Reports from various corners of Buganda indicate that the overwhelming majority of Kabaka’s subjects are upset with Katikkiro Walusimbi’s decision to accept a Shs 2 Billion (US$ 930,232) offer from President Museveni. And within the Baganda youth movement there is talk of giving him the traditional punishment for treason. Katikkiro Walusimbi announced his unilateral decision to take Shs 350 Million (US$162,790), as the first payment of what he claimed to be an unconditional Uganda Government grant, during an April 20, 2009 meeting of the Buganda Lukiiko (equivalent of a parliament). However, Owek. JB Walusimbi promptly contradicted himself by adding that the funds came from Mr. Museveni’s NAADS program, which is funded by donors and is widely known to have many strings attached.
Reaction from nationalist members of the Lukiiko was swift. One member told Mr. Walusimbi that Mmengo must not take the Shs 2 Billion because it was an attempt by Mr. Museveni’s government to introduce their corruption into Mmengo and have an excuse to bring Uganda Government into Bulange under the guise of checking accountability. Another pointed out that Mr. Museveni should pay the over Shs 8 Billion he owes to Buganda before Mmengo accepts a gift of Shs 350 Million. Owek Walusimbi only hit back. He literally quarreled with the opposing voices, telling them: “You need to understand who Walusimbi is. I have handled huge sums of money for many years and I cannot be bought by Shs 1 Billion. I don’t need it and I would not look at it even if you put it in front of me.” And in what appeared to be a veiled attack on the increasingly influential nationalistic Baganda in the Diaspora, Walusimbi said: “In 2009 Baganda should focus on hard work and not politics like the people who criticize me. Those who criticize me are people who can afford to eat sausages at breakfast time and go on to have lunch, evening tea and dinner with red wine.” And, in a move which Baganda youths in the gallery called a “Museveni style bribe”, the Katikkiro gave each of the Lukiiko members present a “transport refund” of Shs 20,000.
By Tuesday evening, the resistance to the Walusimbi/Museveni Shs 350 Million transaction had spread beyond the Lukiiko. A leaflet titled “JB Walusimbi Atunze Obuganda” was circulating around Kampala. It pointed out that Walusimbi had sold each native of Buganda for Shs 430. It includes his image with the caption “Kayungirizi”, a term reserved for local land agents (see picture). Our investigations have revealed that the document was circulated by members of the Buganda youth movement, who enjoy full support from about 50% of Buganda cabinet and a huge majority of ordinary Baganda. A Buganda minister, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told this reporter that after seeing the leaflet, a combative Walusimbi threatened members of his cabinet that he knew who among them was fighting him and he would defeat them. Only a day later another message from still unknown Baganda was delivered to Walusimbi, warning him that if he continues on his current path, his head might get put on stakes at Bulange. Sources close to Walusimbi tell us that the Katikkiro has told President Museveni that his life is at risk. And he is now receiving protection from President Museveni’s Presidential Guard Brigade (PGB).
On March 9, 2009 Buganda Post exclusively reported that Katikkiro Walusimbi had Mr. Museveni to pay that to pay off government rent arrears owed to Mmengo and authorize another 8 billion shillings to: (1) complete Bulange Plaza, (2) complete Twekobe, (3) pay some salary arrears for Bulange employees, (4) to facilitate (bribe) key Buganda officials and certain key Bataka (clan heads) for support, (5) to settle the debt that state house owed the Katikkiro’s Associated Consulting Engineers company, and (6) to buy support from Baganda peasants by giving them money through an NRM style program called Omumuli which Walusimbi designed with Museveni’s vice president Gilbert Bukenya. (See “Katikkiro Walusimbi Dodges Talks, Leaves Museveni Holding A Bag Of Stones“). According to our State House sources, the Shs 350 Million that Mr. Walusimbi accepted is art of this agreement. And the lunch allowances he gave to Lukiiko members appears to be the first step towards getting Mr. Museveni’s money into the Buganda Lukiiko.
April 28th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Hello Bugandans,
Hello Buganda Nationalists.
This story just confirms our erstwhile suscipicions that JB Walusimbi has all along been a mole for M7 within Mengo. You just have to read about what he goes around saying in favor of the so-called money – for – development for Buganda from the central government. Many of us out here in the diaspora are even alarmed to be hearing that he is going around saying that the peanuts – money he is being given to allegedly develop
Uganda is equivalent to Buganda attaining FEDERO. What an insult???
