Uganda NRM government has announced plans to move over 10,000 Bagisu victims of recent landslides in Eastern Uganda to Bugerere of Buganda Kingdom. The county is densely populated and very  politically charged and many Baganda see the move as an effort to reduce their Kabaka’s influence in the area. Bugerere county, and Kayunga town in particular, was the focal point of a confrontation between Uganda’s NRM government and Buganda Kingdom, which led to the massacre of over 30 Baganda.

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.

American National Public Radio (NPR) has produced a special program on the current state of affairs in Uganda. In the program His Majesty, Kabaka Muwenda Mutebi II, Nnabagereka Sylvia Nagginda and Owek. David Mpanga articulately speak about Buganda hopes and aspirations. Mr. Tamale Mirundi, one of Mr. Museveni’s closest advisors and confidants, responds to Kabaka Mutebi and Buganda on behalf of the NRM government.

Clearly unaware of the concept of the fundamental human right to self-determination,  Tamale Mirundi says in Luganda English: “Federalism means Buganda, all of the kingdoms, were sitting down and they create a central government. This is arrogance. Where do they get to mandate, dictate or not? Where do they get the mandate?”

Click here to listen to the NPR special program.

You can also read the text of the broadcast here.

According to sources in Kampala, the  Banyankore owned Luganda daily paper Kamunye, is now an important part of the NRM’s program to spread anti-Buganda and anti-Kabaka propaganda. This week Kamunye published a story claiming that president Museveni of the Uganda occupation government had decided to go and pay a visit to Kabaka Mutebi at his Banda palace, to extend an olive branch, since the Lion of Buganda has been unresponsive.

A Kampala based Muganda analyst with close links to Mmengo sent an email which dismissed the story as silly and typical of NRM tactics of creating kavuyo (confusion). He said: “Now Museveni thinks that Baganda will forget the damage he has done to our kingdom and give him votes simply because he visited Kabaka? This is what they call a trial balloon and I hope that Katikkiro Walusimbi is not part of this one. The Kabaka must not be exposed to the hooligans anymore.”

Kamunye is a sister paper to the Red Pepper which also recently printed another Nagenda planted story saying the NRM government was going to take over Bulange. Red Pepper was originally sponsored by Salim Saleh and is often used by the NRM to leak both true and fake stories. Many of its current reporters are known to be ISO and ESO spies.

An email from a source close to president Museveni’s state house reveals that, since October  2009  the Ugandan dictator’s people have been struggling to put together a real plan to deal with the accelerating anti-Museveni and anti-NRM feelings in Buganda. The people who seem to be the brains behind the plan include Museveni himself, John Nagenda, Tamale Mirundi and one Mafabi. Also involved in some meetings are Museveni’s half brother Salim Saleh (Caleb Akandwanako), David Tinyefuza, David Magara, Wabudeya, Kirunda Kivejinja, Moses Kigongo, Hope Mwesigye, Robert Kabushenga, Namayanja and others.

According to the email: “A lot of experiments have been made to see how to change Baganda either through fear or love. Nothing seems to work. For example, Museveni started a tour of Buganda after the Kayunga riots with plans to give out cash to key NRM people to bribe villagers. But the tour has been terrible from last year.  Whether it is in Butambala, Kyaggwe, Bugere  or Buddu, every place the president goes Baganda have been coming in small numbers and only demanding for the opening  of CBS.  Even when state house decided to show power by having mambas go with the president to Kyaggwe the people were not impressed and only put up more pictures of Kabaka Mutebi and Nnabagereka in their taxis and shops.”

The president’s people are sort of divided according to our source.  Tinyefuza, Janet Museveni,  Magara, Otafiire and sometimes Saleh, lead the group which wants to use straight force. This group pressured the president to force Kabaka Mutebi to come to the infamous “gun on your head” Entebbe meeting late last year, where the Lion of Buganda refused to be bought. The group also claims that Museveni did not go far enough in crashing the Kayunga disturbances. Salim Saleh is also on the second side with Kivenjinja, Kuteesa, Tamale Mirundi, Mwesigye, Nagenda and others. This “divide and conquer” group prefer to isolate Kabaka from Baganda by destroying Mmengo as an institution and confusing people until the 2011 elections are over.  This team believes that if the Europeans and the USA are happy with the elections, which Museveni is guaranteed to win, Buganda will have nowhere to start.  Museveni would very much like to use force but  he also knows that Baganda youths have become too strong to let him win on force while America and Europe are watching. For now he is siding with the second team.

Our source adds: “Recently a plan was kicked off for president Museveni and Salim Saleh to soften the tone on Buganda and show respect to Kabaka Mutebi and leave people like Mirundi, Nagenda, other Baganda and even Tinyefuza or Otafiire to be the bad guys. That is why Museveni went to Kayunga (Bugerere county) and said that the county can never leave Buganda. This is the man who has been calling the county Bunyala for 6 months and stopped the Kabaka  from going there without permission from his Sabanyala. The problem for state house is that again, most peasants had boycotted Museveni’s visit. The 400 or so people at the rally were 80% schoolchildren who were brought in by lorries. And that is why the crowd was never shown on any TV stations.

