• Katikkiro sends condolences to Ssaabasajja Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II, ba Nnaalinnya, Abalangira n’Abambejja, and the whole of Buganda.
• The Ekibira section, the the remains of the former kings (Ssekabaka) are located suffered serious but limited damage.
• The Buganda kingdom will officially mourn for the loss of Kasubi for one week, starting on March 22, 2010.
• A committee of Buganda officials has already been formed to start investigating what materials and budget would be required to rebuild 130 year old highly unique structure.
• A special session of the Buganda Great Lukiiko has been called to discuss the grave situation on March 22, 2010.

The full text in Luganda is shown below;

March, 17, 2009

EKIWANDIIKO KYA KATIKKIRO KU KW’OKEBWA KWA MASIRO GE KASUBI

Owek. Katikkiro wa Buganda ne nnaku nyingi ategeza Obuganda n’abantu bonna aba Uganda nti enyumba enkulu Muzibuazaalampanga, omwagalamizibwa ba Ssekabaka ba Buganda bana, mu Masiro e Kasubi, abantu abettima abatannamanyibwa baagiteekedde omuliro n’ebengeya mu kiro eky’akeesezza olunaku Lwokusatu nga 16, March 2010.

Katikkiro asaasidde nnyo nnyo Ssaabasajja Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II, ba Nnaalinnya, Abalangira n’abambejja n’Obuganda bwonna. Gutusinze mukama waffe.

Ekibira ba Ssekabaka gyebaagalamizibwa abaddukirize baakoze buli ekisoboka okutaakiriza yo ne watayonooneka nnyo. Olubiri luno olwakubibwa Ssekabaka Muteesa 1 emyaka egisoba mu 130 gwe mutima gwa Buganda.

Obuganda buli mu biwoobe era tutandiise okukungubaga. Okukungubaga okutongole kujja kutandika ku Lwokusooka nga 22 March era kujja kumalira ddala sabbiiti nnamba okutuuka nga 26 March 2010. Emikolo girikomekkerezebwa mu Masiro e Kasubi.

Akakiiko ka baminisita kateekeddwawo okukola enteekateeka y’okukungubaga eye sabbiiti ennamba, era kajja kutegeeza Obuganda enteekateeka nga bwe zinatambula.

Olukiiko lwa Buganda Olukulu luyitiddwa bukubirire ku Lwokusooka nga 22 March, 2010 ku ssaawa 4.00 ez’enkya tusobole okuteesa ku nsonga eno enkulu.

Watekeddwawo akakiiko kabakugu akagenda okwekenneenya ebyetaagisa (materials) n’ensimbi ezeetaagisa okuzzaawo Amasiro.

Obuganda butegeezebwa nti Obwakabaka busazeewo okuzzaawo Amasiro ga ba Ssekabaka gano, ng’akabonero k’omwoyo gwa Buganda ogutafa, ogutatya era ogutaggwawo.

Ssaabasajja Kabaka Awangaale!

Eng. J.B. Walusimbi

KATIKKIRO

STALKING THE LION
A. Kyobe

Burning down Buganda’s royal tombs is the kind of provocation that this government under the generalship of Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is hunting for (yes, Uganda is under military rule—case in point, see Museveni’s martial strut after the Bududa landslides dressed in army uniform with a Kalashnikov across his chest).

This military president and his bush war comrades know they are getting close to the sensitive nerve that their armed-to-the-teethtribalistic government is hunting for in Buganda.

In fact, all their criminal acts against the people of Buganda are carefully thought-out stratagems to deprive the kingdom of its cherished culture and freedoms:

What with rigged elections, corruption, a malicious constitution that denied us our right to a federal system of government, murdering our Kikubo business corps and blaming it on armed robbers, burning our schools, grabbing our lands and creating false chiefdoms within our kingdom, and making business and economic progress nigh near impossible for the people of Buganda.

Destroying Buganda’s sources of revenue and now this arson….. The result shall be insurrection!

