Friday, March 19, 2010

PRESESS RELEASE

Dear Fellow Ugandans:

RE: KASUBI ROYAL TOMBS RESTORATION FUND

An emergency meeting for Baganda residing in Southern California was held on Thursday 18, Mar 2010 at 9411 Burnet Avenue, North Hills CA 91343 at 7:00PM.

The meeting was called by Lt. Frank Musisi to discuss the issue of the destroyed Kasubi Royal Tombs and the Way Forward.

THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTIONS WERE MADE AND ADOPTED IMMEDIATELY:

1.      To send a sympathy message to the Royal family of Buganda and to the entire Buganda kingdom for the loss of the royal regalia which was gutted in the inferno of last Tuesday’s that destroyed the Kasubi Royal Tombs.

2.      Pledged to restore the Kasubi Royal Tombs in collaboration with Mengo establishment, Buganda Kingdom, and the Baganda in Diaspora by mobilizing and contributing the necessary financial resources for this job.

3.      Established a special fund, ” Kasubi Royal Tombs Restoration Fund (KRTRF)”.

4.      A sum of $1 million is to be raised in between 8-12 months if at least 1000 Baganda and friends of Buganda in the United States each contribute $1000.

5.      An Interim Organizing Committee was put in place consisting of the following members to spearhead the project, KRTRF:

a.       Chairman:                                                          Lt. Frank Musisi

b.      Vice Chairman:                                                Mr. Damiano Kigoye.

c.       Secretary:                                                        Mr. Fredrick Mwanje.

d.      Treasurer:                                                         Ms. Prossy Musoke.

e.       Publicity Secretary and mobilization:            Mr. Dennis Nnyondo

f.       Assistant publicity Secretary/ Mobilization:  Mr. Arthur Ssembusi.

Interim Committee Advisors:

a.       Mr. Dennis Kavuma, Buganda Tourism ZSAR in the U.SA.

b.      William Ssenkumba, Buganda Tourism Commissioner

c.       Mr. Moses Male, Buganda Tourism Commissioner

d.      Mr. Siraje Mugambe- President of the Ugandan Community Organization in California (UCOC).

6.      Members present pledged a sum of $11,480 immediately to the KTRF

7.      Members resolved to send the Chairman, Lt. Frank Musisi immediately to Mengo to meet with Buganda Officials and update then on formation of the” Kasubi Tombs Restoration Fund (KTRF)” and way forward.

8.      Members resolved to advise the Buganda Leadership not to seek assistance from Uganda Politicians but rather concentrate on the generosity and spirit of the loyal Baganda and friends of Buganda around the globe.

For more information on how you can contribute towards the KTRF please contact:

Chairman, Lt. Frank Musisi (818)-994-1485,

Vice Chairman, Mr. Damiano Kigoye ( 310-227-9253),

Advisor, Buganda Tourism Zsar, Mr. Dennis Paul Kavuma at 818-620-9448,

and others on the Committee.

Awangaale Ssabassajja Maggulunnyondo, Wa Buganda.

Yours Sincerely,

Dennis Nnyondo (818-201-7048)
Publicity Secretary & Mobilizer
Kasubi Tombs Restoration Fund
Los Angeles, California (USA)

Most Baganda in North America have reached one conclusion about the fire that gutted Buganda’s national shrine, Amasiro ge Kasubi, the royal cemetery where 4 late kings (Bassekabaka) and many other royals are buried. They put the blame squarely on president Yoweri Museveni and his NRM government. And their suspicions were strenghtned by reports that on Wednesday, scores of Baganda were shot by NRM military police because they gave a hostile audience to Museveni. Museveni went inspect the ashes in the place where the royal tombs once stood. Based on the emails we have received from all over the world, it appears that a huge majority of Baganda view Museveni’s visit as a case of the criminal returning to the scene of the crime.

According to the March 17, 2010 Ekiba Kibe broadcasts, Baganda held big Ggwangamujje mourning gatherings in Boston, New Jersey and Los Angeles on Tuesday and Wednesday. Mourning is expected to go on for sometime but no end dates have been announced.  On the same program, the Chairman of Ggwangamujje Boston describes the various ways Museveni has impoverished, robbed and even killed Baganda. As examples, Mr. Mayanja mentions the young virgins of Budo Primary School who were sacrificed in a ritual dormitory fire, other school fires, the destruction of Buganda agriculture, the closure of CBS, the theft of Buganda’s native lands and the murder of ordinary Baganda. Mr. Mayanja announced more mourning meetings, indicating that in America Baganda might mourn for the Kasubi tombs for longer than the one week which Mmengo wants for Buganda.

