On Friday September 11, 2009, president Museveni’s security operatives ambushed and kidnapped Robert Serumaga, a Muganda journalist, as he left a live WCBS TV debate where he spoke against Museveni’s mistreatment of Ssabasajja Kabaka Mutebi.  In a manner reminiscent of Idi Amin days, Museveni has resorted to arresting his political opponents by ambushing them , forcing them into civilian cars without explaining to them or others with them what is going on and  speeding them off to extralegal  ”safe houses” where they are tortured before getting handed over to the police.

After Robert Serumaga was kidnapped, he was taken to a torture facility and severely beaten up, according to doctors at Kampala International Hospital where the police took him after Museveni’s security operatives handed him over in bad shape. The head of the hospital, Dr. Ian Clarke, told the press that Serumaga has suffered multiple concussions as a result of the Idi Amin style head blows. He was also suffering from memory loss.

An inside view of sequence of events as Serumaga got kidnapped is provided by another journalist, Bernard Tabaire, who was a co-panelist with Serumaga on the TV program and an eyewitness to the crime. In his opinion piece published today by the Aga Khan’s Monitor Newspaper, Tabaire narrates abduction as follows:

I got to my car and promptly got distracted trying to tip a rather sleepy guard. The moment I opened the car, I heard commotion. I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw someone being dragged up Dewinton Rise. Being a Friday night, I dismissed the whole thing as some drunkard being helped by friends. I shut the car door ready to fire up the engine. Just then I heard Maria’s voice. They are taking Robert, she cried.

Damn! It cannot be. It was 11 p.m. Minutes earlier, in the studio, we had talked about free expression being curtailed so casually yet so sweepingly in the chaos of the moment.

I turned my head. Three men or so were dragging Serumaga along the rough Dewinton Rise. They had reached a spot in front of Walusimbi’s Garage (corner of Dewinton Rise and Dewinton Road) that was all wet because of a broken water pipe some place nearby. A battered white saloon car was reversing into position on the Dewinton Road side of Walusimbi’s. With Serumaga bundled into the back of the car, it sped off towards Siad Barre Avenue and into Kampala’s dangerous unknown where, ironically, state security agencies rule.

That was rattling. It is one thing to hear and read about these things. It is another to see them happen to someone you know and to actually witness it. Rattled or not, our phones lit up. They had to. We had to get word out for all it was worth. In the process, I spoke to someone in the security services who claimed to be aware of all that was happening. The source said agents would subject Serumaga to severe psychological stress to teach him a lesson. And that the earliest they would release him would be Wednesday (as it turns out, he was released on Tuesday after being charged with six counts of sedition). The source also hinted that Serumaga was being picked up as part of an elaborate campaign to tame the media, and not so much for what he said that Friday night on WBS but for a series of utterances and writings over time on his Spectrum talk-show on Radio One and elsewhere. The source added that the government is tired of Mengo’s machinations and it was time to deal with it decisively; and that whatever happens, Mengo’s CBS radio would never return on the air. “CBS is banned,” the sourced said. “Whatever Mengo does, CBS is banned.”

According to an email  we received from someone who claims to have attended  the Ggwangamujje meeting held in New Jersey on Saturday, the attendees agreed to declare Buganda to be under captivity.  “Everyone agreed that there is no question that Kabaka has done a wonderful job in these tough times. Also that the Baganda who are resisting Museveni’s dictatorship are real heros. We also agreed that Kabaka Mutebi made the right decision to call off the visit because he was totally surrounded by Museveni’s poorly trained forces and his subjects were at risk. In the end we declared Kabaka and Buganda to be in captivity.”

The email promised that an official statement is supposed to be issued by Ggwangamujje officials and it will most certainly say that Buganda is in captivity. And that those Baganda who agree must from today on work for one thing, the freedom of their Kabaka and country, Buganda, from the captivity (buwambe).  They  are confident that as time passes Baganda masses will understand this and stop discussing any  politics except for the withdraw occupying forces. They have no plans to waste time taking Museveni to his own courts or worrying about Uganda elections while Buganda is captivity.