Such is the nerve that Museveni is probing for, prodding us into rebellion; his UPDF/NRM government is provoking us to go into the swamps as we protest these injustices so that they can unleash their lethal police force under Gen.Kayihura, and their illegal militias under the command of the likes of that madman Maj. Kakooza Mutale, and their kiboko-AK47-squads of the Banyankole-Batutsi element of UTODA, and of course the deadly beast of death that General Kaguta’s UPDF is (ask the people of Luwero, Acholiland, Teso, and Karamoja) .

Yes, these Musevenite armies are planning to grind Buganda and its king into smithereens.

And as Museveni’s blood brother, John Nagenda said, “there will not be a Buganda to make noise about but a Ruritanian jeremiad of an opera to amuse the republic.”
Long live the Kabaka.

The four insurgent generals are stalking your every movement with deatth.

You will hear, physically hear, more from us.

These will be good times to die.

Shafina is the daughter of a Ugandan celebrity, Sylvia Namutebi, better known as Maama Fiina. Ms. Namutebi attended her daughter’s swearing in ceremony. She told the students and teachers that this is the beginning for her daughter. The plan is for Shafinah to compete for a seat in the Uganda national parliament when she grows up. Then Maama Fiina bought lunch for everyone present.

For the last more than 10 years, becoming a class monitor or dormitory prefect in Ugandan schools involves serious political campaigns. The NRM government encourages politics in schools, claiming that it teaches democracy to the youngest Ugandans. The problem is that now children buy votes to become primary school prefects or class monitors and parents and teachers encourage it. Children are learning corruption at at the same time as addition and multiplication.

Owek. Lutaaya who was meeting the chiefs at Bulange in Mengo explained that this registration, which should include the newly born babies, the youth, adults, immigrants and the dead is very important in the planning process of the Kingdom and the country at large.

He added that the registration furthermore is intended to help fight immoral activities that are infiltrating most communities.

Lutaaya further advised the chiefs to work hard and earn their respect as Kabaka’s officials among the society they serve.

He added that with maximum respect from the people, all their calls will be responded to accordingly which will lead to great improvements in people’s lives.

The minister also advised the chiefs to promote Omummuli Programme spearheaded Katikkiro Eng J.B. Walusimbi which is geared at developing the people of Buganda.

In the same meeting, the minister of state for Local Government and cooperatives in the Kingdom George Nsamba Kumama also called upon the chiefs to promote the spirit of the Cooperative Unions right from the county to the village level.

Kumama explained that cooperatives will help the communities in villages to improve their income earnings and promote their living standards at home.

The announcement by Mmengo is a major change in the way Kabaka’s peoples are registered. For more than 100 years Kabaka’s government encouraged Baganda clans to register their members (bazzukulu) at Mutuba, Ssiga and Kasolya levels. Even late last year the Buganda government announced plans to register Baganda in their clans. It now seems like the registration of Baganda in their clans has been completely dropped.

The Kayunga crisis started when president Museveni ordered his police and army not to allow the Kabaka of Buganda to officiate at a youth function in Kayunga town until the Katikkiro (prime minister of Buganda Kingdom) obtained permission from an NRM installed lead of the minority Buganda ethnic group called the Banyala. The Banyala make up less than 5% of Bugerere’s population.  Kabaka’s government rejected the government’s conditions and sent the Katikkiro to supervise the preparations for Kabaka’s visit. Mr. Museveni’s police and army blocked the Katikkiro and the action led to major rioting throughout major Buganda cities. In the capital, scores of businesses, cars and other properties were destroyed and the NRM police and army killed over 30 Baganda. Hundreds more are feared to have been murdered after thousands were later arrested and many disappeared without trace.

Uganda Bureau of Statistics data shows that 23,000 Bagisu live in Bugerere county already, along with 47,000 Basoga, 95,000 Baganda, and other small groups.  The mud slides were concentrated in  the Bududa area of Bugisu.

