to people’s deep-seated beliefs and faiths: they only come forth as shields against a perceived wrong or are used in other cases as swords to attack perceived enemies.
In the case of this minister who happens to be a catholic it has transpired that the incoming minister of finance or omuwanika, a protestant, once chaired a committee of inquiry into the minister’s department and came out with an uncharitable report. Mengo has to rid itself of two evils, namely the religious bogey as well as neo-traditionalism which thrives on identification and persecution of the so-called enemies of Buganda without offering much besides.
The latter trait
first developed in the early 1940s when the then Katikkiro Martin Luther Nsibirwa retired all elderly chiefs and replaced them with young and better educated civil servants. The affected chiefs joined hands with other disaffected forces and conjured up a Buganda which was under siege by traitors. This group’s activities led to two uprisings in 1945 and 1949 in which its ire did not spare even the Kabaka.
When political parties started diverting the centre of political leadership from Mengo during the ’50s, the neo-conservative spirit was reawakened by leaders at Mengo and political party leaders were openly demonise by this force as the new enemies of the Kabaka and Buganda.
In the early ’60s this tendency expressed itself in Kabaka Yekka and later in 1964 it resulted in the abawejjere movement whose activities forced Michael Kintu to resign as Katikkiro.
In our time, the neo-conservativism is incarnated in the bataka council whose activities have forced Katikkiro Mulwanyamuli Ssemwogerere to resign.
The religious bogey is both diversionary and in most cases, imaginary. It traces its history to a myth that catholics were discriminated against at Mengo and that a catholic could not become a Katikkiro until the present Kabaka appointed Joseph Mulwanyamuli Ssemwogerere in 1993.
This is a fiction because Stanislus Mugwanya, a catholic was a co-Katikkiro with Sir Apollo Kaggwa from 1900 to 1922 and the fact that no co-Katikkiro was appointed to replace Mugwanya could well be due to the fact that the experience of having two bulls in the same kraal had not been entirely efficacious. In fact, Mugwanya resigned due to wrangles with Kaggwa. After the catholics and protestants defeated the moslems in their religious wars towards the end of the 19th century, the spoils of war were divided amongst the victorious armies.
Under the arrangements which were reached there were to be two Katikkiros, one in charge of judicial matters and doubling as chief judge and the other to be in charge of administration. The judiciary and the administrative arm of government became the prerogatives of catholics and protestants respectively in terms of employment.
The relative religious populations at the time is unknown but could provide useful clues. There is no evidence that appointments of subsequent Katikkiros after Kaggwa’s death in 1927 were motivated by considerations other than merit. Kaggwa was succeeded by Tefiro Kisosonkole who was the most senior chief at the time.
Nsibirwa who succeeded Kisosonkole earned his colours due to his indomitable abilities while Michael Kawalya Kaggwa was brought in from Ethiopian where he was a major in the British army to come and apply his military mind to the control of the uprisings of 1945 after Nsibirwa was assassinated. Kawalya Kaggwa was followed by Paulo Kavuma, perhaps one of the most-impressive Ugandans ever.
This history does not suggest religious discrimination. However, it is the attempt by Matayo Mugwanya a catholic to become Katikkiro in 1956 that is most illustrative. In a straight fight with Michael Kintu in the first Lukiiko election of the Katikkiro, Kintu won by 41 votes to Mugwanya’ s 39.
The statistics become interesting when you consider that Kintu, a protestant who was also a saza chief got all the 20 votes of the saza chiefs including those of catholic chiefs. This means that if the election was conducted by only the 60 elected members, Mugwanya would have won by 39 votes to Kintu’s 21. It should be pointed out that the Kabaka Sir Daudi Chwa II, had earlier in the ’30s entrusted his son Edward Mutesa to Stanislus Mugwanya who brought him up as his foster son.
It is unlikely that a person would have no problem entrusting his son to be brought up by a catholic but entertain prejudice against catholics when it came to public office. Mutesa himself had Bishop Kiwanuka of Rubaga diocese and Cardinal Nsubuga as his closest confidants. A huge grandfather clock he donated to Kiwanuka in 1956 still stands at the Archbishop’s palace as testimony to this friendship.
It is against this background that the writer of a letter in a vernacular daily should be considered off-mark when he appealed to the Kabaka not to accept Ssemwogerere’s resignation arguing that the catholics would take it badly.
While the regional tier Ssemwogerere negotiated should be supported, some adjustments need to be made when making the law implementing the constitutional amendment.
For example, to remove the disconnection between the Kabaka and the election of the chairman of the regional government the law should provide that in the case of Buganda, the person elected as chairman of the regional tier will be Katikkiro-designate to be appointed by the Kabaka as Katikkiro by handing him the Ddamula.
The cultural committee in the Lukiiko should be scrapped since it encroaches on the Kabaka’s role as Ssabataka. The creation of Mengo municipality was also unsatisfactory.
The only reason why Mengo should be a municipality is that it is the capital of the kingdom of Buganda and as part of Kampala which was considered to be outside Buganda under the 1995 constitution and denied the kingdom its capital.
The capital of Buganda which is known as kibuga is situated where the king resides and for the last four kings this has been at Mengo.
Peter Mulira Mayanja
Many people were surprised by one of the ministers who recently resigned from the Mengo government when he claimed that religious conflicts were frustrating the implementation of projects at Mengo.