“Salim Saleh did not do any better when he went to Kalisizo (Buddu county) to speak the at the funeral rites (lumbe ceremony) of Tamale Mirundi’s father. Saleh used the opportunity to claim that he wished Buganda well and was involved in the tough job of bringing Kabaka Mutebi and Museveni to together. He even asked the crowd to pray hard for him. However, the peasants were not impressed at all. They insisted that if he wants their prayers he must fist deal with the problem of opening CBS. Chaos followed when Tamale Mirundi asked local NRM officials to stand up for introduction. First they seemed to be afraid to do so and when they did, people started to boo them and call them traitors. Then Tamale tried to let a senior NRM official from Kampala to say a few words. The people told him not to do so or they (the villagers) would walk away. That is when Tamale Mirundi turned to Saleh and said ‘Afande nawe obirabye, mu gombolola zino NRM telinaamu kalulu’ (‘As you can see the NRM has no votes in these sub-counties’).”

The email from our source also says that, as part of a state house propaganda kick off, John Nagenda started his bad guy activities with his New Vision column last Saturday. In his column, he trashed the Mmengo institution, suggested that it is irrelevant and claimed that it will die. Nagenda also arranged for the Banyankore owned Luganda daily paper Kamunye to print negative stories about Kabaka Mutebi. Kamunye is a sister paper to the Red Pepper which also recently printed another Nagenda planted story saying that the NRM government was going to take over Bulange. Red Pepper was originally sponsored by Salim Saleh.

Robert Kabuye says no to the claim by UDII members that every one against the presidency of Yoweri Museveni is fighting for the same thing. In his Ekiba Kibe program of February 8, 2010, Mr. Kabuye make it clear that when he organized the Baganda demonstration of January 26, 2010 at the United Nations, he advertised that it was about the liberation of Buganda.  He says: “Buganda Post kyeyayogera kyali kituufu..byetwakootinga byaali bituufu. Kubanga ffe twategeka okwekalakaasa kwe New York era kwali kuyitibwa ‘Okununula Buganda’” (“Buganda Post was correct. What we quoted was correct. Because we organized the New York demonstration and it was called ‘Liberating Buganda’”). Mr. Kabuye requests the UDII people to come out and state what their true objectives are [not just saying that they are against Museveni].

Mr. Kabuye and his Ekiba Kibe program are  probably the most visible action ever by disapora Baganda to advocate for Buganda liberation without apology or signs of “ate banagamba batya?” (“what will the others say?”). According to our sources in Boston, many older Baganda with dreams of becoming major political figures in Uganda have made attempts to claim closeness to Kabuye. Even Ruhakana Rugunda, the NRM ambassador  to the UN, has reportedly paid people to set up fronts to recruit Kabuye and then disorganize him. However, most of the them have been disappointed when the Ekiba Kibe program and Bu man has stubbornly insisted that anything he does must be focused on the liberation Buganda from Museveni, the NRM and their occupation Uganda constitution. Kabuye says on his program that Buganda must be ruled as an independent kingdom with Kabaka on top. And he has previously explained that the independent nation system worked for over 600 years. Yet the foreign systems of Unitary, Regional Tier, Decentralization, and Federo have all failed to work for Buganda and Uganda in the last  40 years.

In a related story, we have been able to confirm reports that Kibanda Cinema (video hall) operators in Wandegeya (Kyadondo county), Kalisizo (Buddu county) and Mukono (Kyaggwe county) were caught by the NRM police playing Ekiba Kibe programs to their customers and were told to stop or they will be arrested. The CDs with the recordings were also confiscated.

Click on Ekiba_Kibe08Feb10B to listen to the February 8, 2009 Ekiba Kibe broadcast.

Eddoboozi newspaper has reported that one of Kabaka Mutebi’s guards has rebelled and established Local Council 1 (LC 1) office in the Mmengo Lubiri. The Lubiri the official residence of the Kabaka of Buganda and is considered a sacred place for Baganda. According to reports, David Ssengoye and other people, first held a meeting at Pope Paul Memorial Hotel in Ndeeba and selected themselves as the officials of the council. Ssengoye is chairman, Betty Kisaliita is his deputy and one Saad, another former Kabaka’s guard is secretary for youth. Under the president Museveni’s occupation laws, if Ssengoye gets away with this council then he (Ssengoye) will have political power over the Lion of Buganda.

Eddoboozi learnt from reliable sources that Ssengoye’s rebel LC 1 is filled by NRM operatives. And according to the newspaper’s research, it appears that Ssegoye is being paid well by certain people to provoke Kabaka Mutebi. When the Kabaka first heard about Ssengoye’s activities, he (Kabaka) told his guard to drop the idea because Mmengo Lubiri is a private cultural place and must not have a political office such as LC 1. However, Ssengoye decided to ignore his Kabaka and move ahead to start his LC 1 office in the palace.

By lunchtime in Kampala on Saturday, the word on Buganda street was that evidence (“bwino”) had been uncovered that at least two Mmengo officials had secretly assisted Ssengoye to set up the LC 1. And that they had been facilitated by Museveni’s NRM government.

Eddobozi newspaper is run by the Buganda youth organization, Nkoba za Mbogo and can be found online at www.eddoboozi.co.ug.