According to sources, the NRM government will move between 10,000 and 20,000 Bagisu to Bugerere as soon as possible. The NRM government is soliciting assistance of Red Cross International, UNDP and UNICEF in the move. The three organizations have already helped the government to temporarily house the mudslide victims in secondary schools. The sources add that although there is much more open land in Busoga and other parts of Buganda, the NRM government sees this as a big opportunity to reduce the numeric advantage of Baganda in Bugerere county.

Other sources have told this writer that plans by the NRM to bring over 10,000 Bagisu to an already volatile Bugerere county have raised fears of possible future genocidal violence among both Bagisu and Baganda residents of the county. Some of the long time Bagisu residents of Bugerere who see themselves as Kabaka’s subjects are fearful that they will be lumped together with the new Bagisu invaders. And some Baganda fear that the NRM is doing as a long-term plan to make Baganda a minority in their native lands and create tensions that can lead to genocide in future. If the Red Cross and UN blindly support massive settlement of Bagisu in Bugerere, they could be involved in planting the seeds of future genocide in Buganda.

For nearly 20 years, the World Bank and western countries that finance the NRM government have ignored the excesses of president Museveni and his cabal and funnelled billions of dollars into Uganda.  Baganda analysts tend to cite corruption and racism within the donor community as the primary reasons why president Museveni and his NRM have had such a successful run. Since 1992 Uganda’s NRM government has depended on foreign aid for 50-60% of its budget (donors usually understate it to avoid embarrassment).  During the same period, Uganda’s rulers and their families have taken advantage of the donor support to invade Congo, steal billions of dollars from the national treasury and murder citizens using illegal militia like Black Mambas.  Using traditional “Mbulira gwoyita naye” logic, many Baganda opinion leaders argue that the corruption in the NRM government is undisputable evidence that their benefactors, the donors, are also corrupt.

Many  Baganda intellectuals also believe that, Uganda’s western foreign donors  think that black Africans do not deserve the same human rights as others. For example, most  European countries do not tolerate use of selective laws to steal property and deny self-determination rights from a distinct European nation like Bosnians or Slovaks or Danes or Latvians.  However, in Uganda, countries like Norway and Denmark aggressively  fund projects like Decentralization and the 1998 Land Act, which are specifically designed to deny Baganda their human rights. This irrationality is leading many Baganda intellectuals to conclude that racism is a major factor in the Uganda donor community’s approach to Museveni.  The theory is also supported by the radically different reaction seen from the western countries when Robert Mugabe applies similarly inhuman policies to whites in Zimbabwe.

In what some Banda observers believe might be a USA led shift in tolerance towards Mr. Museveni in 2010, however, the Western countries appear to be taking some steps to distance themselves from Museveni’s policies.  President Obama sent a strong signal when he refused to grant Mr. Museveni private meeting at the UN Annual Meeting late last year. Last month, the US Congress passed a resolution instructing the State Department to monitor and report  on Uganda 2011 election campaign. Recently, the USA Ambassador to Uganda officially recognized the Kingdom of Buganda when he trekked to Kabaka Mutebi’s Banda palace for an official visit (see “United States Ambassador Listens To Kabaka Mutebi”).

In the latest move by Museveni’s benefactors, a western diplomatic official has leaked a World Bank  statement that threatens the withdraw of funding. It was presented to the NRM government  in a closed door national budget workshop late last month.  The periodic national budget workshops are popularly known as the Uganda’s begging conferences in local circle.

The full text of the leaked World Bank statement is reproduced in full below:

DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS REMARKS
NATIONAL BUDGET WORKSHOP
25-26 February 2010
(As prepared for delivery)
Your Excellency, the President of the Republic of Uganda,
Right Honorable Prime Minister,
Honorable Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development,
Honorable Ministers,
Honorable Members of Parliament,
Representatives of civil society organizations and the private sector,
Members of the diplomatic community,
Distinguished participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the development partners, I wish to thank the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development for organizing this budget workshop.