The former minister was one of the most successful ones in the previous government and definitely the most amiable among his colleagues who never had cause to suspect that below the surface, their colleague was harbouring religious anger and frustration.
Such is the nature of complexes which relate to people’s deep-seated beliefs and faiths: they only come forth as shields against a perceived wrong or are used in other cases as swords to attack perceived enemies.
In the case of this minister who happens to be a catholic it has transpired that the incoming minister of finance or omuwanika, a protestant, once chaired a committee of inquiry into the minister’s department and came out with an uncharitable report. Mengo has to rid itself of two evils, namely the religious bogey as well as neo-traditionalism which thrives on identification and persecution of the so-called enemies of Buganda without offering much besides.
The latter trait
first developed in the early 1940s when the then Katikkiro Martin Luther Nsibirwa retired all elderly chiefs and replaced them with young and better educated civil servants. The affected chiefs joined hands with other disaffected forces and conjured up a Buganda which was under siege by traitors. This group’s activities led to two uprisings in 1945 and 1949 in which its ire did not spare even the Kabaka.
When political parties started diverting the centre of political leadership from Mengo during the ’50s, the neo-conservative spirit was reawakened by leaders at Mengo and political party leaders were openly demonise by this force as the new enemies of the Kabaka and Buganda.
In the early ’60s this tendency expressed itself in Kabaka Yekka and later in 1964 it resulted in the abawejjere movement whose activities forced Michael Kintu to resign as Katikkiro.
In our time, the neo-conservativism is incarnated in the bataka council whose activities have forced Katikkiro Mulwanyamuli Ssemwogerere to resign.
The religious bogey is both diversionary and in most cases, imaginary. It traces its history to a myth that catholics were discriminated against at Mengo and that a catholic could not become a Katikkiro until the present Kabaka appointed Joseph Mulwanyamuli Ssemwogerere in 1993.
This is a fiction because Stanislus Mugwanya, a catholic was a co-Katikkiro with Sir Apollo Kaggwa from 1900 to 1922 and the fact that no co-Katikkiro was appointed to replace Mugwanya could well be due to the fact that the experience of having two bulls in the same kraal had not been entirely efficacious. In fact, Mugwanya resigned due to wrangles with Kaggwa. After the catholics and protestants defeated the moslems in their religious wars towards the end of the 19th century, the spoils of war were divided amongst the victorious armies.
Under the arrangements which were reached there were to be two Katikkiros, one in charge of judicial matters and doubling as chief judge and the other to be in charge of administration. The judiciary and the administrative arm of government became the prerogatives of catholics and protestants respectively in terms of employment.
The relative religious populations at the time is unknown but could provide useful clues. There is no evidence that appointments of subsequent Katikkiros after Kaggwa’s death in 1927 were motivated by considerations other than merit. Kaggwa was succeeded by Tefiro Kisosonkole who was the most senior chief at the time.
Nsibirwa who succeeded Kisosonkole earned his colours due to his indomitable abilities while Michael Kawalya Kaggwa was brought in from Ethiopian where he was a major in the British army to come and apply his military mind to the control of the uprisings of 1945 after Nsibirwa was assassinated. Kawalya Kaggwa was followed by Paulo Kavuma, perhaps one of the most-impressive Ugandans ever.
This history does not suggest religious discrimination. However, it is the attempt by Matayo Mugwanya a catholic to become Katikkiro in 1956 that is most illustrative. In a straight fight with Michael Kintu in the first Lukiiko election of the Katikkiro, Kintu won by 41 votes to Mugwanya’ s 39.
The statistics become interesting when you consider that Kintu, a protestant who was also a saza chief got all the 20 votes of the saza chiefs including those of catholic chiefs. This means that if the election was conducted by only the 60 elected members, Mugwanya would have won by 39 votes to Kintu’s 21. It should be pointed out that the Kabaka Sir Daudi Chwa II, had earlier in the ’30s entrusted his son Edward Mutesa to Stanislus Mugwanya who brought him up as his foster son.
It is unlikely that a person would have no problem entrusting his son to be brought up by a catholic but entertain prejudice against catholics when it came to public office. Mutesa himself had Bishop Kiwanuka of Rubaga diocese and Cardinal Nsubuga as his closest confidants. A huge grandfather clock he donated to Kiwanuka in 1956 still stands at the Archbishop’s palace as testimony to this friendship.
It is against this background that the writer of a letter in a vernacular daily should be considered off-mark when he appealed to the Kabaka not to accept Ssemwogerere’s resignation arguing that the catholics would take it badly.
While the regional tier Ssemwogerere negotiated should be supported, some adjustments need to be made when making the law implementing the constitutional amendment.
For example, to remove the disconnection between the Kabaka and the election of the chairman of the regional government the law should provide that in the case of Buganda, the person elected as chairman of the regional tier will be Katikkiro-designate to be appointed by the Kabaka as Katikkiro by handing him the Ddamula.
The cultural committee in the Lukiiko should be scrapped since it encroaches on the Kabaka’s role as Ssabataka. The creation of Mengo municipality was also unsatisfactory.
The only reason why Mengo should be a municipality is that it is the capital of the kingdom of Buganda and as part of Kampala which was considered to be outside Buganda under the 1995 constitution and denied the kingdom its capital.
The capital of Buganda which is known as kibuga is situated where the king resides and for the last four kings this has been at Mengo.