UPC seeks to reconcile with Buganda

Sep 03, 2009

THE Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) is seeking talks to end the bitter stand-off with Buganda Kingdom since the 1966 invasion of the Kabaka’s palace.

By Lydia Namubiru and Andante Okanya

THE Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) is seeking talks to end the bitter stand-off with Buganda Kingdom since the 1966 invasion of the Kabaka’s palace.

The kingdom was invaded on the orders of Milton Obote, who was then president of Uganda and UPC.

Since the saga, UPC has suffered low popularity in Buganda.

Party president Miria Obote on Wednesday said UPC was ready to reconcile with Buganda without any precondition.

She, however, added that her party was not apologising right away.

“The first thing to do is to sit down and talk about what happened. Mistakes were made not only by one side, but both. We are willing to talk if Buganda is willing to talk to us. Where we were wrong, we will apologise but they also must accept where they went wrong,” Miria said.

She noted that most people do not want to know the truth about what happened then, adding that opportunists had been taking advantage of the situation to propagate their selfish interests.

“Obote did not just wake up and order the attack on the Lubiri. We need to know what led to that. This is a first step to finding out the truth,” she added.

Miria was speaking at the party’s weekly press conference.

This followed a story carried in The Sunday Vision quoting the kingdom’s information minister, Charles Peter Mayiga, as having said Buganda was ready to reconcile with UPC.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});