We recognize that the 2010/11 budget is being developed in tandem with the National Development Plan. This provides an opportunity to focus the budget on Uganda’s development priorities.

Let me take this opportunity to commend the Government of Uganda on its continued macroeconomic achievements.

Sustained economic growth has translated into a significant decline in poverty levels. Moreover, the economy is weathering the impact of the global financial crisis better than anticipated and headline inflation has returned to single digits.

We also welcome the introduction, by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, of performance based budgeting, quarterly release of funds to spending agencies, and allocation of more resources to monitoring of results.

The Office of the Prime Minister has improved reporting on government performance. This will help to improve accountability. And we congratulate the Government for its efforts to bring peace to Northern Uganda and championing reconstruction of that region.

Your Excellency, past accomplishments by the government of Uganda have been remarkable. However, the real test of prudent and effective government lies in how you will address the challenges of the future.

The vision for Uganda laid out by your Excellency is inspiring and clear: Uganda has to become a middle income country over the next 15 years. Consequently, this statement by development partners has only one theme: what will it take for Uganda to achieve this goal?

There are three challenges that Uganda needs to tackle.
The first challenge: Uganda needs higher economic growth and lower population growth. For Uganda to attain middle income status over the next 15 years, per capita income growth needs to be 6% per year, meaning the economy has to grow at close to 10% per year.

Is this possible? Yes, it is: Thailand had the same GDP per capita as Uganda in 1963; it became a middle income country 18 years later. Indonesia had the same GDP per capita as Uganda in 1978; it became a middle income country 17 years later.

And, Malaysia grew 135% in per capita terms over 20 years from 1960.
These three countries have one common factor: during the period of dramatically rising per capita incomes, fertility rates fell between 40 to 50%.

This is no coincidence. These countries were basically “harvesting the demographic dividend” – the period where falling fertility rates leads to a falling dependency ratio: that means a larger proportion of the population is in their working age, compared to children and the elderly.

At 3.2% growth per year, Uganda has one of the fastest rates of population growth in the world. Uganda’s population is projected to reach 38 million by 2015 and close to 100 million by 2050. This has serious implications for livelihoods, food security, maternal and child mortality, and the environment.

Providing social services such as education and healthcare to a rapidly growing population will put enormous strains on both households and the public purse.

Despite economic growth over the last 20 years, profound inequality in incomes, living standards and life expectancy persist within and across regions. Making economic growth more inclusive should therefore be a priority.

The second challenge: Uganda can only attain middle income status with a healthy and educated labor force.

Uganda needs to accelerate progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals for health and education. The NDP states unequivocally that the health and education MDG indicators will only “marginally improve”.

Only slightly more than half of the children that enter primary one, reach primary five. This is well short of the goal that all children, boys and girls alike, should complete a full course of primary education.

In addition, the targets for child and infant mortality and maternal health are also unlikely to be reached and Uganda still has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world.

Building an effective and accountable state is the third crucial challenge Uganda is faced with. The fast growing countries of Asia mentioned earlier are not free of corruption.

But corruption in these countries has not affected the effectiveness of the state to the extent that it affects the Ugandan state. Development partners are particularly concerned about Government failure to take effective action against high level corruption.

A recent example is CHOGM, where there has been minimal follow-up on recommendations in the audit reports, which have been known since 2008.

The PAC hearings have publicized the issues surrounding the leakage and abuse of CHOGM funds. Yet, government administrative action to sanction offenders or recover funds has so far been inadequate.

Your Excellency, corruption in Uganda is endemic and we have seen no signs of improvement. The costs of corruption, stealing and leakages are staggering: $1.6 million lost in the global fund to fight aids, tuberculosis and malaria; $4.6 million lost in the GAVI immunization scam; at least $27 million lost in connection with CHOGM; billions of Shillings lost in the NAADS scam and the NSSF Temangalo scandal; and the loss in procurement corruption is estimated by the PPDA to be more than $100m per year.

