Uganda’s vice president, Dr. Gilbert Bukenya has told Kabaka Mutebi and his subjects to forget about  the Federo, which they are agitating for.  Bukenya is supposed to have made these statements in an interview that is published in government owned and controlled Sunday Vision of September 6, 2009. Bukenya was echoing the statement made by president Museveni, during a July 12, 2009 public debate On WBS TV, where he (Museveni) declared: “I can never allow Federo for Buganda”.

August 16, 2009 Bukenya attended the Coronation Anniversary celebrations in Lubiri where Omutaka Nakirembeka chided the vice president and other Baganda members of the NRM government for  parroting their anti-Buganda bosses. Kabaka Mutebi , in what appeared to be a veiled reference to Museveni’s TV declaration, made clear that Buganda would not tolerate any more double-talk on Federo. The Kabaka said: “When we hear some people saying that they don’t know what Federo means, I think they have failed to understand what we mean. You should reply to them that Federo is all about justice and truth, and this is what we demand.”

On his part, Bukenya told Kabaka Mutebi and the tens of  thousands of Baganda present that:  ”Buganda’s Federo concerns are genuine and we need to talk about them seriously. I will make sure to recommend to the appropriate authorities that they be handled.”  Apparently  Bukenya  chose the newspaper interview format to inform  Kabaka Mutebi and his subjects to forget Federo, only saying, “We are giving them a regional government.”

Below is what Bukenya told Moses Mulondo of the new vision in response to a question on Federo. According to our sources in Ugandan media, Bukenya and Uganda state house were involved in composing both the question and the answer . Moreover, Bukenya’s answer was first  shown to the Uganda state house, by Robert Kabushenga, before publication. Therefore, all the vagueness (kavuyo) it contains is intentional.

Question: Do you think Buganda’s demands on federalism are genuine?

Answer: Lets  first of all make this very clear. Long time ago when the Europeans came to the centre of Africa here, there was an absolute monarchy. All the power and the leadership was enthroned in the king of that kingdom. He would even order for the killing of a person if he wanted. When the British came in they started taking away power from the king and giving it to the chiefs.

That was the beginning of process of reducing absolute monarchism. By 1950 monarchism was beginning to die out because the colonialists had introduced elections. Once they introduced the system of one  man one vote, democracy began to take over from the monarchy. Today you would be wasting time or dreaming if you thought of going back to the absolute federalism of the monarchy we used to have before the colonialists

But the Buganda kingdom is not demanding for the federalism it had before colonialism, rather, it is demanding for the federalism it got in 1962 after we had acquired independence

But the 1962 federalism is what we are giving them. We are giving them a regional government. They told you to manage many things; I do not know what they were told to manage in 1962. However, I want this to be re-emphasised for it seems to be our major disagreement. In a democratic arrangement you cannot expect that there will ever be a leader of a government without their being voted for by the population. It’s not possible.

That is why we have been saying, ‘why we don’t dissolve some power by creating regional governments whose leaders will be voted for by the people?’ The central government can give some power and you can call that federalism. But the previous federalism of an absolute monarchy is gone forever.

The full interview is available in the Interview sections of the Sunday Vision at www.sundayvision.co.ug.

We can exclusively report that the March 2009 appointment of President Museveni’s wife, Janet Kataha, to the post of Minister of State for Karamoja was never about politics. And some of the attacks against the appointment have been done by state agents to confuse Ugandans and foreign donors alike. According a source close to Mr. Museveni’s state house and familiar with the Uganda Geological Surveys and Mines department, Uganda’s strongman appointed his wife for purely economic reasons; to secure direct family involvement in the exploitation of the huge Karamoja gold deposits. On March 9, 2009 Museveni explained his wife’s ministerial appointment to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) with: “Since many of our elite ministers did not want to work in Karamoja, I asked Janet to help me develop one of the backward areas of our country.”

Our source, who requested anonymity to protect her family’s lives, wrote in an email that: “On January 17, 2009 Uganda’s first family was excited that the latest mineral survey report showed so much more gold potential in Karamoja than initially thought. The first step was to order Tuhumwire to remove Karamoja from the mineral report. [Writer’s note: Joshua Tuhumwire, who of the same ethnicity as Mr. and Mrs. Museveni, is the commissioner for geological surveys and mines].  After heated discussions, the family agreed that one of them had to be minister for Karamoja if they were to control that gold without much suspicion. Appointing the first lady minister for Karamoja was seen as the perfect solution because (1) it reduced the tension in the family and (2) as, MP her appointment would help keep Ugandans and donors focused on the political angle.”