Anyhow, I doubt whether JB Walusimbi will be able to convince the majority of Baganda about his justifications for this money. And I can bet that he is really in deep bad trouble.
Long Live His Majesty the Kabaka!
April 29th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Yeah, Tara,
I couldn’t agree more. The gentleman is a traitor 100%. He thinks that the “noise” the Baganda have been making and continue to make have all been in vain. I highly doubt if the situation would have been the case if the Baganda had just kept quiet and folded their hands from the 60s through the eights in the face of Obote’s provocations and tyranny against Baganda. I even doubt whether the situation in Buganda now would have remained the same in Mr. Museveni’s Uganda if the Baganda had not made “noise” against Mr. Museveni’s intransigence regarding Buganda’s properties, including land, among others. I can assure Mr. Walusimbi that had the Baganda not made the “noise” he is now castigating, Buganda and Baganda would not have been in a position to attain what they have now. Afterall, what can a mere 350 Million do in terms of development for Buganda? Why has Mr. Museveni’s government up to now failed to pay its arrears to Buganda to an approximate tune of 10 Billion Uganda Shillings??? Why would Engineer Walusimbi think that 350 Million Uganda Shillings is more worth than 10 Billion Uganda Shilings which the Museveni government owes Buganda???
Hon. Walusimbi, the position you have taken is completely wrong!!
April 30th, 2009 at 1:48 am
Tara,
Did really the Katikiro say that Ugx 350 million = Buganda federo???? I hope he didn’t, because if he really did, then he must be REAALLY nuts!He is making himself very ludiculous and in that case, he does not deserve to be Buganda’s Katikiro. I have also heard that he is bragging about his own personal riches and he keeps on throwing tantrums in meetings? What a poorly staged drama from the gentleman?
The Katikiro should be aware that in Buganda, the Katikiro does what the majority Baganda want and not what he and his friends in M7’s government personally want for Buganda.I can really see trouble ahead for this man.
Can I also humbly inform Katikiro Walusimbi that truth and justice (read GOOD POLITICS) build nations. Bad politics does not develop nations however much money you may be given by underhand methods. Luwero Triangle was one of the wealthiest areas in Buganda but because of the poor politics of the Obote days, Luwero Triangle and much of other areas of Buganda was laid to waste. This is the same story everywhere in the world. You build a poor foundation of politics for your country, rest assured that the quick sands on which the so-called vibrant economies are resting will have to crack like a pack of cards much sooner than later. So, Eng. Walusimbi’s demonizations of the Baganda youth nationalists that they are allegedly talking too much without “working” is just shallow, thoughtless and careless. 350 million Shilling can’t and will not develop Buganda. Even if his friend M7 gave him 10 billion shilling for Buganda, it cannot be enough to develop Buganda.What will develop Buganda is federalism Buganda and other areas of Uganda cherish so much. The 50s and early sixties of Buganda can give a clear testimony to Eng. Walusimbi.
See, this gentleman is also a very interesting man! Someone reads in the dailies that the Ugandan president wants 10 billions for his so-called patriotism programs alone and you the administrative head of a whole Kingdom as the Katikiro begins to prematurely celebrate when you are dubiously given Ugx 350 million/3 billion to “develop” the region you head, does that make sense????? This Katikiro surely must be the most miserable and disappointing!!!
Wangaala nnyo ayi Ssabasajja Kabaka Muwenda Mutebi II
April 30th, 2009 at 2:36 am
Attn: Eng. JB Walusimbi
“HANDOUTS NO SOLUTION TO POVERTY”
Written by Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda
Wednesday, 29 April 2009 16:18
Because of the total loyalty to the institution of Kabaka, many incompetent and inefficient people working at Mengo have used it to shield themselves from public scrutiny.
Such officials will remind you of how they are the Kabaka’s choice for the job and therefore criticising them indirectly means being disrespectful to the king.
I don’t know how many complaints I have received as a journalist against the Buganda Land Board. The latest from Kiboga is that the District Council which occupies Buganda’s county headquarters passed a resolution to begin paying rent but the board has refused to pick it.
