A reliable Uganda intelligence source in Kampala has told us that Olara Otunnu, a Ugandan politician from Acholi escaped death when his van collided with president Museveni’s presidential guard brigade (PGB) vehicles. According to the source, who requested that her identity be kept secret, the accident which occurred around Masindi in Bunyoro is too much of a coincidence to be believable. She explained that: “Based on the way the NRM government works, this accident was clearly staged to shake up the former United Nations undersecretary a little. I can assure you that, from now one he will think much more about what he says, where he goes and who he trusts in Uganda. Mr. Museveni calls the trick  ‘personal destabilization’.”

Our source is confident that Otunnu suffered no serious injuries although he was clearly shaken. She could not confirm to us if the PGB men who seem to have staged the accident were actually injured themselves. However, she said that, to make things appear genuine, it was likely that the Uganda government might announce that the PGB men were seriously injured or even that one of them died.

Apparently, Otunnu was travelling from northern Uganda where, for the first time in more 20 years, he attended the same public  function as Ugandan dictator, Yoweri Museveni. The police, ISO and PGB are all actively monitoring Otunnu’s movements since he returned to Uganda and expressed his intention to stand the position president in the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) party. They both attended the consecration of a new Church of Uganda bishop for the Acholis in Gulu on December 20, 2009.

The UPC was responsible for the abolition of Uganda’s federal government, the exile and murder of  Ssekabaka (deceased Kabaka) Edward Muteesa II, stealing 9,000 square miles of Baganda native lands and carrying out genocide against Baganda in Bulemeezi, Buluri, Ssingo, Butambala and other counties (Luweero Triangle). As  a student and young man, Yoweri Museveni was a very active member of UPC’s notorious State Research Bureau, which was central to many of atrocities against Baganda. Later he turned against Obote and seized power after a 4 year a guerrilla war centered in the Luweero Triangle. Over 500,000 Baganda were murdered in the war.  It is estimated that Museveni’s Banyankore led NRM/NRA murdered up to 30-40% of these and put the blame on Obote, to gain support and recruits.

According to a Boston based improvised radio station, using multimedia SMS messages to broadcast, Kabaka Mutebi will shortly travel to South Africa on November 10, 2009, to visit his subject Betty Nambooze. The SMS broadcast, which one of our readers downloaded and emailed to us, carries the “Ekiba Kibe Program”, presented by Robert Kabuye. In a charismatic brave voice Kabuye first announces that Betty Nambooze is in terrible medical shape and appears to face certain death. Apparently, because “her intestines fast disintegrating.” Kabuye repeats what Nambooze has said for years now, that Museveni’s security people injected her with some suspicious chemical when she was in police custody.

Also in the SMS Kabuye, who keeps saying “Museveni must go” throughout his broadcast, claims that Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi will travel to South Africa on Tuesday this week, to visit Betty Nambooze Bakireke. We have not been able to independently confirm if Nambooze is facing certain death or whether Ssabasajja will indeed travel as Mr. Kabuye says. Click on this link Ekibakibe_09Sep09A.wav to listen to Mr. Kabuye.

Mr. Kabuye has made himself a name as a very effective communicator, who has mastered the multi-media SMS technology. His messages get to hundreds of Bagadna phones in the USA, Europe, Uganda and other countries. Sources also tell us that Mr. Kabuye is a very strong supporter of Frank Musisi, the former UNAA president. Indeed he intially started his SMS radio to campaign for Musisi when he was running for UNAA president. The same sources tell us that Mr. Kabuye’s energy and excellent communication skills also did a lot to get over 300 to attended the recent Emergency Buganda  Conference, organized by John Mayanja (see “Resolutions of the Buganda Emergency Meeting in Boston on October 17, 2009‏”).

In another related story, the people of Buganda were gripped by anxiety, anger and despair over the weekend after rumors spread by text messages that Betty Nambooze had died. Our source in Kayembe, near Nakasero market, told this writer: “The situation was tense and we feared that if the rumors got confirmed, anything could explode. The problem is that one could not tell where the rumor started. And because of the CBS Radio shut down we did not know who to listen to. Now, we have gotten to know that in fact the rumor was intentionally spread by ISO on instructions from Museveni’s statehouse.”