Our source’s email further says that it was expected that, in the position of presidential advisor on defense matters, Mr. Museveni’s half-brother Salim Saleh will oversee implementation of secret arrangements to  put a security blanket over the Kaboong area, which the biggest prospects for gold deposits. Her email also points out that, “When the first lady visited Karamoja the place which received her highest attention was Kaboong, clear sign that she is 100% confident that Ugandan’s are not bright enough to see below the covers.”

The president’s family has been involved in Karamoja gold mining since the early 1990’s. According the Uganda parliament records (Ansard), in 1995 Mr. Museveni told Ugandan national assembly that:  “In Karamoja, six occurrences of gold have been identified and a Uganda registered company, Branch Energy Uganda Limited is going to spend US$7 million during the next two years on prospecting and development. Another company, Anglo-Sudan Corporation is prospecting for gold in the Mityana/Mubende area.” What Mr. Museveni did not mention, which became public information by 1996, is that Branch Energy Uganda Limited was owned by his half-brother Salim Saleh Akandwanaho, in partnership with infamous Branch Energy of South Africa.

Uganda’s subsequent invasion of Congo, a much bigger source of gold and other minerals, and negative publicity about  the Branch Energy companies seem to have convinced  the Museveni family and their  kinsmen to cut back their gold prospecting and mining in Karamoja. Today, the Uganda ruling class does not have access to Congo gold but the mineral trading and shipment network the developed remains intact.

On September 28, 2008 someone posted a  video titled “Museveni and Child Soldiers” on YouTube.com  in an apparent effort to alert the world community about President Museveni’s possible crimes relating to the use of child soldiers. At the time, a vote was about to be taken on whether to allow Uganda to become a member of the UN Security Council.

In the video, Mr. Museveni explains his use of child soldiers with:  “In Africa here even by the age of four you learn to fight. This is our tradition; you fight with sticks, with spears and with arrows. “ And he dismisses children rights activists who oppose use of child soldiers with: “If you think that this [child soldiering] will disorient them psychologically, that is not the case.”

Click here to see the video.

The United Nations, Denmark, the European Union and the USA are all officially against the use of child soldiers.  There are credible reports, as recent as 2008, that President Museveni’s government has been using child soldiers, especially in the war against an Acholi rebel group led by Joseph Kony.  The Danish embassy is intimately knowledgeable about these and other gruesome human rights violations by Mr. Museveni’s government, yet they continue to aggressively support  his programs, including those that may lead to more conflicts in future.

Possibly the most controversial of these program supported by Denmark and the European Union in Uganda today s is Mr. Museveni’s efforts to illegally steal 9,000 of native lands from the Baganda people and to dismantle their cultural institutions and kingdom.  He has passed several target anti-Baganda political and property rights laws which are even illegal under the United Nations charter and protocols with tacit support from the Danish, Norwegian and British ambassadors.

The consensus among all the Baganda intellectuals we interviewed for this article is that Denmark’s support for Mr. Museveni on the question of Buganda self-determination is driven by deep subconscious racism, greed for business opportunities and corruption in their Kampala embassy.  Because Denmark is a kingdom that claims to support human rights and has done so in Europe, Asia and Latin America, they have no logical excuse for using DANIDA to fund programs to dismantle another kingdom, Buganda, about as big as their own.  The consensus is that the Danes have a subconscious racist belief that black people are all the same- they don’t need or deserve kingdoms of their choice ; they just need food and medicine.

A Muganda historian based in Kampala has assured this writer that  Mr. Museveni’s claims that child violence is an African tradition are untrue, especially in relation to the Buganda kingdom and  some other parts of Uganda. He explained: “ It is true that among Mr. Museveni’s the Bahima/Tutsi cattle keepers fighting with sticks to settle personal disagreements is usual, the practice is not a in many African communities. For example,  in Buganda courts to settle personal issues were in operation well before European came to the area in the 1880’s. Buganda had a standing army of thousands of adults only (around 15 years and up) and its role was to fight national enemies. A court system which extended down to village level (kitawuluzi) handled personal criminal and civil cases, including the crime of fighting with sticks. Similarly, Banyoro, Batoro and Basoga do not have a culture of training 9 year olds to kill.”