Are Batooro waiting for Gaddafi?
Jan 29, 2009
EDITOR—On January 16, The New Vision published a letter entitled “Is Oyo a squatter in another kingdom?†The writer, George Tuhaise, pointed out that it was embarrassing for Omukama Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV to stay in a foreign kingdom a
EDITOR—On January 16, The New Vision published a letter entitled “Is Oyo a squatter in another kingdom?†The writer, George Tuhaise, pointed out that it was embarrassing for Omukama Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV to stay in a foreign kingdom and attend a children’s party during the Christmas season there as if there are no children in Toro.
Tuhaise was spot-on. In all fairness, it is not the Omukama to blame but his regents and all the office bearers in the kingdom.
I remember there was a time when Oyo was away in Japan for two weeks during school time! Where are the regents looking? Oyo, in spite of his size, is still a minor. Doesn’t it occur to all the stakeholders that it is an embarrassment for Oyo to stay in Kampala three-quarters of the year, year in year out?
Whose king is he? As Tuhaise points out out, kingdoms were restored to boost culture. One may ask, which culture when Toro subjects are only reading about their king and seeing him only on television.
Frankly, the management of the kingdom needs overhauling if Toro has to regain its former glory. Today kingdoms are not given the respect they deserve and have been sucked into the general opportunistic tendencies characteristic of our politics today.
That is why we see every clan, sub-clan or tribe all of a sudden struggling to have a ‘king’ where no king had ever existed before. It is because the office comes with freebies from the central government! Look at the magnificent palace of Toro! It was vandalised by the fleeing soldiers of Idi Amin in 1979.
It took Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi to refurbish it. Now that it has been refurbished, are we waiting for Gaddafi to furnish it as well? In spite of its magnificence, the palace is still unoccupied, three years down the road! The ‘palace’ that is occupied is the apology that the murderer, John Katuramu, claims to have built which stands beside the real palace.
How did Katuramu, of all people, come to be Omuhikirwa of Toro? He was chosen merely because he was rich and could therefore help out the kingdom. how he got his money and who he really was did not matter!
The death of Prince Charles Kiijanangoma at the hands of Katuramu resulted from the fact that Kiijanangoma was irritated by Katuramu’s conduct in the affairs of the kingdom and told him off openly.
Some of the issues he raised were extremely embarrassing and sensitive. Did Toro need a thug like Katuramu from nowhere to run the affairs of the kingdom?
All the Batooro must come together, fundraise and furnish the palace where our king must start staying or if it is not beneath our dignity, let us go back to Gaddafi and ask him to furnish it and make it habitable for the king! Or those who can sweet-talk him should do so on our behalf.
Amon Rukidi
Jinja
Tuhaise was spot-on. In all fairness, it is not the Omukama to blame but his regents and all the office bearers in the kingdom.
I remember there was a time when Oyo was away in Japan for two weeks during school time! Where are the regents looking? Oyo, in spite of his size, is still a minor. Doesn’t it occur to all the stakeholders that it is an embarrassment for Oyo to stay in Kampala three-quarters of the year, year in year out?
Whose king is he? As Tuhaise points out out, kingdoms were restored to boost culture. One may ask, which culture when Toro subjects are only reading about their king and seeing him only on television.
Frankly, the management of the kingdom needs overhauling if Toro has to regain its former glory. Today kingdoms are not given the respect they deserve and have been sucked into the general opportunistic tendencies characteristic of our politics today.
That is why we see every clan, sub-clan or tribe all of a sudden struggling to have a ‘king’ where no king had ever existed before. It is because the office comes with freebies from the central government! Look at the magnificent palace of Toro! It was vandalised by the fleeing soldiers of Idi Amin in 1979.
It took Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi to refurbish it. Now that it has been refurbished, are we waiting for Gaddafi to furnish it as well? In spite of its magnificence, the palace is still unoccupied, three years down the road! The ‘palace’ that is occupied is the apology that the murderer, John Katuramu, claims to have built which stands beside the real palace.
How did Katuramu, of all people, come to be Omuhikirwa of Toro? He was chosen merely because he was rich and could therefore help out the kingdom. how he got his money and who he really was did not matter!
The death of Prince Charles Kiijanangoma at the hands of Katuramu resulted from the fact that Kiijanangoma was irritated by Katuramu’s conduct in the affairs of the kingdom and told him off openly.
Some of the issues he raised were extremely embarrassing and sensitive. Did Toro need a thug like Katuramu from nowhere to run the affairs of the kingdom?
All the Batooro must come together, fundraise and furnish the palace where our king must start staying or if it is not beneath our dignity, let us go back to Gaddafi and ask him to furnish it and make it habitable for the king! Or those who can sweet-talk him should do so on our behalf.
Amon Rukidi
Jinja