Museveni’s NRM USA organization will, until it collapses, remember September 26, 2009 as a bloody day. Pressure from American Baganda forced their primary funder, Uganda’s ruler, Yoweri Museveni keep away from their 2009 NRM Forum in Boston.  The pressure came from the widely publicized plans by Baganda to demonstrate at the venue and the persistence of the same Kabaka’s subjects who came to the venue even after mixed messages about Museveni’s attendance. The Baganda came from New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Canada and elsewhere.

An estimated 200 Baganda , under the eye of the Boston Police, stood  across the street from the entrance to the Marriott Copley Place Hotel and loudly demonstrated from 10:00 AM to 3:30 PM.  They held  up placards that, among other things,  accused Museveni of genocide, stated that Buganda is an occupied country and demanded the release of Baganda political prisoners. Throughout the over 5 hours of demonstration, Baganda kept singing “Kitiibwa kya Buganda”, praising Kabaka Mutebi and chanting slogans like “Akaalo ka Buganda keeko, akalo kaliko nannyiniko”, “Tulina Kabaka, tulina ennyondo”, “We want change, Museveni must go!” and so on. Curious car drivers kept honking and showing ‘V” signs, which kept the demonstrators energized.

Our contact within  NRM USA admitted that the Baganda demonstration caused the NRM Forum to flop but would not comment of where Museveni was hiding.  Speaking on condition anonymity the source told us that between 25 and 30 people attended the event.  And when pressed, the source admitted that this number included over 15 organizers, government officials and spouses. Interestingly, the source, who is usually very defensive of  Museveni, said “no comment” when asked if the Uganda president has been scared away by the Baganda. However, the source agreed that Buganda Post was “in the ball park” when we reported that president Museveni had decided to leave early and skip Boston, and then changed his mind. When we brought up the feet pain issues, the source only asked: “Where do you get that nonsense from?”.

A prominent Muganda analyst based in New York told us that there is no doubt in his mind that Baganda demonstrators in New York and Boston combined with the Obama snub shook up Museveni.  The analyst explained: “You have to remember that throughout the Bush years, Museveni enjoyed open access to the US State House. For some reason he has not gotten used to the idea that Bush left, so he assumed that Obama would meet him personally. Thanks to Johnny Carson’s [US Undersecretary of State for Africa] intimate knowledge of Museveni’s regime, Obama administration put together a well-planned snub, which included ensuring that Obama’s TV images showed him speaking to the Uganda’s corrupt strongman for less than 5 seconds and immediately turning his back to him.

Our analyst adds: “In meeting Moammar Gadaffi, Museveni was hoping to make America  jealous. Now, if Obama’s administration fell for I would be shocked. I understand that Museveni had some meetings with Balaalo students under the secret state house scholarship and got a briefing on the progress of a program by Ruhakana Rugunda and his wife to recruit Baganda women in the USA.  However, the only thing he seriously looked forward to was holding court at the NRM Forum in Boston. In scaring  Museveni away from Boston and sabotaging the forum, the USA Baganda exposed his cowardice. However, very much like a man who gets fired from his job and runs home beat his children, expect the sulking Museveni to return to Uganda and take his frustration on Kabaka and Baganda, to revenge the humiliation he has suffered. The interesting part is that Buganda will get even stronger as no one can claim the ‘twebaka ku tulo’ and ‘Tumukwaate mpola’ crap.”

On Thursday February 26, Katikkiro JB Walusimbi stood up president Museveni of Uganda when he did not turn up for the much publicized land negotiations between Mmengo and Museveni.  According to our sources, Walusimbi could not go because key members of his cabinet overruled him. They insisted that Mmengo must not negotiate with Museveni about giving up anything to him on his proposed Land (Amendment) Bill, 2008. They argued that it would be disobedience to Kabaka Mutebi who had publicly called it a bad bill and told all Baganda to oppose it. Equally important, they insisted that while talking to Museveni was alright, it must be about full restoration of all Buganda’s property and political rights – not begging.