This Buganda Land Board is in charge of 350sq miles of land that belong to the institution of Kabakaship. For you to appreciate how big 350sq miles are, just know that from Kampala to Masaka is 80 miles.
The Buganda Land Board is supposed to issue leases to people occupying this land and collect rent from them. I am sure if this was done the institution of Kabaka would be collecting not less than Shs50 billion a year. At the moment I am told the Buganda Land Board contributes just about Shs2 billion to the kingdom’s annual budget. It is still the biggest contributor.
Of course some of the stories are untrue but the fact that they keep coming means there is a big, big problem in the Buganda Land Board. People occupying a certain piece of land won’t be considered, as the law stipulates, when their land is being allocated to someone else.
For me who believes in federalism, I get hurt when I hear that such things are happening at Mengo. I will deal with those complaints another day.
Because of the dependence syndrome, we have been made to believe that someone else must help us overcome poverty. Don’t mistake me for a critic of the aid and grants; it sometimes can act as a stimulus, especially if well utilised. I only have a problem with people who are resigned to fate and are looking for solutions from the neighbourhood. They have not utilized 5% of their potential yet they plead with neighbours for help.
Every person in Buganda Kingdom has the potential to overcome abject poverty. The reason it hasn’t happened is because we don’t have focused leadership. Those we have are victims of globalization who believe in IMF and World Bank solutions. They prefer begging for their people to mobilising them to work. Someone would be happy to return with Shs350 million after 20 State House meetings rather than spending a week in Masaka or Kiboga mobilising people like the Kabaka is doing to plant coffee.
I am very pleased with the approach the Kabaka has taken, of visiting rural people and encouraging them to produce more.
Apart from agriculture, Buganda needs to develop its tourism potential.
I think the youthful tourism minister, Nakiwala Kiyingi, has good ideas and needs help. Alongside tourism, Buganda needs to venture into the leisure industry with all determination.
Can you imagine the whole of Buganda has no entertainment park or beach around Kampala? If I were the Katikkiro, J.B. Walusimbi, I would convince the Mengo establishment to allow me turn part of the land housing the Kasubi Tombs into a recreation park.
I know Baganda and others are sensitive about death and wouldn’t allow weddings at Kasubi, but I see no difference between charging visitors to visit the tombs and planting good grass where people can host their receptions.
Why should CBS pay over Shs10 million to host its festivities at Nakivubo Stadium, yet Buganda has a chunk of land in Lubiri? I know Lubiri is such an important cultural site but part of it can be developed into a recreation centre.
A friend of mine who recently visited Turkey told me that people who live near tourist centres make more money than the centres themselves. Naturally they are encouraged to set up shops selling crafts, T-shirts, internet cafes, specialised restaurants, etc. This is how leaders equip their people to fight poverty.
Because of an institutional failure to help Ugandans out of poverty, we have individually been inconvenienced. Hundreds of our relatives wait for our monthly earnings as though they are party to it. In fact, majority of Ugandans have been educated by their relatives and not the state. Because our salaries are shared by poor relatives, we are more burdened than people who have been rich all their lives and cannot be bribed by a mere Shs2 billion.
It is an insult for someone to take advantage of our misery to mortgage us and the future of our children. To borrow the words President Museveni once used, that person is inviting a curse (kisirani) on himself.
The solution to poverty lies in mobilizing the population for production and taping the potential of each area. State House handouts can provide temporary relief; like buying fuel for the leaders, but it is no long term solution to our misery.
The author is Political Editor of The Observer
ssemujju@observer.ugThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
April 30th, 2009 at 3:09 am
Attn: Eng. JB Walusimbi
“Kingdoms must avoid temptation of grace and favour payments” – by KAROLI SSEMOGERERE
President Yoweri Museveni has accomplished a hat trick scampering his mortally wounded enemies by launching an “anti-poverty” fund directed at areas where his political star is dimming after 25 years in power. For different reasons, Busoga, Bunyoro and Buganda have accepted “grace and favour” payments to support anti-poverty efforts in their areas.