In a related story, evidence continues to mount that President Museveni is becoming more panicky every passing day after his forces massacred young unarmed Baganda last week. On Saturday and Sunday, after closing down Baganda owned radio stations, he launched a press campaign in his New Vision and Aga Khan’s The Monitor claiming that he was to meet Kabaka Mutebi this week. But our sources tell us that Katikkiro Walusimbi and Regional Tier advocates (Mulwaanyamuli clique, Mmengo based businessmen and  Uganda politicians eager to personally gain from Regional Tier) are secretly working with NRM officials to force the Kabaka  to talk to Museveni. And Museveni, panicking after the scare of last Thursday, is so obsessed with talking to Ssabasajja  that, on Wednesday, he publically complained to the Uganda parliament that, since Saturday he has been the Kabaka without success.

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.

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Boston, USA: Ttabamiruka, Where NRM has Become a Dirty Word

Fellow Ugandans,

The country now more than ever is in dire need for independent minded thinkers to get us out of the quagmire of corruption, self destruction, unemployment and to improve the delivery of services in all sectors of our government albeit from a pool of the unencumbered, foresight third eye of the country.

The diaspora is made up of many disenfranchised capable hands, not so easily corruptible and with the potential to transform our nation, as long as that threshold of trust is reached without breach or violation as witnessed in these UNAA campaigns.

Some here have argued that President Museveni has surrounded himself with many yes men and women, who simply allow his continued sailing without alarm, stiffness or warning of looming danger from policies pursued; the president of UNAA should not to be in the same camp.

UNAA is one of the remaining organizations where civil exchange and honest to God, dialogue regarding deferred hopes, aspirations and expectations for tangible progress can still be heard uncensored.

Muzzling this discourse of reason and dissent, while desperately searching for a tenable position of development can only have dire consequences for our beloved country.

This obsession to sniff out and snobbishly infiltrate an organization with the desire to take over, despite repeated pleas,  not to meddle, will spoil the effectiveness of such organs to provide venting space for those disgruntled and disenchanted with the way things have been handled  in the country for the last twenty some years.

There are many among us in the diaspora who question the genius and preoccupation of buying men simply to make them blind followers rather than to seek them out for more erudite matters of thought and skill.

NRM strategists, ought to know that many of us in the diaspora tend to pear behind the rosy façade, often exposing the party line for what it is.

Further more we have acquired an appetite for verifiable honesty in dialogue and that is what we expect from our leadership.

We cringe when we see the out muscling of ordinary folks to impose non-progressive figure heads with blinders, bent on killing the free will and spirit of Ugandans, thus alienating those who might have added value to the development of the country.

The reality of the matter is: NRM needs the diaspora to inject not just cash but added wisdom to change the course of our nation. However, many in the diaspora want to work with honest brokers, those with a serious willingness to address and resolve critical issues that have dogged us for decades.

If such rules of engagement are not established, a Ttabamiruka, like scenario, where mention of the NRM-has become a dirty word, will ultimately ensue, resulting in a more parochial approach to development.

I would much rather see the prevalence of cool heads and practical dialogue, especially among the southerners, where lately there has been too much posturing of grown up men, baited and preoccupied with matters irrelevant to progress, put to the forefront by enemies of the state for purposes of disagreement.

Such agents of confusion have to be recognized for what they are, and I will repeat this call for a tribal ombudsman to bring a cessation to the polarization of Ugandans along tribal lines.

Remember, It is not how you get to the top, it matters most who you get there  with.

Tendo Kaluma

Ugandan in Boston

Ibrahim Semujju Nganda may not know it but he made Museveni sweat on July 12, 2009! According impeccable sources close to Mr. Museveni’s state house, this young man is the first person to make President Museveni sweat in his pants since he took over government by the barrel of the gun. And this happened during the infamous WBS TV debate where Museveni declared: “I can never allow Federo for Buganda”.

