Museveni demeans Kabaka of Buganda in secret Rome meeting Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni may have broken protocol after likening the Kabaka (King) of Buganda to being his young brother. While the Kabaka can call President Museveni by his first name, in Buganda royal etiquette Mr Museveni, much as he is the head of state, cannot do the same and cannot refer to His Highness as ‘my young brother’. The words are likely to hurt the very people the Ugandan leader is desperate for their support as he campaigns for a fifth term of office. The comment becomes more repugnant when the Baganda realise that as a commoner, Museveni can never be Kabaka Mutebi’s ‘big brother’. Commenting on a speech given during a secretive meeting with Ugandans held late at night in the Uganda Mission in Rome, the Italian capital, Mr Museveni agreed with Christine Mugerwa Kasule, a Minister of Gender and Community Development in the Buganda Kingdom government who had told the gathering that the Baganda had in their history welcomed various Ugandan tribes within them: “ Buganda Kingdom welcomes everybody irrespective of their tribe, religion or colour. That is the reason Buganda welcomed Museveni.” It was to this comment that Museveni suddenly interjected and agreed, saying: “Yes it is true Buganda welcomes everybody, but my young brother [King Ronald Mutebi] is still short on discipline.” In a well-coordinated scheme, now in search of his earlier philosophical National Resistance Movement (NRM) dreams of bringing fundamental change to Uganda, Mr Museveni has resorted to what is perceived as ‘divisive politics’. His efforts at the Uganda Mission in Rome was believed to be an effort at recruiting NRM carders and a spy network in the Diaspora. The Ugandan leader reckons that cultural leaders, especially the Baganda king ought to hold back those of their subjects that are publicly challenging Museveni’s long stay in power (he has been president since 1986). In a tightly guarded meeting, all the attendees had their communication gargets confiscated and warned not to mention to anybody else what they were about to discuss in the meeting. In addition, and what surprised many, each attendee had to register his/her Skype, WhatsApp, Viber, and e-mail and telephone contacts. No one was allowed to get out of the room; even Museveni went out for 10 minutes, before he came back to answer questions for five minutes. We were caught off guard and fooled to register our e-mails, WhatsApp and phone numbers. I’m afraid they [Museveni’s security] will now be able to hack into our phones as was the case with [Amama] Mbabazi,” one of the prominent people who attended the meeting told this newspaper in reference to the tapes that were recently published. The audio tapes had conversations containing the private conversations by his former prime minister that were captured and passed on to Museveni. Though kingdoms in Uganda and cultural leaders are apolitical, the statement by Buganda Kingdom’s Gender Minister Mugerwa Kasule was perceived by some in attendance as a campaign to persuade the Baganda in the Diaspora to support Museveni’s bid for the 2016 presidential elections. Museveni’s language seemed to have derived from his usual antagonism with the Buganda Kingdom establishment. In recent years, President Museveni’s government, in a bid to lessen the powers of kingdoms, through his control of Parliament, the controversial Institution of Traditional and Cultural Leaders Law 2010, perceived by Baganda as aimed at regulating the activities of traditional leaders. Baganda maintain that the law targeted their monarch and directly encroached and violated their human rights that include their cultural values. The current day Uganda obtained its name from the 800 year-old Kingdom of Buganda, a hereditary monarchy with the population of over 10 million people, which covers the southern part of the country including the capital-Kampala. Talking to about 50 individuals in a closed-door meeting, Museveni continued to ridicule the Buganda King prompting some of those present to wonder: “If his intentions were to encourage us to invest at home, then why is he bringing the Kabaka issue?” The London Evening Post has been made to understand that several Baganda were infuriated with what they described as Museveni’s tricks to convince the Ganda community to regain his diminishing popularity. Museveni who travelled with his wife Janet and some ministers infuriated the Ganda community here for ridiculing His Majesty in the presence of Buganda Minister Mugerwa Kasule who travelled with the Museveni delegation currently on a European tour. The Minister told the meeting she had joined the delegation to represent the Buganda Prime Minister Charles Peter Mayiga. High profile officials from the Mengo establishment couldn’t confirm or deny this. Museveni arrived at exactly 22:00 hours Italian time to address the secret gathering that included religious leaders from a grief-stricken northern Uganda. The Buganda Kingdom for a long time has been on collision with Museveni until on August 1, 2013 last year when he signed a controversial Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Buganda. Many Baganda were doubtful of Museveni intentions to sign a MoU with the Kabaka. Prior to the signing of the MoU, Museveni’s relationship with the Kabaka had been buried in the sand after he blocked the Kabaka from touring Kayunga District in Bugerere, part of his Kingdom, a decision that outraged the Baganda who organised riots on September 11, 2009 in which at least 50 unarmed civilians to death in and around the capital Kampala were killed by security forces after President Museveni publicly made an executive order on national radio for security forces to shoot to kill rioters. After the signing of the MoU, Museveni’s government promised to return all of Buganda’s properties, which include, among others, the official estate of the Katikkiro [Prime Minister], Buganda county and sub-county headquarters, markets and the official estates of the Ssaza chiefs, Plot 53 on Kampala Road which houses King Fahad Plaza, a huge commercial building, and Mutesa House in London. Their [the Baganda] cynicism about Museveni’s intentions was confirmed this year when he recalled 13 out of the 213 land titles he had officially handed over to Buganda Kingdom officials in a widely publicised event on April 15, 2014. It was also established that among the titles Museveni handed back to Buganda Kingdom, 13 of them had been duplicated and it was Kooki’s cultural leader, the Kamuswaga Apollo Ssansa Kabumbuli II who claimed ownership. Observers believe Museveni created Kooki Chiefdom to weaken Buganda and had to duplicate Buganda titles to cause disharmony between Buganda and Kooki. On numerous occasions, the Buganda King, His Majesty Muwenda Mutebi II, publicly expressed concern to the central government to stop the persecution of his subjects. On behalf of his subjects, the Kabaka has been advocating for justice and fairness in public. Previously, in his numerous speeches to the public, the Kabaka urged Baganda not to succumb to intimidation in their demand for Justice and Fairness. Museveni’s idea of ridiculing of the aggrieved Baganda and their king is not limited to Buganda, as he hasn’t spared other cultural leaders and politicians from different parts of the country including the Toro Kingdom and greater north comprising of West Nile, Karamoja, Lango, Teso and Acholi sub-region. At the secret meeting, Northern Uganda religious leaders who had attended it declined to be interviewed by The London Evening Post. One of the told us: “You can ask the mobilisers. I can’t talk about it [the meeting], which I didn’t organise.” Others on the Museveni delegation included Justin Lumumba Kasule (Government Chief Whip), Proscovia Salaam Musumba, Deputy President of the Forum for Democratic Change and Chairperson Local Council 5, Kamuli District, and Henry Okello Oryem, son of Museveni’s predecessor, the late Gen Tito Okello, who is currently Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in the Museveni government. Annet Ashaba. Suicide or Murder? In a special report Thursday, we reveal the obvious signs that the Uganda Police missed that would have led them to the conclusion this was no suicide. Don’t miss it. thelondoneveningpost/museveni-demeans-kabaka-of-buganda-in-secret-rome-meeting/
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 18:36:51 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015