Click on Ekiba_Kibe17Mar10C and on Ekiba_Kibe17Mar10D to listen to the Ekiba Kibe programs of March 17, 2010.

Based on the emails we are receiving from Baganda all over the world, Kabaka Mutebi’s subjects are clearly boling with anger. Most of the emails are too graphic and provocative for us to publish. Below is one example from Mr. A. Kyobe:

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.

Today’s broadcast of Ekiba Kibe program announced that Baganda in Boston, USA, were to have a wake (lumbe) over the burning of the Kasubi tombs (see “Kasubi Tombs Burnt To The Ground, Day Of Mourning”).  The wake was planned for Tuesday night. Also during the program, the presenter Robert Kabuye interviewed a few Boston Baganda. The consensus by the people which Kabuye interviewed was that Museveni is the one who ordered the burning of the tombs.

Click on Ekiba_Kibe16Mar10A to listen to the March 16, 2010 broadcast of Ekiba Kibe on Free Buganda Radio.

The Ekiba Kibe program on the SMS based Free Buganda Radio is now announcing Kabaka’s birthday at least two times a day. The presenter Mr. Robert Kabuye e Boston makes sure to remind his listeners to get ready to celebrate the birthday of the Lion of Buganda, Ssabasajja Kabaka, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II.  Buganda Post has received reports from Baganda in places like United Arab Emirates, Durban South Africa, and different parts of the USA and Europe saying that they get Ekiba Kibe and it keeps Kabaka’s birthday in their minds.

Ssabasajja Kabaka wa Buganda, Ronald Muwenda Walugembe Mutebi II  was born at Mmengo  Lubiri on April 13, 1955. The Lion of Buganda (Emplogoma ya Buganda) is the  son of  Ssekabaka (past Kabaka)  Edward Frederick William David Walugembe Mutebi Luwangula Muteesa II, who reigned between 1939 and 1969. His mother was Omuzaana Sarah Nalule, Kabejja, of the Nkima (monkey) clan. He was educated at Budo Junior School, King’s Mead School in Sussex and Bradford College. He then entered Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he read Law.

Click on the following links Ekiba_Kibe14Mar10A,  Ekiba_Kibe14Mar10B,  Ekiba_Kibe14Mar10C or Ekiba_Kibe15Mar10A and to listen to four different Ekiba Kibe broadcasts from March 14 and March 15, 2010.

The NRM government newspaper Bukedde of March 10, 2010, published a story showing that vote buying in school prefect elections is the norm in Uganda schools. At the swearing in of Shafina Nangobi as the headgirl at Pic Hill Primary School in Kawempe, the young lady openly said that she had spent about US$1 ,500 on her campaign. Shafinah Nangobi explained that she spent most of the money buying snacks and food for student voters. She then offered the runner-up in the election to be her deputy.

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.

Dear Compatriots

On March 6, 1987, Dr. Kayira was murdered in cold blood. Saturday, March 6, 2010 marks the 23^rd Anniversary of his death.

With his Uganda Freedom Movement Dr. Kayira was serious on liberating Uganda from dictatorship. With his UFA his approach was a surgical one. M7 with his NRA the approach was of a protracted and resistance war.

In early eighties Dr. Kayira landed a sizeable and effective consignment of armaments. Before taking any surgical moves with them he had consultation with M7. He suggested that he was going to hit Obote’s life nerve, the army barracks positioned in the Lubiri. He requested M7 and his troops to participate in the exercise of taking over Kampala and returning the country to the people. M7 refused to participate. Instead he chose to harass Kayira till Kayira could no longer see the light of this world.

This is one of the examples of  the effects of the ogu nenki syndrome (=who is this syndrome) which continues to bedevil Uganda. Kayira will go down in the history of Uganda for his advocacy of federalism that would help Ugandans to be proud of what they are and save Ugandans from being arrogant because of what they are.

Please, remember Dr. Lutaakome Andrew Kayira.

Aloysius Muzzanganda Mugerwa Lugira

Professor of Comparative Theology Emeritus
Theology Department Boston College
140 Commonwealth Avenue
Chestnut Hill, MA 01467 USA

Tel: 617-552-3539 work 781-937-3954 house

E-mail: lugira@bc.edu or Aloysius.lugira@yahoo.com

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.