On July 12, 2009 Museveni participated in a debate with Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, political editor at The Observer news paper and John Kakande, news editor at the government’s New Vision. The moderator was one Peter Kibazo.  Despite the warm temperatures in Kampala, the Uganda strongman came clad in European winter clothing, including head gear, winter gloves, winter boots and a combed wool neck scarf. Seemingly awed by the presence of the president, Kibazo gave Mr. Museveni the opportunity to make a brief opening statement. Mr. Museveni characteristically attempted to belittle his debating opponents by saying that the came to WBS TV because after listening debates about the Teso famine, he felt, “[I am very] sorry that you could see these young people just speaking about things they don’t care to find out about or just viciously telling lies. I felt sad.”

Later in debate things got tough for Mr. Museveni attempted to patronize Mr. Semujju when the Observer editor asked the president why his government is perennially unable to plan for disasters like the ongoing Teso famine.  Semujju argued: “Mr. President, but if we did not see this as a country it means there is a big structural failure: that we cannot predict there will be a problem. Now that we have to go back to the budget and begin re-allocating, it is a failure on the part of government.”  Unable to effectively respond to Semujju, Mr. Museveni made what, according to our sources, was the fatal mistake. In response to another Ssemujju statement, “[Mr. President] there are now [Teso] people who come to you asking for food”, Museveni disjointedly responded, “Of course when they are distributing, Mr. Ssemujju Nganda who specializes in writing biased articles in The Observer, now you have extended your confusion to WBS…”. Semujju then fired the shot which reportedly made Mr. Museveni sweat in his winter clothing.

Semujju directly looked at Museveni and asked, “Are you threatening me Mr. President?” Museveni had no immediate answer.

According to our sources, Mr. Museveni felt so embarrassed and angry that this “small boy” had publicly challenged him. “Museveni had never had any Ugandan look him in the eye and asked him, ‘What is the bottom line?’ since, maybe Muliika. But even with Muliika it was a bit indirect. Whether it is Bukenya or Nsibambi or JB Walusimbi or Tinyefuza, everyone speaks in parables when talking to Museveni. To make things worse, the anger caused by Semujju got Mr. Museveni to unintentionally let out the secret that he would never allow Federo for Buganda.

After getting back to statehouse the president consulted Tamale Mirundi, Byaruhanga, Kobushenga, Mafabi, Mwesigye, Wabudeya and, I think, even Karooro Okurut. He  seemed to be really humbled and asking for opinions. That how it was decided that people like Tamale Mirundi and Wabudeya should issue statements saying that the Museveni was only expressing his current thoughts but it is the NRM to take official positions and he could also change his thoughts.”

The debate transcript made by Edris Kiggundu left out the critical “Are you threatening me Mr. President?” question. However, it includes a part where Mr. Museveni says to Semujju in connection with another subject: “I am going to ask the lawyers to look at it. I am not threatening you, you have got rights and other citizens have rights.”

When asked to comment on this story before publication, a leading Muganda analyst based in New York commented: “Semujju may not know it but he gave Museveni his first real ‘Emperor has no clothes’ moment.  Museveni has been playing lion for so long, chasing various Nsibambis, Bukenyas and Bidandis to feast on.  It is clear that the man panicked when a Semujju chased him, even if for a 20 seconds.  What we Baganda are praying for is a Mengo which can understand and properly utilize our power to be lion and chase. Because,  the off-the-calf, inconsistent and sometimes apologist statements from Mengo on Bafuruki, Bukedde boycott, Federo and other major issues leave us wondering…”

Click here to read the full debate transcript made by Edris Kiggundu on the Observer newspaper site.

President Omar Bongo of Gabon died on June 8, 2009. At the time of his passing, he was the longest serving leader of an African country at 42 years. His death has led to a lot of reflecting in the international media on the leaders in Africa that have held life long terms. The top ten list includes Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni at number seven with 23 years in power. The entire list is as follows:

1. President Muammar Gaddafi of Libya   39 Years
2. Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equitorial Guinea    30 Years
3. Jose Eduardo Dos Santos of Angola   30 Years
4. President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe   29 Years
5. President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt   27 Years
6. President Paul Biya of Cameroon   26 Years
7. President Yoweri Museveni    23 Years
8. King Mswati III of Swaziland    23 Years
9. President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso  21 Years
10. President Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia  21 Years

By Kalundi Serumaga
kalundi@yahoo.com

While trying to subdue the indigenous tribes of western Europe, the Generals of the conquering Roman army were often confounded by the resilience of the natives on the battlefield. As a response, they developed the tactic of declaring truces and then sending lavish gifts across the lines to some of the native commanders, while leaving out others. This would sometimes lead to in-fighting among the natives as mutual suspicion developed, which the Romans would then militarily exploit.