The problem for Walusimbi is that he had already assured Museveni that he could bring Mmengo to the table to negotiate the contentious Land (Amendment) Bill, 2008. So when the loyal Baganda ministers put their feet down he was left in a fix. And he opted to simply hide from Museveni. One source close to Museveni’s state house told us that: “Museveni is very annoyed that Walusimbi failed to turn up.  The president was made to look like a man who was promised some gold by Congolese con men and left holding a bag full of stones. He has been asking people near him, ‘What is wrong with Baganda?’ ”

It has been widely reported by the local Buganda press that Museveni and JB Walusimbi have been engaged in secret negotiations over Buganda issues since July 2008. What we can exclusively report from a highly reliable source very close to the Katikkiro is that the negotiations primarily focused on how to soften what Museveni, Walusimbi and other NRM big wigs think is Kabaka Mutebi’s excessive power today. Mr. Museveni and the Katikkiro had reportedly reached agreements the following key areas by January 28, 2009:

1. Museveni had convinced JB Walusimbi that if Kabaka Mutebi continued to accumulate so much power over Baganda it could lead to a show down where Baganda like him (Walusimbi) were going to lose lives and their businesses. And the way to control the Kabaka’s escalating influence was to remove Nambooze, Mpanga and Ssegona from CBS Radio and give the Katikkiro more control over Mmengo.
2. Walusimbi had convinced Museveni to pay off government rent arrears owed to Mmengo and authorize another 8 billion shillings to: (1) complete Bulange Plaza, (2) complete Twekobe, (3) pay some salary arrears for Bulange employees, (4) to facilitate (bribe) key Buganda officials and certain key Bataka (clan heads) for support, (5) to settle the debt that state house owed the Katikkiro’s Associated Consulting Engineers company, and (6) to buy support from Baganda peasants by giving them money through an NRM style program called Omumuli which Walusimbi designed with Gilbert Bukenya’s support.
3. The two sides had agreed that to soften Kabaka Mutebi it was important to isolate him more from the Baganda youths who are getting more dangerous, starting with the removal of Betty Nambooze from CBS. Curiously, the two sides had also agreed that the removal of Nambooze could be made simpler if it was accompanied with the firing of highly unpopular Baganda like Tamale Mirundi or Minister Kinobe or even Nsibambi.

What Museveni and Katikkiro Walusimbi could not control are the leaks about their so called secret talks over the months. For example, rumors of Museveni’s willingness to fire Tamale Mirundi or even Nsibambi to appease Baganda first surfaced in early January 2009. Apparently the many leaks helped the intended victims to plan and execute necessary counter moves.

A New York based Muganda thought leader told this reporter that it is the leakages which probably led Museveni to panic and hold that bizarre press conference on February 10, 2009. He said:  “I think that the leaks reached the intended victims at Mmengo Bulange and they fought back with rapid fire on CBS FM radio. Indeed, my contacts tell me that after getting an ISO briefing on the public response to the February 7th Mambo Baado presentation by Mpanga and Nambooze, Museveni decided to temporarily withdraw his Land (Amendment) Bill, 2008.  In effect, ISO people told him that Nambooze and Mpanga had mobilized Baganda youth to a point where public violence was inevitable if the land bill was read in parliament. In fact, in a slip of the toungue, Museveni admitted the role Nambooze and Mpanga in his panicky decision when he told the press conference:  ‘Don’t allow anyone to mislead you that we are withdrawing the bill because of the lies told by Nambooze and Mpanga on CBS radio’.”

An official of the Uganda Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has told this reporter that President Museveni is extremely frustrated by the damage that Betty Nambooze, Lubega Sseggona and others are doing on his reputation in Buganda through their CBS Radio programs. And he is frantically looking for  a legal excuse to close the Bulange based radio. In an email sent to us, the official says that to close the station, Museveni is supposed to work through the ICT minister, Dr. Ham Mukasa Mulira to pressure the Uganda  Broadcasting Council to withdraw the CBS’s license. The official requested that his name and email address not be revealed.

Ordinarily, Mulira is the one who appoints members of the Uganda  Broadcasting Council, which licenses all radio stations in Uganda. The term of the council is 2 years and the current term runs 2008-2009. Strangely, however, the chairman of the Uganda  Broadcasting Council has been on this council since its creation in 1998 when he joined as plant of the Internal Security Organization (ISO). His name is Godfrey Mutabazi. He is a Munyarwanda who lived in the United States for some time before 1998.

