One of the outcomes of the recent Buganda liberation meeting, in Boston, was the exposure of an NRM government slavery program against Baganda people in Uganda. The Boston meeting, which took place on January 23, 2010 triggered serious talk about the now open secret that the NRM government illegally imprisons unemployed Baganda young men for short periods, during which they hire them out as causal labor, at no pay, to wealthy NRM supporters.

The Chairman of Ggwangamujje Boston and the anchor of the Luganda Ekiba Kibe program on SMS based Free Buganda Radio strongly condemned Museveni’s Baganda slavery scam on January 25, 2009.

It is public knowledge in Buganda that the NRM government frequently arrests unemployed youths, charges them for being “idle and disorderly” and imprisons them for brief a few weeks and them releases them. What is disturbing to many Baganda in the USA is that Museveni’s police and prison service official are taking advantage of Uganda’s primitive laws to hire the short-term prison inmates to wealthy Banyankore, Bakiga, Rwandese, Indian and other business people (including some Baganda) as slave laborers at no pay. To avoid raising serious human rights concerns, the unfortunate Baganda youths are normally released as soon as family members start to pursue the case.

When asked for comment, a reputable New York based Muganda political analysts told: “Nothing can be put beyond Museveni and the NRM now. The law allowing prisons to hire inmates out as laborers have been on the books in Uganda since the 1970’s, but no Ugandan government has ever abused it to the point of creating a slavery ring. What is very unbelievable is that, as my contacts in Kampala have told me, the NRM police who arrest the young people actually screens out Baganda and let virtually all other ethnicities go.  I understand that at least 95% of the slave laborers are Baganda.”

Our analyst continued: “It is bad enough that Museveni and his cronies have turned young Baganda into modern day slaves. What is incredible is that, as I have reliably been told, high officials in the Buganda Government are probably aware. And at least one of them could be a beneficiary.”

To listen to Mr. Mayanja and Mr. Kabuye on the January 25, 2009 Ekiba Kibe program, click on Ekiba_Kibe25Jan10B.