The dust kicked up during the controversy over whether or not Buganda should accept the promised 2 billion shillings (of which a down-payment of 350 million was immediately wired) from the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government, is just beginning to settle. Inside and outside Buganda, there was a strong division of opinion. One kingdom got more than the others that got something. Most got nothing at all. Maybe history was being repeated.

This was understandable. There are many things about the promise that did not make sense, to the extent of obscuring those aspects of it that did.

Questions were raised as to why only three out of Uganda’s numerous officially recognised “cultural institutions” had been selected for this largesse. In addition, why having a “cultural leader” became the basis for being considered for the cash grant. Furthermore, it was unclear why Buganda was offered twice as much as the 1 billion shillings that were promised to Bunyoro and Busoga respectively.

Even more complicated was the central government’s declaration that the money was to go towards “improving agriculture” in the areas concerned. In the wake of the problem Uganda has had with NAADS, as well as the silent death of the Plan for the Modernisation of Agriculture (PMA), this was truly mystifying: what were to be the actual terms? Was this to be a top-up to the paltry 4.1% of the National Budget that Uganda currently spends of the agricultural sector, or a substitute for it? Was there to be a proportional reduction of the national budget allocation to those districts that fall in the areas slated to receive the grants?  How was the agricultural situation in Buganda deemed to be in twice as much need as the other two Kingdoms, warranting a grant twice as big as the others? And again, what about other areas in the country not eligible for this grant; do they not have the need to improve agriculture?

There are even constitutional interpretation problems, stemming from President Museveni’s previous utterances to the effect that these cultural institutions “don’t exist”, or if they do, it is only as “backward chiefs”, of no importance to the national development agenda. To whom then, is his government now handing over significant amounts of public money?

What we are in fact witnessing has very little to do with beans and fertiliser as such, and is in fact simply a further development in the twists and turns of a very protracted and troubled negotiation process (or should one say power struggle?) between Buganda and the very NRM that it helped bring to power.

For the last 16 years, the NRM government has been desperately trying to extricate itself from the huge political setback it suffered when Ganda post-war militancy forced it to hurriedly design and pass the Traditional Rulers (Restitution) Assets and Properties Bill of 1993 (popularly known as Ebyaffe Bill) into law. This Act commits the state to recognising the existence of Buganda -as well as other such entities, but more critically, it re-introduces into law the principle that Buganda’s has a right to the property seized from her in 1967. This is the crux of the matter: the central government is legally obliged to hand over valuable and significant amounts of the real estate to a rival political centre. No central government will ever do this willingly, as it undermines their own power, and overturns the entire logic behind the efforts of Frederick Lugard, Governor Cohen and finally Milton Obote in destroying native identity so as to build the Uganda state.

The fact that the NRM went so far as to return native identity to a legal footing (something that even Idi Amin managed to dodge way back in 1972) shows the extent of their opportunism borne of a hunger for power. The fact that they now seek to dodge laws they themselves made about it, shows just how desperate that opportunism has made them.

This a problem that cannot be solved, and will contribute significantly to the approaching fall of the NRM  regime, just as the British, Obote and Amin regimes came and were seen off by the natives they found in place.

This current handout therefore reminds one of the situations of a thief trying to flee with his loot while being pursued by an angry mob, and so keeps throwing part of the stolen goods over his shoulder in a bid to slow them down.

This puts the actual owners of the stolen goods in a dilemma: do they leave the dropped goods to the mob and keep on after the thief, or do they try to first rescue what has been dropped also, and then continue the chase?

