A Muganda lady lawyer who attended the December 17, 2009 Buganda Conference in Kampala sent me an email expressing her family’s disappointment with how far the organizers went to please Museveni and foreigners (banamawanga), with little regard to what ordinary Baganda want. The learned sister says that it hurt her and her husband that, although the conference was supposed to be a Buganda Conference it appeared that fewer than 100 of the about 800 attendees were ordinary Baganda. However, she also acknowledges that the speeches by Kabaka Mutebi and Hussein Kyanjo ultimately made the conference worth the registration fee that she and her husband paid and more.
Below are excerpts from the lawyers four and one half page long email.
Buganda Conference Was A Wrong Name
“It was easy to tell that a significant percentage of the attendees were foreigners (banamawanga). There were some Banyoro, North people and others. But not so many Banyankore cattle keepers (the balaalo) as you would think. It was remarkable that the people who appeared to be real Baganda were overwhelmingly well to do businesspersons, lawyers, politicians and fully employed city types. Clearly, fewer than 100 were ordinary Baganda from Ngogwe or Nyendo or Ndejje. To that end, Apollo Makubuya and the Katikkiro should have been truthful and called it the Kampala Uganda Conference.”
Mao, Kanyeihamba and Katikkiro Walusimbi
“It made me boil to hear this Acholi man with a Chinese name (Mao) set us conditions for getting Federo, as if he is some type of political god. He said, ‘If you Baganda want Federo, you must package it so that other Ugandans don’t think that you are claiming to be special’ and, as you would expect, he got thunderous applause from the foreigners present. I think every self-respecting Muganda must have felt like me; belittled. How dare that Mulugwaala tell me that, Baganda must never achieve their fundamental human right to self-determination until they convince him that they are ‘not special’? I think this Acholiman was in a team with Kanyeihamba, the Munyankore cattle keeper, who similarly talked down to Baganda like small children. Essentially, Kanyeihamba, who should know better because he is an experienced lawyer, also told us to do a better job convincing other Ugandans that we deserve our self-determination rights. As if that was not enough, Katikkiro Walusimbi used the same exacts words in his highly apologetic speech, ‘Buganda does not seek a special status’. Our Katikkiro, who sounded like he is ashamed to be a Muganda, seemed to be reading from the same exact script as Kanyeihamba and Mao.”
Mental Asylum Escapee Mutale
“Then there was the insane looking man called Mutale, who came as Museveni’s main representative. You could tell Museveni intentionally sent this unkempt man, simply to unnerve those easy to scare attendees of the conference. It was not easy to understand his English all the time but he threateningly told us that our discussions were meaningless because we did not have power. His people, presumably Museveni and Banyankore, are the ones with the guns and the power. This man looks like he escaped from an asylum, but the Apollo Makubuya and the Katikkiro, who must know him, chose to give him a platform to desecrate an event attended by our Kabaka and Nnabagereka?”
Handsome Hussein Kyanjo
“The truth is that there were some good and clearly pro-Buganda speakers, including retired Katikkiro Dan Muliika and other Baganda elders. However, you could feel an air of conspiracy among the Baganda speakers to be ‘polite and not upset the foreigners’ regardless of their provocations and patronizing towards Buganda. At the same time, you could also sense that the foreigners, both speakers and in the audience, had a sense of heightened confidence that the Baganda were at their mercy.
“The man who gave us real hope was the handsome young Moslem and proud Muganda, Hussein Kyanjo, who made some of the ‘bakungu ba Kabaka’ look like champion cowards. First, he directly rubbished Museveni’s crazy man Mutale by telling him that, because power comes from the people, the unpopular NRM government has lost power and resorted to using force to remain in control. Then, to the apparent discomfort of some of the well fed ‘bakungu ba Kabaka’, Mr. Kyanjo said it loud and clear that dictatorships force citizens to resort to violence and that is what may have to happen in Uganda. However, he added that Buganda must seriously look at secession as a way to avoid war. It is Kyanjo’s words that helped us keep our dignity as Baganda in the face endless apologies by our ‘bakungu’ to those Bakaramajo, Banyoro, Balaalo, Bakiga, Banyarwanda and Bakonjo for being Baganda and special.”
Traitor Bidandi Ssali
“At an intellectual level, probably most offending speaker was Bidandi Ssali, the man who engineered the still birth death of Federo in 1995 with his Decentralization fraud. I believe that Museveni would not have been able to deny Buganda Federo in 1995 were it not for Bidandi Ssali’s rabid hatred for monarchies. And I agree with my husband that Bidandi Ssali’s current pretention are not because he loves Federo or Buganda but only because, with the current Katikkiro and Mengo cabinet, any Federo Buganda might get would be cosmetic and might drastically weaken the Kabaka. We think that this man is one of the most treacherous Baganda alive today.”
Empologoma ya Buganda
“Kabaka Mutebi made all the wait and pain worthwhile. He gave a brief but sweet speech. Ignoring Museveni’s incessant warnings about so called ‘cultural leaders’ getting involved politics, the Lion of Buganda declared that Buganda was nation even before the British colonialists came. That the colonialists could not kill Buganda. And that, even when Obote abolished the kingdoms in 1967, Buganda remained alive.
“Further ignoring Museveni’s Regional Tier nonsense, the stern toned Kabaka reminded everyone that according to the Odoki constitutional committee, over 90% in Buganda and a healthy majority of other parts of Uganda demanded a federal form of government. He challenged those opposed to Federo to explain why they are denying people that basic right. Oh, this man, our Kabaka, is a real leader. Without him, Buganda would have been sold to Museveni a long time ago. Awangaale Ssabasajja! I left the conference feeling OK because, clearly, Ssabasajja and his man Hussein Kyanjo has salvaged our dignity and made the conference worthy much more than the $10 registration we paid each. ”
