Atubo’s comments are offensive

Nov 08, 2007

EDITOR—The lands minister, Omara Atubo, is quoted to have said that whoever owns land in Uganda is a ‘Ssabataka’. The minister seems to have lost track of the negotiations with all stakeholders in the land wrangles in the country and decided to fight the Mengo establishment.

EDITOR—The lands minister, Omara Atubo, is quoted to have said that whoever owns land in Uganda is a ‘Ssabataka’. The minister seems to have lost track of the negotiations with all stakeholders in the land wrangles in the country and decided to fight the Mengo establishment.

I wish to remind him that unlike him, an individual, despite the powers he holds, the Kabaka and Mengo are institutions with very strong foundations which many like him have taken on without success.

His statement was not only an insult to the Kabakaship and other cultural heads in Uganda but clearly depicts his ignorance of the very institutions he needs to understand and negotiate with in his quest to solve the land wrangles in Uganda.

Instead of fighting and abusing cultural titles he does not understand, the minister should sit down with all stakeholders to find a peaceful and
all-inclusive solution to the land problem.

If I may educate him, ‘Ssabataka’ is a title reserved only for kings in Buganda as heads of all the ‘Bataka’ (subjects) of the kingdom and has nothing to do with owning land.

Alex Kamya
Kampala

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