Other members of the broadcasting council are Aga Sekalala, Aggrey Kibenge, Dr. Catherine Omaswa, George Umonyokol, Juliana Naumo, Kagole Kivumbi, Kenneth Kazooba, Dr. Godfrey Kibuuka and Tim Mutekanga Lwanga. What the ICT ministry official told us is that, “If Museveni goes ahead and decides to close CBS, then the orders are expected to come to Mulira, who will instruct Mutabazi to get his council together to pass a resolution that CBS was operating outside the provisions of its license so it has to be closed. But because Mutabazi has a direct link to State House, he would know what to do even before Mulira tells him. Baganda should know all these are the people who will implement Museveni’s wishes to close CBS.”

On September 11, 2008 this columnist credited president Museveni inspired Baganda bashing for the emergency of a new breed of Muganda. Kabaka Mutebi, the most important of all Baganda, had gotten fade up and sent the signal to Baganda to relentlessly fight for their land and political rights. And sensing this new tone from their Kabaka, many Baganda, led by the youth and those in the diaspora crystallized into  this new Muganda who will not be cowed. It now appears that the new Muganda is starting to tell the Baganda bashers, “Payback time is coming!”

September and October 2008 have witnessed exponential growth in Buganda bashing and overt discrimination against Baganda in jobs and government. Emails forwarded to this columnist from Internet discussion groups such as UgandansAtHeart and UNAANET spew increasingly hostile verbal attacks against Baganda.  The worst abuse comes from Banyankore, Bakiga and Banyarwanda. And some comes from Museveni’s Baganda agents. Some political analysts attribute the anti-Baganda surge to the massive spending by President Museveni. He spent millions to kill the Buganda Independence celebrations and to muzzle the so called Mmengo radicals. He has also allocated a few hundred thousand dollars to keep control over the UNAA Convention in Chicago and to kill Ttabamiruka ’09 in Boston.

The story told by one Semakula (other names omitted on request) in an email to this columnist illustrates the extent of the hatred against Baganda. Semakula went for a job interview earlier in October. When it was the turn of one Munyankore member of the interview panel, he skipped the questions and simply told off Semakula. In Semakula’s words, “He abused me and asked me why I don’t go to Kabaka to employ me; and he assured me that there was no job for me. I got paralyzed but prayed to God that may be some day we shall liberate ourselves.”

Baganda have been pushed against the wall by experiences such that of Semakula above; that is why they now are openly telling their tormentors and their collaborators that payback time may be around the corner. When the organizers of Ttabamiruka ‘07 disowned occupation collaborators Kintu Musoke, Tamale Mirundi and Aisha Kabanda, they were saying, “It’s payback time collaborators.” When Dick Kasolo and Baganda youth’s pulled the microphone away from Kahinda (The Ugly) Otafiire at the funeral of late MP Winnie Makumbi, the new Muganda was saying, “It’s payback time tormentors.” When Apollo (Bampaane) Nsibambi was stopped from addressing mourners at the funeral services for late Haji Sulaiman Kiggundu, the same new Muganda was warning, “It’s payback time, showoff guy.”

The new Muganda is not letting up. During the October 11, 2008 edition of the CBS FM Radio program Mambo Baado, Baganda youths in the audience chased away Museveni’s RDC for Mpigi, Katenda Luutu, because “he is part of the government that stopped Kabaka Mutebi from going to Nakasongola.” This act shocked Museveni so much that he instructed Kale Kaihura, the inspector of Uganda police, to interrogate Ssozi Kaddu Mukasa and establish what really happened. And Katenda Luutu’s security has been beefed up.

