By Kalundi Serumaga
kalundi@yahoo.com

While trying to subdue the indigenous tribes of western Europe, the Generals of the conquering Roman army were often confounded by the resilience of the natives on the battlefield. As a response, they developed the tactic of declaring truces and then sending lavish gifts across the lines to some of the native commanders, while leaving out others. This would sometimes lead to in-fighting among the natives as mutual suspicion developed, which the Romans would then militarily exploit.

The dust kicked up during the controversy over whether or not Buganda should accept the promised 2 billion shillings (of which a down-payment of 350 million was immediately wired) from the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government, is just beginning to settle. Inside and outside Buganda, there was a strong division of opinion. One kingdom got more than the others that got something. Most got nothing at all. Maybe history was being repeated.

This was understandable. There are many things about the promise that did not make sense, to the extent of obscuring those aspects of it that did.

Questions were raised as to why only three out of Uganda’s numerous officially recognised “cultural institutions” had been selected for this largesse. In addition, why having a “cultural leader” became the basis for being considered for the cash grant. Furthermore, it was unclear why Buganda was offered twice as much as the 1 billion shillings that were promised to Bunyoro and Busoga respectively.

Even more complicated was the central government’s declaration that the money was to go towards “improving agriculture” in the areas concerned. In the wake of the problem Uganda has had with NAADS, as well as the silent death of the Plan for the Modernisation of Agriculture (PMA), this was truly mystifying: what were to be the actual terms? Was this to be a top-up to the paltry 4.1% of the National Budget that Uganda currently spends of the agricultural sector, or a substitute for it? Was there to be a proportional reduction of the national budget allocation to those districts that fall in the areas slated to receive the grants?  How was the agricultural situation in Buganda deemed to be in twice as much need as the other two Kingdoms, warranting a grant twice as big as the others? And again, what about other areas in the country not eligible for this grant; do they not have the need to improve agriculture?

There are even constitutional interpretation problems, stemming from President Museveni’s previous utterances to the effect that these cultural institutions “don’t exist”, or if they do, it is only as “backward chiefs”, of no importance to the national development agenda. To whom then, is his government now handing over significant amounts of public money?

What we are in fact witnessing has very little to do with beans and fertiliser as such, and is in fact simply a further development in the twists and turns of a very protracted and troubled negotiation process (or should one say power struggle?) between Buganda and the very NRM that it helped bring to power.

For the last 16 years, the NRM government has been desperately trying to extricate itself from the huge political setback it suffered when Ganda post-war militancy forced it to hurriedly design and pass the Traditional Rulers (Restitution) Assets and Properties Bill of 1993 (popularly known as Ebyaffe Bill) into law. This Act commits the state to recognising the existence of Buganda -as well as other such entities, but more critically, it re-introduces into law the principle that Buganda’s has a right to the property seized from her in 1967. This is the crux of the matter: the central government is legally obliged to hand over valuable and significant amounts of the real estate to a rival political centre. No central government will ever do this willingly, as it undermines their own power, and overturns the entire logic behind the efforts of Frederick Lugard, Governor Cohen and finally Milton Obote in destroying native identity so as to build the Uganda state.

The fact that the NRM went so far as to return native identity to a legal footing (something that even Idi Amin managed to dodge way back in 1972) shows the extent of their opportunism borne of a hunger for power. The fact that they now seek to dodge laws they themselves made about it, shows just how desperate that opportunism has made them.

This a problem that cannot be solved, and will contribute significantly to the approaching fall of the NRM  regime, just as the British, Obote and Amin regimes came and were seen off by the natives they found in place.

This current handout therefore reminds one of the situations of a thief trying to flee with his loot while being pursued by an angry mob, and so keeps throwing part of the stolen goods over his shoulder in a bid to slow them down.

This puts the actual owners of the stolen goods in a dilemma: do they leave the dropped goods to the mob and keep on after the thief, or do they try to first rescue what has been dropped also, and then continue the chase?

