Justice Musoke Kibuuka has ordered the chief of Uganda police, military man Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, to produce Jane Nakambugu, a 14 year old Muganda girl who was abducted from her home by a police woman on September 1, 2009.  The order requires Kayihura to produce Nakambugu in court by September 24, 2009.

According to Jane’s parents, Yowasi Kalega and Esther Nakayiwa, their daughter was taken without explanation from her home in Kasana, Bulemeezi county, by a police woman and locked up at Kiwoko police station.

Jane’s parents told the judge that they followed their daughter and her abductor to Kiwoko police station to get the facts were told to come back after their daughter made a statement. They returned on September 3, only to be told that their daughter has been freed the day before. Suspicious of the police behavior, the distraught parents run to Justice Kibuuka’s court to plead for their daughter’s life.

It is not yet clear why the Kiwoko police, notorious among the locals for its high corruption, would abduct  a 14 year old child in a style that was fashionable during dictator Idi Amin’s regime. However, Nakambugu was a 4th grade student at Kiwoko Church of Uganda Primary School, where, as in many Buganda schools, children as young as 10 have learnt to  openly and aggressively express their ethnic identity and commitment to the Kabaka. Moreover, Nkoba za Mbogo, the main Baganda youth organization now boasts over 100,000 members in branches starting from primary schools through universities and professional ranks.

A multi-million dollar custom Gulfstream jet purchased for Uganda’s president Museveni arrived in the country recently. Mr. Museveni acquired the US$48 million Gulfstream V to replace the less opulent Gulfstream IV he bought less than 10 years ago in 2000. The Ugandan leader, who President Bill Clinton used to refer to as one of a “new breed” of progressive Africa leaders has over the last 10 years turned into a fully fledged dictator who working hard to best the likes of Congo’s Mobutu. Mr. Museveni complements a US$54 million presidential palace which is only one year old.

For example in 2003 Mr. Museveni used the $30 million Gulf Stream IV to fly his daughter to a hospital in Germany so she could give birth, at a cost of over $35,000, excluding hospital fees. He unapologetically told the local press that he had to do for his family security because he did not trust Ugandan doctors. And it is true that Uganda’s medical services are by far the poorest in East Africa, largely because the starting salary of a Uganda doctor is less than US$300 per month compared to US$1,000 or more in Rwanda, Kenya and much of Tanzania.

According to Transparency International, Uganda is one of the most corrupt and politically unstable countries, described by diplomats as a “crooks’ heaven”. For example five members of the president’s immediate family hold senior government positions. Most notable are his wife Janet who is Minister for Karamoja Region, home of Uganda’s gold mineral reserves and his super corrupt half-brother Salim Saleh Akandwanaho is Presidential Advisor on security. After coming to power through a military coup, Mr. Museveni has ruled Uganda without interruption and all signs are that he intends to remain president until his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, can take over from him.

Available data supports the argument by Baganda analysts that European and American tax payers are directly and actively funding Mr. Museveni’s human rights abuses and excesses. Mr. Museveni’s local government system is all but fully funded by Sweden and the other Nordic countries. Germany’s GTZ and KfW have pumped millions into shoddy roads and the financial sector only to end up with a quasi-criminal business class in the country, dominated by Museveni relatives and cronies. USAID has not escaped, as millions of American tax payer money has been channeled into fake agricultural and social development programs used to report bogus economic growth and AIDS control statistics with no real improvements on the ground.  Today, at least 50% of Uganda’s national budget is funded by western donors, led by Denmark, Sweden, United Kingdom and USA. That is why European and American taxpayers are actively funding Mr. Museveni to spend US$102 million (3% of the US$3B 2007/2008 national budget) on a house and a plane within 12 months. That is, not counting operating and maintenance costs.

The parents of on the victims to the fire that killed 20 students at Budo Junior school are fear that the ongoing court case is scam designed to cover up what was a mass sacrifice of Baganda children on April 14, 2008.  Through an email, the mother of one of the victims told us that after attending one court session she felt like vomiting in court on Thursday because of the obvious the way Banyankore and Banyarwanda are trying to cover up a mass murder.

The grieving Muganda mother writes, “Please tell Baganda to ask themselves why although Budo is in Buganda, all the people who were in charge of the security of our children are Banyankore or Banyarwanda. And why did President Museveni go to the school and, even before the police had searched the site, ordered that those responsible should be prosecuted for ‘criminal negligence’. If that is not enough, ask yourself why even this man Mugabo who is the judge in the case is a Munyarwanda. Are you shocked? One more, Kale Kayihura the Uganda police boss (see picture) is also100%  Munyarwanda!”