However, government effectiveness is not only undermined by corruption. There remain fundamental gaps in public financial and public sector management. Basic rules are not adhered to. Lines of accountability are confused, mandates of central and local governments are not clear.

This has created a fundamental lack of accountability in Government. How else to explain high levels of absenteeism of teachers and health workers estimated at causing losses of up to $70 million per year?

Last but surely not least, only effective and accountable states are able to turn oil into a blessing for a country. Without an effective and accountable government, Uganda could easily become the next African country where oil has become a curse.

Your Excellency, let me now address the concrete steps that can be taken to ensure Uganda becomes a middle income country.

First: government needs to remove the binding constraints to growth and curb population growth. The dual challenge of increased economic growth and rapid job creation requires that the binding constraints on growth, such as poor transport infrastructure and insufficient supply of electricity are tackled.

The increased investments in the transport sector are therefore commendable. However, increased investments should be matched by an equal effort to improve governance and capacity of the sector to ensure that money is well spent.

We would like to urge the government to stick to the time-tested policy of trusting the private sector for implementing major works.

Only a vibrant private sector construction industry will provide Uganda with the roads that are so badly needed. The re-introduction of district force account operations was and still is a bad idea.

The current low level of absorption capacity in the private sector is a result of lack of investments in the past. The private sector will meet the challenges of road construction and maintenance only if investments by the Government are predictable.

Despite the huge increase in spending on road construction and maintenance, the government has yet to put in place a system for monitoring road conditions.

This leaves the sector open to fraud and undermines efforts to achieve value for money in the road sector. A big proportion of future oil revenues will surely be spent on the transport sector.

This makes it even more urgent to improve the governance framework for road construction and maintenance.
The NDP has identified a reduction in fertility as a major strategy.

According to surveys, Ugandan women would like to have fewer children than they currently have. However, 41% of demands for family planning services are currently unmet.

Without a rapid expansion of family planning programs, Uganda will not be able to replicate the impressive growth rates in the Asian countries mentioned earlier.

What is needed, therefore, is a commitment on the part of government to increase its share in procurement of contraceptives, which is currently less than 10% of national requirements.

Equally important is increased focus on girls’ education and improvement in reproductive health, to address the shortfalls against the MDG indicators mentioned earlier.

Lastly, Mr. President, as demonstrated over the last 23 years, a stable political environment is the single most important factor for a good business climate.

Political upheaval is very bad for investment and doing business, as we have recently witnessed in Kenya. In turn, respect for the rule of law and human rights is essential to guarantee political stability.

Second: government needs to prioritize public spending while ensuring that Uganda’s labor force is healthy and educated.

Addressing the challenge of providing quality services to the growing Ugandan population necessitates prudent and efficient use of Uganda’s limited financial resources. Achieving value for money is therefore essential.

In addition to curbing waste and inefficiencies the government should prioritize public spending. Development partners share the concern of Uganda’s civil society and media about the high and increasing levels of spending on government’s administrative structures.

These are resources that could otherwise be invested in infrastructure and on providing basic education, health care and clean drinking water to the poor.

The sharp increase in the number of districts in recent years (and continued plans for new ones), diverts both human and financial resources from existing districts and undermines the capacity of local governments to effectively deliver services.

Starting at 36 districts, 80 districts last year, and now 91 districts: who can make a serious case that this expansion of the number of districts is good for service delivery?

I now turn to concrete suggestions to strengthen the capacity of the Ugandan state.

An effective and accountable state is needed to guarantee value for money in service delivery by tackling corruption, waste and inefficiencies. Oil will provide much of the resources needed to increase public and private investment in future years.

However, if these investments are to yield lasting results, the management of public finances has to improve.

While we recognize the Government of Uganda’s commitment to the value for money agenda, much more needs to be done. The NDP identifies public sector management and administration as the number one binding constraint to achieving Uganda’s development objectives.

The remaining gaps in some of the fundamental aspects of public financial management need urgent attention in order to improve spending capacity and efficiency.