This is exactly where the matter has been stuck for 16 years: Buganda and Uganda have not been able to establish and follow a clear negotiation process, as called for by the Ebyaffe Act. The problem is that the central government/NRM never really expected these “damn natives” to still be asserting their identity after this long, and so never imagined they would be expected to actually start handing over property. We have therefore seen President Museveni buying time by keeping proceedings vague and only making concessions if he thinks he will gain from them in the political short term. This is actually standard NRM procedure when faced with a determined opponent: buy time with “negotiations”, while frantically working behind the scenes to change the material facts of the very issue under discussion. If you have to actually make a real concession, you then try to portray it as an act of goodwill on your part, that demonstrates how serious you are with the talks. So while then Katikkiro Joseph Mulwanyamuli’s team engaged in nearly 11 years of diplomatic “heavy lifting”, the NRM began making fundamental legal and demographic changes to the very land and properties that are under the said negotiations. Examples of this are: donating Buganda’s land to “investors”; bringing non-Baganda newcomers as settlers to these areas; introducing decentralisation thereby creating new districts whose “land boards” then claim and sell Buganda’s land; using the 1995 constitution-making process to “constitutionally” remove Kampala from Buganda and most recently, creating new “Kingdoms” within Buganda.

The purpose is to ensure that by the time NRM sits down to serious conclusive talks with Buganda, there is actually nothing left physically to talk about. This is what Mengo has worked out and explains their growing anger. Ugandans have seen this before. This is exactly how the NRM/A prevaricated for six months during the 1985 Nairobi Peace Talks, so that by the time they reached an “Agreement” with the Okello Junta, they had changed themselves from a beaten and retreating army of barely 4,000 soldiers to a British-sponsored mercenary force of 40,000, and promptly stormed Kampala. Similarly, for over a decade, the NRM continually put off the day when the country would return to multi-partyism, so that by the time it did, all the key national policy issues, particularly around macroeconomic policy, were already cast in stone, leaving the new opposition with little of real substance to debate in parliament.

Today, the living conditions for people inside and outside Buganda remain dire. As a result, it is hard for any leader to continue rejecting offers of cash – however unprincipled the offer – while being unable to deliver alternatives to that same population, even though the one offering the cash is the same person creating the obstacles to better living.

Therefore, despite all the NRM time-buying manoeuvres, as well as rent arrears totalling 900 billion shillings, the Katikkiro of Buganda has found himself being the defender of the idea of receiving a gift of money from somebody who is legally in debt to him by a much larger amount.

The NRM also hopes for a few “side-benefits” from this cash grant. First, is the anticipated bolstering of the notion that “once again”, Buganda was being “favoured” over other equally deserving Ugandans by a central government, thus building greater resentment of Baganda by other Ugandans. Second was the expectation that it would create irreconcilable divisions among the many hundreds of activists and campaigners who work for Buganda on a voluntary basis, and are therefore not impressed by the argument that without money, no progress can be made. The third anticipated “side-benefit”, would be to make some southerners and westerners as a whole to welcome being favoured over northerners and easterners (who only got elastic pangas and rotting beans to help them recover from the wars and floods), thereby encouraging them to see the NRM as their friend and benefactor. After all, the 2011 elections are nearly here.

Most importantly, there is the hope and intention of the NRM to revive the Regional Tier proposal. A further probable incentive here is the rumoured discovery of precious minerals, including oil, in one of the exploration blocs located in Buganda. The NRM is perhaps now keen to lock the Kingdom into a clear resource-controlling constitutional arrangement such as the regional tier, well before the discovery is announced. After all the problems Buganda has caused them over just land, perhaps the NRM  leaders are now losing sleep at the prospect of having to negotiate oil matters with Mengo.

Buganda insists that this grant will not sway her from pursuing her wider objectives. It could well be a case of the Luganda proverb: “Nyama ntono, okayana ekuli mu nkwaawa” (roughly translated: before complaining about the smallness of the meat you have been given, first make sure it is firmly in your grasp). Certainly, more than a few harsh words were exchanged among Baganda activists, but this has only served to highlight the importance of recognising success. Those critical of this grant tend to be those campaigners, such as the redoubtable Betty Nambooze, who have galvanised Ganda public opinion through ably articulating a firm and uncompromising line in favour of federation, should actually be credited with creating the pressure that has forced the NRM  into such manoeuvring in the first place.

We are probably just at the beginning of this NRM generosity. Cash has been promised for the renovation of Kingdom properties, as well as clearing some rent arrears. It is important therefore that all the important stakeholders: people from outside Buganda who are watching in amazement; the activists who recognise an attempted bribe when they see one; and the leaders of Buganda government business to recognise that these manoeuvres will end up strengthening Mengo, not dividing her.