The Chieftaincy of Busoga is Uganda’s political bellwether. With the exception of 1980, Busoga has voted for the eventual winner in the country’s presidential elections. Busoga is also ground zero on the harshest effects of fatalistic government policies like privatisation. Uganda’s former industrial hub, Jinja, is a recovering ghost town bereft of jobs.
In fact, the only limping industries today remain in Njeru, home to South African Breweries Limited and Nytil-Picfare. Jinja is a sleepy backwater whose main thoroughfares “busy” up during major events like visits of political leaders. Native speakers of one of Uganda’s richest languages know how to stroke political egos and run a political rally.
Theatrics aside, some of the highest concentrations of community poverty and hardship are in Busoga almost oblivious of the fact that Busoga stands on the precipice of a major commercial artery. In the county of Butembe, the coverage of pit-latrines according to social workers in the field, is less than 40 per cent.
The collapse of social wealth has had other significant effects: most civil servants come from outside the region. Busoga’s flagships, once major players in the academic arena, continue in a race to the bottom.
In Busoga’s embrace with the Movement, it is difficult to point how it will be before the bottom is attained. The institutional integrity of Busoga’s customs and the important institution of the Kyabazinga depend on direction and guidance of the President.
In Bunyoro, the picture is slightly more mixed. All cabinet ministers from Bunyoro lost in the 2006 elections – hardly a picture of political conformism.
The opposition FDC should reap some strategic investments in the 2011 elections if it figures out a way to work with “politically” and “economically” independent MPs like Sam Amooti Otada whose pocketbook ruined the political future of Public Service Minister Henry Kajura.
For a few days this week, Hoima Mayor Sam Atugonza was in the news after being “tortured” by state operatives who dumped him at Old Kampala Police Station, recently “renovated” by Pastor Robert Kayanja. It is difficult to emphasise the extent of Bunyoro’s economic neglect because it was a deliberate policy perpetuated from colonial times by the British.
Bunyoro and Buganda have been at loggerheads for a long time over minor and inconsequential issues like the elevation of certain chieftaincies in Nakasongola and Kayunga districts. Every time the President gets into a fit with Buganda, Bunyoro has been at the ready switch to provide a headline intended to embarrass Buganda.
Both, however, are starting to show the negative effects of petty palace politics. Accepting token payments of about $175,000 each up to a projected $500,000 to “fight” poverty is the equivalent of throwing dust over a charcoal oven in the hope that the ash will extinguish the last embers of the fire, forgetting the capacity of charcoal to burn overnight providing villagers and urban dwellers a simple comfort to keep their dinner and breakfast warm.
In typical fashion, the government has not enacted any legislation to describe this legislative emergency. Government observers can only guess it is coming out of the Shs100 billion in “unallocated” funds– a war chest to fight the election. In Bunyoro, pressure to push for a bigger share than the 2 per cent royalties currently promised from oil revenue is unresolved.
Major independent players in Bunyoro like the Bunyoro Kitara Cooperative Union are in tatters. Bunyoro’s economic dilemma is significant because it has a concentration of the last major high value high yield unallocated chunks of arable land in Uganda.
Buganda has a New York New Jersey syndrome. Over 80 per cent of government’s revenue is collected in Buganda and 85 percent of this comes from the Kampala metro region.
This pattern is duplicated in the consumption of electricity, piped water, amenities etc. Yet Buganda ranks very close to the bottom in terms of real dollars spent per capita in Uganda.
Buganda’s weak and politically inept leadership has been unable to resolve this yet the principal argument fostered in countries like the former West Germany is that the health of the country’s economic heartland is vital to the health of the rest of the country.
Buganda’s coffee wealth has yielded nought.
So in every major economic catastrophe, Buganda has taken significant hits. The obsession with measuring Ugandans surviving on less than a dollar a day: a statistic that envelopes many rural counties in Buganda, Teso, Lango and Acholi – the Karamojong who drink milk cannot be counted in this statistic has missed this point.
This grinding poverty has been followed by despair and economic malaise. This small money, the cost of a mid-sized home in upscale Kampala, will continue to foster unhealthy economic policies and earn the recipients in Busoga, Buganda and Bunyoro more political scorn.
kssemoge@gmail.com
April 30th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Busagwa,
I can fully appreciate our disappointments in the man called John Baptist Walusimbi who happens to be the current Katikiro. He has indeed sold Buganda for pieces of silver but he will certainly miserably fail in his endavours. The fire for Buganda nationalism is burning like crazy and it will take more than Owek. Walusimbi’s threats to quench the frustrations and anger of the Nkobazambogo Baganda youth. Owek. Walusimbi, we can bet on this!!