For example, zero tolerance towards non-adherence to the Commitment Control Systems, or the circumvention of IFMIS, is required to address the long standing abuse of Public Financial Management (PFM) systems.

Making sure basic PFM systems work requires in the first place fundamental behavioral change. This change can only be brought about by the Government and each one of you sitting here.

Weak public sector management and administration is one of the main causes of absenteeism of teachers and health workers. This waste of public resources should not be allowed to continue.

Action should be taken to address absenteeism. This should include not only positive incentives, but also strong disciplinary measures.
Lastly, Mr. President, the Government of Uganda has to start fighting corruption seriously.

The undeniable lack of government action to follow up on cases of grand corruption is a key area of development partner concern. Policies, laws and institutions are in place, but enforcement is limited, creating a culture of impunity.

Offenders should be sanctioned, money should be recovered and criminal investigations taken forward on key cases. We commend MoFPED on the recent initiative to develop an Action Plan for follow-up on CHOGM, which we hope will lead to concrete action being taken in the near future.

The Government’s failure to act on high level corruption will have implications, and donors under the Joint Budget Support Framework are currently considering a range of actions.

This may include withholding disbursements, reductions in aid, or re-programming away from direct budget support etc. These were all options discussed and agreed to with the Government in the 2007/08 budget appraisal.

In conclusion, Your Excellency, we would like to assure the government of Uganda that Development Cooperation will increasingly be a results-oriented partnership, where development partners can demonstrate to their own taxpayers that money is well spent.

We are committed to improving the predictability of aid and to working with Government to address the serious challenges Uganda faces to consolidate past gains and achieve lasting results for the people of Uganda.

Thank you for your attention.

Kundhavi Kadiresan
World Bank Country Manager
Chair, Local Development Partners’ Group
Co-Chair, Joint Budget Support Framework Policy Committee

I have just watched the US ABC TV network program 20/20 and seen a story on child sacrifices in Uganda. Although the story is professionally done, I was surprised that it said nothing about  the the economic and social chaos which provides the environment for this bizarre practice of  child  sacrifices. For example, the story did not talk about the cult-like NRM dictatorship government in Uganda for over 20 years, with over 50% of its budget funded by the foreign donors.  The story also fails to mention that Uganda is one of the most corrupt countries in the world and is a haven for  smugglers, ex-convicts, money launderers and others with satanic practices. How could they have missed all the stories on the corruption in Mr. Museveni’s own family?

In a sign that all black African are the same to ABC TV, the story leaves out information about the fact that a huge majority of the child sacrifices are happening in Buganda and that the victims are mostly Baganda. Yet, the practice of child sacrifices was unheard of in Buganda until  the Uganda army occupied Congo and NRM top brass from Western Uganda started looting gold and adopting child sacrifice and other strange practices from Eastern Congo. The only authoritative Muganda who was interviewed, Sekagya, a Muganda , made it clear that child sacrifice was unknown in his culture. ABC did not ask him what his culture (Baganda) is.

The coverage of the ABC investigation is also surprisingly shallow because it is limited to the small fish. The story claims that the NRM government has created a 1,000 man police unit  to fight the sacrifices but does only shows two poor peasants and small time businessmen peasant for examples. Surely, how come the 1,000 strong police unit has no convicts to show?  Even a  6 year old Uganda child will tell you that 1,000 people force is only a channel to tap in American aid dollars but not to fight anything.  Otherwise how come that the NRM government’s police failed to deal with hig profile cases such as the mass fire sacrifices of girl virgins at Budo Primary School (see http://www.bugandapost.com/main/archives/347) or the famous case of Edwin Muguluma case (http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/513533)?

When the Rwanda genocide happened many international  news organizations claimed that there were no warning signs. The truth is that these organizations were too ignorant about African people to see the sign. To them all Africans are the same, with no strong cultural differences that can even cause a genocide. That is why ABC News and their 20/20 program say in their story that “Uganda is thriving”. How can a country thrive when its budget is 50% funded by foreign aid? They could not see that Buganda and that is under armed occupation by the Ugandan NRM dictatorship. They even missed the bloody Kayunga civil disturbances and police massacre late last year. They don’t see that the failed state status is a clear sign that genocide could very easily happen in Uganda.