Pleading to Kabaka Mutebi and all Baganda for support, the angry mother adds: “To many of us parents this is a cover up. The police and many of us already know that Kayongo moved students around into Nassolo dormitory days before the fire. And, as Tamale Mirundi assured us Kayongo sent his (Tamale’s) daughter Namuddu and those of other senior government officials home without good reason 2 days before the fire. My daughter cannot come back but I ask all Baganda and especially Ssabasajja to watch this case very carefully, ask themselves why so many of  those involved and Banyarwanda and Banyankore except when it comes to the victims (75% are Baganda). Please be concerned that there is a quiet plan to make Baganda mentally paralyzed by killings like this. Should you wait until they kill your own child or close relative in the next genocide human sacrifice?”

We can report that the former headmaster of Budo is not a Muganda of Kkobe clan as his name suggests but a Munyarwanda, with many relatives living back home in Rwanda. Budo is located in Busiro county of Buganda with a predominantly Baganda population. Yet all those implicated in the fatal fire are Banyankore: Damallie Basirika (matron) and Julius Tumusiime, Andrew Byamukama, Matia Tumuhairwe and Stanley Basirigara (the security guards). And the Buganda Road Chief Magistrate, Vincent Mugabo is a Munyarwanda.  Notably, the official charger against the Banyarwanda and Banyankore is “Neglect of duty”, very much in line with what Mr. Museveni declared when he visited Budo Junior on April 15, 2008.

The lawyers for the defendants are curiously Baganda. Kayongo is defended by one Sserunjogi while Joseph Kasozi represents Basirika. The Banyankore guards do not have lawyers. A list of the children who perished in the fire as presented below. Of the 20 victims, at least 14 were Baganda and only 3 could be Banyankore or Banyarwanda, although sources at the school indicate that about 30% of the pupils at Budo Junior are the time of the fire were from these two groups.

Victim List (Baganda in Bold)

1.   Barbara Natugonza

2.   Betty Kawula

3.   Evelyn Zawedde

4.   Evina Nalwoga

5.   Faith Asiimwe

6.   Joan Nabbosa

7.   Judith Nakavuma

8.   Juliet Lunkuse

9.   Juliet Nambalirwa

10. Latiffa Namuleme

11. Mariam Nakato

12. Merciful Wesonga

13. Mercy Akite

14. Patience Namakoye

15. Patience Namuyanja

16. Patricia Nakazi

17. Samantha Ntunda

18. Sonia Tendo

19. Sylvia Nakandi

20. Yvonne Namaganda

Prime Minister Prof Apollo Nsibambi of Uganda shocked his family and Baganda, in general, when he disowned his supposed cultural norms and declared a daughter his heir (musika). Nsibambi, who is reported to be fighting a bout of severe depression, chose a conference on population policy at Sheraton Kampala to declare his daughter, Rhoda, his official musika. Among Baganda, it is taboo for a person to have a musika who is not of the same sex and clan.

One Muganda elder who went to Mengo School with Nsibambi,  told this reporter that Museveni’s prime minister is a very selfish man. Quote: “Since he was a small boy Apollo has been a self-centered ‘kabandabe’ (show-off) person. In primary school, he used to do very selfish things such as telling lies about classmates to gain teachers’ favors. Even at university level, he relied more on people manipulation skills than on his raw brains. His problem now is that today’s Baganda see through him, and his master Museveni knows it too. It is the ‘kabandabe’ inferiority complex mixed with insecurity that made him name the daughter as a musika. But now it is the daughter and her husband and children who will be stigmatized for the rest of their lives. Can a 70 year old be more selfish than that?”.

Every Muganda like Nsibambi belongs to a clan; the clan of his or her father. In Baganda culture, an adult person never fully dies because after his or her death a person of the same clan and sex is selected to become the deceased’s musika. Typically a person chooses their heir. Their child, grandchild, brother, cousin or nephew for men. And a sister, cousin or niece for women. This custom is called okusikira (to replace). It is so important to Baganda that even if a 10 year old female cousin becomes musika to the mother of a 46 year old, he publically refers to her as “my mother”.

It is important to note that the okusikira custom is independent of property inheritance rights. For hundreds of years Baganda men without have willed large proportions of their wealth to their daughters without naming them the musika. Baganda women have historically done it even more, often giving virtually everything to their daughters and sons and only a token of appreciation to the official musika.