Kabaka should not go - Govt

Sep 12, 2009

THE Government has asked the Kabaka, Ronald Mutebi, to cancel his planned visit to Kayunga to prevent further criminal acts and to protect his life.

By Mary Karugaba

THE Government has asked the Kabaka, Ronald Mutebi, to cancel his planned visit to Kayunga to prevent further criminal acts and to protect his life.

Addressing the press at the Media Centre on Friday, the Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura said the situation was still tense.

“In light of today’s events, as well as the calculated disobedience of lawful orders by some groups as witnessed in Kayunga in the past few days, to prevent further criminal acts and to protect lives and property, the Police has decided that it is a security risk for the Kabaka to visit Kayunga,” Kayihura said.

“The restriction is based on the security situation in the country. We don’t want blood shed because each group has vowed to kill each other. Prevention is better than cure.”

Kayihura was accompanied by the information minister, Kabakumba Masiko, and the chairman of the Broadcasting Council, Godfrey Mutabazi.

The Police chief condemned the violence and the lawlessness, which he said was caused by thugs. He vowed to crack down on hooliganism and bring to book all perpetrators, inciters, organisers and planners of the violence.

He said the Police was compiling a damage report, which would be availed to the public. Individuals who attacked Police posts or Police officers would be shot, he warned.

He insisted that the Police and other security agencies swiftly acted to bring the situation under control in spite of the suddenness and generalised violence.

Kabakumba attributed the violence and the lawlessness to inflammatory and sectarian broadcasts from various radio stations, which she said systematically incited the listeners to chaos and destruction.

The minister announced that following the incidents, the Broadcasting Council, in line with the Electronic Media Act, had suspended the operations of four radio stations in the city. Those suspended are CBS radio, owned by Mengo, Suubi FM, Radio Sapientia and Radio Two Akaboozi Kubiri.

Mutabazi revealed that the Council had also suspended the broadcast of bimeeza (talk shows) that are broadcast outside the stations’ premises, especially in bars, until an adequate legal and technical framework has been provided for them.

“Bimeeza programmes are increasingly becoming difficult to manage due to the inability of the radio stations to manage them adequately. Therefore any radio heard airing them will be dealt with,” Mutabazi warned.

History of Mengo, Gov’t row

By Lydia Namubiru


By aligning themselves with the British colonialists in the late 1800s, the Baganda invited the system of modern national governance into Uganda. Yet, in the one century of Uganda as a nation, no other tribe has clashed with the national central administration as many times as the Baganda.

The Buganda versus central administration clashes started almost after the British established their governance in Buganda. In 1897, just three years after Kabaka Mwanga had signed a treaty, accepting that Buganda would be a British protectorate, he turned around and declared war on the British in the kingdom. After two abortive attacks on the establishment, Mwanga was captured and exiled to the Seychelles Islands, where he later died.

In 1900, Buganda signed the famous 1900 Buganda Agreement with the British. The agreement gave them a special place in the Uganda and in return, they helped the British conquer and colonise other parts of the country.

In the 1920s and 30s, bad blood between the Baganda and the colonial government surfaced again. The British were contemplating a federation between their three East African colonies; Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania but Buganda loyalists feared that a bigger East African federation would reduce their kingdom to a non-entity. Buganda won as the British abandoned the idea.

In 1953, the British secretary of state for the colonies floated the idea of an East African federation afresh in a speech he gave in London. The Baganda this time reacted even more drastically. The Lukiiko and Kabaka Muteesa II declared they wanted to pull out of Uganda that would be part of that federation.

Amid rising calls for secession, the British governor of Uganda declared that Britain no longer recognised Kabaka Muteesa II as the native leader of Buganda. The governor therefore sent Mutesa into a comfortable exile in London. He was later returned, following negotiations and the 1955 Buganda Agreement in which Buganda agreed to be part of the unitary Uganda.

Despite the 1955 agreement, Buganda boycotted the 1958 pre-independence elections, saying she did not want to be part of the independent Uganda. Kingdom loyalists boycotted but some Catholic Baganda who had always felt marginalised by the protestant royal family had formed the Democratic Party (DP).

These Baganda risked their safety and voted in the elections and as a result, DP took all 20 of the 21 legislative council seats allocated to Buganda. This victory nullified the boycott of Buganda loyalists, since the quorum allocated to Buganda had been achieved by people who pledged little allegiance to the monarch.

Buganda loyalists then changed strategy, forming a political party, Kabaka Yekka. The party forged a loose alliance with UPC to defeat a now common enemy, DP, in the run-up to the 1961 independence elections. The alliance won the election and formed the first independent Uganda government.

Power struggles broke out afterwards, between the President, Kabaka Mutesa II and the Prime Minister, Milton Obote. This culminated into the 1966 Buganda crisis. At the height of the tension, the Baganda once again called for secession. Obote responded by changing the constitution to remove Kabaka Mutesa II from the presidency. The Baganda then ordered the central government off Buganda soil. Instead, Obote reacted by attacking the Kabaka’s palace, driving him into exile and abolishing Buganda and all other kingdoms.

The kingdoms were in 1993 reinstated by President Yoweri Museveni. Since then, the standoff has revolved around Buganda’s demand for federo and the land policy. More recently, the central government’s support of dissenting factions in the Kingdom have added a new dimension.

Last year, amid riots, the Government blocked the Kabaka’s tour of Nakasongola district and later arrested three Mengo top officials over the Land Amendment Bill. The latest episode in the confrontations was the Thursday riots over the blocking of Kabaka’s planned visit to Kayunga district.

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