The ABC News story helps to expose the severe failures of Museveni’s NRM government to protect Uganda taxpayers. However ABC wasted a big opportunity to understand the background, root causes and long term effects of child sacrifices in Uganda.

You can find the ABC story by searching on “Child Sacrifice in Uganda” at www.google.com.

Pastor Kakande has a  strong and public relationship with the NRM occupation government. As recently as November 2009, he and his church received public praise by president Museveni for their projects. Mrs. Museveni also claims to be a saved Christian although some in Uganda political circles accuse her of being too corrupt to  relate to Christianity.  Pastor Kakande runs one of the largest churches in Uganda and is in fierce competition with other church businesses around Kampala. Due to this competition, some of the other churches frequently accused him of various evil practices but he has never been convicted of anything.  The accusers include his ex-wife, Loyce Nana Kakande, who claimed that Kakande was engaged in witchcraft. Kakande went to marry another woman from the Republic of Congo. And in the mid-2009 he introduced yet another young woman from the Philippines as his new fiancée.

In the same program, Robert Kabuye offered prayers to the Democratic Party (DP), which appears to been permanently split into two factions. Commenting on one of the factions which, according to Mr. Kabuye, is lead by Nasser Ssebagala and Norbert Mao, the broadcaster from the Ngeye clan called on all Baganda to remain focused on the noble cause of liberating Buganda.

Click on Ekiba_Kibe19Feb10B to listen toKabuye’a  February 19, 2010 Ekiba Kibe broadcast on Radio Bu.

The Buganda government has already ruled making a public apology as one of the many tough conditions that the NRM government gave for reopening CBS FM Radio. Evidence on the ground indicates that the Bataka (clan elders) and a large majority of ordinary Baganda are behind Mmengo’s decision not t apologize for without any clear statement of what Buganda did wrong. The NRM’s government Bukedde quoted Buganda Deputy Minister of Information, Medard Sseggona, as saying: “Bannaffe abo balimba, lwaki teboogera mazima nti balina fitina, n’empalana ku Kabaka okusinga okwekwasa obusonga obutaliimu?” (”Those people are lying. Why don’t they accept the truth that their problem is jealousy, envy and hate against the Kabaka?”). Bukedde also claims that Sseggona praised composers of pro-Kabaka songs and encouraged them to continue. The problem is that NRM government media have a record of twisting what Mmengo officials say, so it is difficult to know if Owek. Sseggona actually made these statements.

The song which is said to be most offensive to Uganda’s rulers is Landiroodi (slang for Land Lord). The song, by Ronald Mayinja, calls Kabaka Mutebi the Buganda landlord which translates to three different titles that Baganda have used on their Kabaka for centuries – Ssabataka (head of all land settlers) or Nanyini Nsi (owner or master of the country) or Nanyini Ttaka (owner or master of all land).

Other songs that are very upsetting to the NRM government include these below;

• Maaso Moogi (”Sharp Eyes”, another title Baganda have used to described their Kabaka for centuries) by Buddo Secondary School choir.
• Tuli ku Bunkenke (”We are in high risk times”) by Ronald Mayinja.
• Twagala Federo (”We want a federal system of government”) by Jjingo Show.
• Mambo Baado ( Swahili for “There are more issues to come”) by Joseph Mayanja (Jose Chameleone).
• Ensonga y ‘Ettaka (”The land issue”), believed to be by Monica.

Although none the so called dangerous songs talks about violence, rebellion or even political action, Uganda’s rulers, through their spokesman Aggrey Awori, claim that those songs contain enough hints of hatred and division that by playing them repeatedly, CBS FM Radio incited people to riot when the NRM government stopped Kabaka Mutebi from visiting Kayunga.