Awangaale nnyo ayi Ssabasajja Kabaka
May 1st, 2009 at 7:14 am
Tara,
The Baganda have a saying that “Okufa kukira okuswala = To die is a better option than to be ashamed/embarassed”. Mwami Walusimbi kyakola ekyokukiriza obutole bwemeele okuva ewa museveni kituswaziiza nnyo nga Abaganda. We as Baganda have really been put to great shame by Eng. Walusimbi. He is also commiting another sin of telling Baganda to keep quite about our problems/demand for federo, among other things, and let us be trampled upon by the M7 dark forces of tyranny. And like you said in your previous postings, this man has also insulted Baganda by equating Uganda Shilling 350 million to FEDERO!! Banange, does this man still have his head over his tow pair of shoulders?? Mbuuzabubuuza!!!!
May 1st, 2009 at 7:28 am
Ladies and gentleman,
Here is the more reason why JB Walusimbi = JK Museveni! Just read on!
Museveni commends Katikkiro on progress
Thursday, 30th April, 2009 E-mail article Print article
Museveni hands over a heifer to Ali Kaddu and Yudaya at the launch of the Prosperity-for-All programme in Wakiso
By Cyprian Musoke
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has praised the Buganda prime minister (Katikkiro) JB Walusimbi as a foresighted man who is bent on improving the welfare of all Baganda.
Launching a Prosperity-for-All (Bonna baggagawale) drive in Wakiso at the district headquarters yesterday, Museveni criticised elements at Mengo whom he said use radios to confuse the masses instead of preaching prosperity.
“I am glad this Katikkiro has some good spectacles. I saw him the other day planting coffee trees with the Kabaka. We in the Movement have no problem with Kabaka Mutebi because it is us who brought him and other traditional leaders back,” the President told the crowd.
The Katikkiro has recently been criticised for accepting development funds from the Central Government.
The Government donated sh1b to the kingdoms of Buganda, Bunyoro and Busoga for agricultural production, which some Baganda said was a “bribe” intended to compromise the Katikkiro.
“The problem has been those self-seekers who purport to love Kabaka Mutebi more. What did they do for the 30 years he was in exile? But even those have not excited us,” Museveni said as the crowd chanted Nambooze.
The President has in the past accused the DP spokesperson, Betty Nambooze, of abusing him on radio stations.
“All those radios do is abuse me, ‘Museveni is very stupid’. Those people have wasted your time by not telling you the truth,” he said, advising them to use the airtime to promote development. He urged the people in Wakiso to produce and take advantage of the huge market in Kampala, noting that milk in Rwakitura goes for sh350 a litre while in Kampala it is sold at sh800.
Museveni also pointed out that former President Idi Amin had abolished mailo land but the Movement had restored it, adding that the Government wanted a harmonious relationship between landlords and tenants. “We don’t want the landlord to rob the tenant, or the tenant to rob the land lord. They should co-exist.”
Some people, he added, were on radio saying that by taking over Kampala, the Government wanted to grab Buganda land. “To steal it and take it where?” he asked.
The President gave out 40 heifers to kick-start the project and opened two structures at the district headquarters.
He urged officials of the National agricultural Advisory Services to support the selected farmers by providing other inputs like poultry and coffee seeds to supplement the heifers.
He lauded the Wakiso leadership for being “sharp” and building headquarters out of nothing when other districts squander their revenue like the Kampala City Council, where he said some leaders had been arrested for graft.
The opposition had dominated Wakiso district because he was busy fighting the LRA insurgents, Museveni further noted.
On universal primary and secondary education, he urged parents to provide packed lunch for their children as the Government pays for their education, adding that even he still carries packed lunch.
June 6th, 2009 at 9:08 am
Busagwa Kituufu okufa kukira okuswaala. Naye kyeyatika lwaatu nti you are applying that saying selectively. Otherwise wandibadde wano ewaffe e Uganda ng’oofa noova mukuswaala kwolimu buli lukedde.