END

A report in the April 8, 2009 issue of the Uganda government Bukedde newspaper that, the day before, Katikkiro JB Walusimbi laid a flower wreath at the mass graves of victims of the 1994 Rwanda genocide has upset some Baganda. Our reporters in both Masaka and Kampala have told us. According to the reports, most ordinary Baganda in Buddu and around Kampala think that it is a good thing to commemorate the terrible killings that took place in Rwanda. But a large majority of them are asking why the Katikkiro of Buganda found time and money to buy flowers for graves of Banyarwanda although he did not have time to accompany Kabaka Mutebi to Buluuli last October fearing to upset Museveni.

The Kampala people are especially unhappy that incidents like the Budo Junior fire and child sacrifices which target Baganda are just  quiet form genocide but Owek. Walusimbi does not take expensive flowers let alone mabugo (condolence funds) to the victim’s families. Some also complained that Katikkiro Walusimbi has not cared to officially investigate why tens of Baganda children are murdered every month without government action. Yet when one mulaalo child was killed around Kiboga in Ssingo county, the police commander even personally camped in the area until some people were arrested.

On October 8, 2008 Mr. Museveni’s armed soldiers stopped the Kabaka of Buganda, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II from going to Nakasongola to preside at the 46th anniversary of independence from Britain. The president later stated that, while Kabaka Mutebi was being harassed, Katikkiro Walusimbi was in telephone negotiations with David Tinyefuza and Mr. Museveni’s state house. Nakasongola is the main town in Buluuli county of Buganda. October 9, 1962 is when Buganda formally joined the other parts of today’s Uganda to become a federal republic. Under the terms of the 1962 independence agreement, Buganda remained a kingdom under Kabaka and retained control of its own education, healthcare, police and local administration systems. In 1966 then prime minister Milton Obote overthrew the constitution, used Idi Amin to attack Kabaka’s palace, made the kingdom illegal, exiled the Kabaka and stole 9,000 square miles of Buganda native lands and numerous other properties.  After decades of persecution by Obote, Idi Amin and Obote II, the Baganda joined Mr. Museveni and thousands of  Rwandan Tutsi refugees to remove Obote II and make it possible for the Kabaka to return to his kingdom.

In 1993/94 thousands of  Rwandese Tutsi refugees used Uganda army weapons to take power in Rwanda, in the middle of a genocide which started after that country’s president Habyarimana was assassinated. After more than 20 years since Mr. Museveni and his Baganda and Tutsi partners removed the Obote II regime, Mr. Museveni has refused to return the 9,000 square miles of native lands that Obote stole. He also refused to recognize the Baganda rights to return to the status as a federal state within the republic of Uganda. As the Baganda continue to demand that Mr. Museveni act honorably, the relations between the Buganda Kingdom and central government have become increasingly hostile. And many Baganda, especially the youth, are demanding that Katikkiro (head of Buganda government) Walusimbi resign due to conflict of interests because of his strong business and personal relationships with both Mr. Museveni and Rwanda government.

Dear Maama,

Kyaterekera omunaku tekivunda. What you have prayed for all these months happened, as you already know from CNN. Your “tall boyfriend” Obama won! And Jeff, my Republican friend who has been insisting that the polls were all lying when they showed Obama ahead did not even come to work this morning.  I hope you remember Jeff. He is the guy with a tattoo who lent me his van when we bought the dining table in 2004. Anyway, back to Obama. We have been going to bed after midnight for about a full month; staying awake to watch the CNN and MSNBC election coverage. And yesterday we even went to the victory party at the Holiday Inn near the Interstate and returned home at 1:45 AM.

Now, when it comes to Buganda and Uganda, most of us here believe that Obama is going to be bad news for African dictators. And this will affect Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe most because Barack is very well informed about the election rigging and civil rights abuse in these countries.  By the way he takes his Luo roots very seriously and he sincerely considered people like the Odingas his cultural leaders. So, the smart Baganda see a big opportunity to educate Obama’s administration about the occupation of Buganda and its potential for genocide scale violence. And the signals from Obama on Uganda’s dictatorship even during the campaign have been very encouraging.

Between now and Obama’s swearing ceremony, we hope to get some work done and to sleep normally. The election fever has denied us so much sleep. By the way, we intend to drive down to Washington D.C. for the swearing ceremony. I will give you more details later.

Sorry but the elections have made it difficult for many of us here to focus on developments in Buganda lately. But I have noticed the rapid rate at which the Shilling is losing value. It seems that the Shilling does not obey Uganda’s president who (in Idi Amin style) claimed that Uganda could not be affected by the global economic crisis. Imagine the president of a country which whose budget is 50% funded by foreign AID and whose biggest export is “kyeeyo workers” make such an irresponsible claim!