The latest dramatic “payback time” message from the new Muganda was delivered on October 17, 2008 in Kiwatule, near Ntinda. That is where Muluuli Mukasa, Museveni’s former security minister and front man on Buluuli lives. Earlier in the week, Baganda residents of the area, led by Kabaka’s village chief (not the same as Museveni’s LC 1), had delivered a letter to Mukasa Muluuli’s home. The letter summoned him to attend an October 17, 2008 meeting and defend himself against “rumors” that he was involved in stopping Kabaka Mutebi from visiting Nakasongola. Mukasa Muluuli did not come but sent a message that he was out of town but would meet them as soon as he returned. In the meantime though, this columnist has learnt from a reliable Uganda government source that Mukasa Muluuli is scared and has requested Museveni  for more security, starting with getting him a car. He cites newspaper reports that quoted the villagers as saying, “We don’t want Muluuli Mukasa to live among us when some of the villagers view him as an enemy, especially considering that he regularly travels at night on foot or by taxi through the village.”

Baganda have a proverb, “Ebibimba bikka” (“Whatever goes up come down”). This columnist argues that  President Museveni started coming down in 1998, the day he started his campaign to grab Buganda land through the Land Act which Baganda heavily protested.  That is when he started genuine loss of support among Baganda. He started the bashing as a defensive move against Baganda resistance but now it has produced this new Muganda. The new Muganda is on his way to become ungovernable by outsiders like Museveni. And the new Muganda is starting to quietly say, “Payback time” to Museveni’s collaborators. The big question is: Will all Baganda bashers be able to ask for protection from Museveni like Muluuli Mukasa? Why not simply stop the senseless Baganda bashing?

Sources close to the Uganda North American Association (UNAA) Vice President, Moses Kalemba, tell this reporter that NRM operatives have a plot to derail Ttabamiruka ’09 during the next Ggawangamujje Boston general meeting. The meeting is to be held on November 9, 2008, and according to our sources in Boston, the strategy that Kalemba and Bukenya emphasize first changing the Ttabamiruka date from September to May. Bukenya is a diehard NRM who, like Kalemba, takes the view that Baganda events like Ttabamiruka must not become an alternative to their UNAA Convention. However, they support similar conferences by Basoga, Bakiga, Bamasaba, Acholis and other nationalities.

According to the sources, the Kalemba/Bukenya team scored first when they bulldozed a clearly weak Ggwangamujje Executive to agree that changing of the Ttabamiruka ’09 date to May or July be put to a vote in a general meeting. And now they are engaged in a well funded intense ground campaign (“kakuyege”) to get very many of their supporters to the November 9, 2008 meeting and vote for the date change they want.  Apparently, they are confident that, once the date is changed to May 2009, there simply will not be enough time for the Ggwangamujje Executive to organize a serious Ttabamiruka. So, in short order the powerful Baganda conference which shook Museveni in 2007 and 2008 will be dead.

Members of the Ggwangamujje Boston Executive include Reverend Nakabaale (President), NRM’s Bukenya (Vice President), Prof. Lugira, Kato Kajubi, Samalie Kajubi, Ssali, Mark Kizza, Mayanja and Dan Nvule. Historically, the Boston chapter of Ggwangamujje has suffered from NRM manipulation, placing a cloud of doubt over the overall loyalty of Boston Baganda to their Kabaka and nation. The immediate past president of Ggwangamujje Boston is Abdul Kimbugwe who simultaneously held that position with Chairmanship of UNAA. Kimbugwe was later widely reported to be an ISO operative who was later recalled by State House and given a consultant job in Uganda Revenue Authority. All evidence so far is that Reverend Nakabaale and a few others on his Executive may be committed to the Buganda cause but they simply don’t have the experience and organizational skills to fight off the NRM.

Bukenya is Vice President of Ggwangamujje Boston but also, together with Kalemba,  one of the UNAA Convention organizers.  He is one of the NRMs strongest activists and has on many occasions spoken against Ttabamiruka. He has never attended a Ttabamiruka conference but was one of the key organizers of the UNAA convention in Florida. Moses Kalemba is Vice President of UNAA and a well known opponent of Ttabamiruka. This reporter has reliably learnt that Moses Kalemba is a Muganda or Mmamba but opposed to Baganda only affairs.

On September 25, 2008, Buganda Post broke the story that Boston Baganda were  threatening to report, directly to Kabaka Mutebi that NRM activists in the USA who had accepted money from Kampala were plotting to sabotage the next Ttabamiruka conference.  This reporter kindly requests all those who will attend the November 9, 2008, Ggwangamujje general meeting to send your observation to info@bugandapost.com.