I have to go watch the talking heads analyze the election results on CNN. Say hello to every own.

Son,

Joshua

The United States DOD has defined an occupied territory as:

Territory under the authority and effective control of a belligerent armed force. The term is not applicable to territory being administered pursuant to peace terms, treaty, or other agreement, express or implied, with the civil authority of the territory.

We argue that even a casual but sober review of Uganda’s political history should lead to the conclusion that the aggrieved people of Buganda, under their Kabaka (king) have a case to declare their nation an occupied territory under the authority of a belligerent armed force.

• Fact: Buganda has internationally recognizable boundaries that in 1967 were not in dispute by any of her neighbors (Tanzania, Busoga, Bunyoro, Ankole, Tooro and Lango).
• Fact: The natives of Buganda constitute a distinguishable nation, with distinct cultural practices, national language and customary laws that developed over more than 500 years ago.
• Fact: In 1962 the civil government of Buganda, headed by Kabaka of Buganda, entered a legal agreement (Uganda Constitution of 1966) with other nations and populations in colonial Uganda to federate and gain independence as a single country.
• Fact: In 1966 Prime Minister Obote and his supporters, without consulting Buganda’s civil government or population, illegally overthrew the Uganda Constitution with the use of armed forces. The then Kabaka, Muteesa Walugembe, was exiled to the UK where he died under suspicious circumstances.
• Fact: Between 1966 and 1986 various warlords, including Obote, Idi Amin and Museveni captured Uganda state power through the violent and illegal use of arms.
•  Fact: After Yoweri Museveni captured power by the force of arms in 1986 he organized an exercise to develop a new national constitution that would return the governance of Uganda to a legal status. The flagship activity of the constitution making exercise was the independednt Odoki Commission (leg by Justice Odoki) which collected information that would be properly address the aspirations of all the people in Uganda.
• Fact: According to the “Odoki Report”, over 90% of the people of Buganda explicitly demanded that they be governed under federal form of government which prevailed before the overthrow of the 1966 Uganda constitution.
• Fact: Museveni, Bidandi-Ssali and their supporters illegally (under natural law) broke the terms of the constitution making process and administratively invalidated the demands of the people of Buganda and introduced an experimental substitute that they dubiously name “decentralization”.
• Fact: Since 1986 has, through decrees and targeted laws, constructed a legal system that is selectively punitive to Buganda, her people and her civil leadership, the Kabaka institution. One example is the currency reform decree which devalued the Uganda Shilling by 90% in an environment where Baganda held over 60% of all cash wealth in Uganda. Another example is the 1998 Land Act which set “mailo” land rent (nearly exclusivel found in Buganda) to less than 1$ (US) regardless of size and freely gave away Buganda’s 9,000 square miles customary lands but not those of other nationalities.
• Fact: Museveni, Tinyefunza and their accomplices have issued numerous public statements over radio in newspapers threatening to “destroy” elements of Buganda’s civil leaders, calling Buganda leaders “hyenas”, reminding Baganda that “you don’t have the guns”, telling Kabaka Mutebi to fire Buganda leaders “who don’t agree with Government” and even reminding Baganda of the “1966 crisis” when the 1962 constitution was overthrown.
•  Fact: Buganda’s civil leaders (Kabaka’s Government), with overwhelming support, are only demanding that Museveni and his supporters stop the injustices again the people of Buganda – return the 9,000 square miles and other properties and restore the only form of governance that Buganda has ever willing accepted (federal).

Over the weekend of July 19, 2008 the people of Buganda held a national conference (Lukiiko Ttabamiruka) to discuss the issues of land, poverty and governance which confront them. The Uganda government seems to have underestimated the conference until, on July 18, 2008, one Buganda official, Lubega Ssegona, eloquently’s spoke about its expected results in front of Government agents.

Unexpectedly powerful speeches by Kabaka Mutebi, his wife Nnabagereka Nagginda and others seem to have created virtual panic among Government officials and their Baganda collaborators, resulting in one of the most ill conceived political decisions by Museveni since he came to power. The government arrested Betty Nambooze, Peter Mayiga and Lubega Ssegona (detainded just before the meeting) to preempt further political damage. And in the process handed Baganda nationalists the strongest case so far that the Uganda government considers any expression of Buganda nationalism as a crime. Evidence that Buganda is all but occupied by a belligerent force that will not tolerate and use force against the national aspirations of the native population. Isn’t Buganda under armed occupation?