This is exactly where the matter has been stuck for 16 years: Buganda and Uganda have not been able to establish and follow a clear negotiation process, as called for by the Ebyaffe Act. The problem is that the central government/NRM never really expected these “damn natives” to still be asserting their identity after this long, and so never imagined they would be expected to actually start handing over property. We have therefore seen President Museveni buying time by keeping proceedings vague and only making concessions if he thinks he will gain from them in the political short term. This is actually standard NRM procedure when faced with a determined opponent: buy time with “negotiations”, while frantically working behind the scenes to change the material facts of the very issue under discussion. If you have to actually make a real concession, you then try to portray it as an act of goodwill on your part, that demonstrates how serious you are with the talks. So while then Katikkiro Joseph Mulwanyamuli’s team engaged in nearly 11 years of diplomatic “heavy lifting”, the NRM began making fundamental legal and demographic changes to the very land and properties that are under the said negotiations. Examples of this are: donating Buganda’s land to “investors”; bringing non-Baganda newcomers as settlers to these areas; introducing decentralisation thereby creating new districts whose “land boards” then claim and sell Buganda’s land; using the 1995 constitution-making process to “constitutionally” remove Kampala from Buganda and most recently, creating new “Kingdoms” within Buganda.

The purpose is to ensure that by the time NRM sits down to serious conclusive talks with Buganda, there is actually nothing left physically to talk about. This is what Mengo has worked out and explains their growing anger. Ugandans have seen this before. This is exactly how the NRM/A prevaricated for six months during the 1985 Nairobi Peace Talks, so that by the time they reached an “Agreement” with the Okello Junta, they had changed themselves from a beaten and retreating army of barely 4,000 soldiers to a British-sponsored mercenary force of 40,000, and promptly stormed Kampala. Similarly, for over a decade, the NRM continually put off the day when the country would return to multi-partyism, so that by the time it did, all the key national policy issues, particularly around macroeconomic policy, were already cast in stone, leaving the new opposition with little of real substance to debate in parliament.

Today, the living conditions for people inside and outside Buganda remain dire. As a result, it is hard for any leader to continue rejecting offers of cash – however unprincipled the offer – while being unable to deliver alternatives to that same population, even though the one offering the cash is the same person creating the obstacles to better living.

Therefore, despite all the NRM time-buying manoeuvres, as well as rent arrears totalling 900 billion shillings, the Katikkiro of Buganda has found himself being the defender of the idea of receiving a gift of money from somebody who is legally in debt to him by a much larger amount.

The NRM also hopes for a few “side-benefits” from this cash grant. First, is the anticipated bolstering of the notion that “once again”, Buganda was being “favoured” over other equally deserving Ugandans by a central government, thus building greater resentment of Baganda by other Ugandans. Second was the expectation that it would create irreconcilable divisions among the many hundreds of activists and campaigners who work for Buganda on a voluntary basis, and are therefore not impressed by the argument that without money, no progress can be made. The third anticipated “side-benefit”, would be to make some southerners and westerners as a whole to welcome being favoured over northerners and easterners (who only got elastic pangas and rotting beans to help them recover from the wars and floods), thereby encouraging them to see the NRM as their friend and benefactor. After all, the 2011 elections are nearly here.

Most importantly, there is the hope and intention of the NRM to revive the Regional Tier proposal. A further probable incentive here is the rumoured discovery of precious minerals, including oil, in one of the exploration blocs located in Buganda. The NRM is perhaps now keen to lock the Kingdom into a clear resource-controlling constitutional arrangement such as the regional tier, well before the discovery is announced. After all the problems Buganda has caused them over just land, perhaps the NRM  leaders are now losing sleep at the prospect of having to negotiate oil matters with Mengo.

Buganda insists that this grant will not sway her from pursuing her wider objectives. It could well be a case of the Luganda proverb: “Nyama ntono, okayana ekuli mu nkwaawa” (roughly translated: before complaining about the smallness of the meat you have been given, first make sure it is firmly in your grasp). Certainly, more than a few harsh words were exchanged among Baganda activists, but this has only served to highlight the importance of recognising success. Those critical of this grant tend to be those campaigners, such as the redoubtable Betty Nambooze, who have galvanised Ganda public opinion through ably articulating a firm and uncompromising line in favour of federation, should actually be credited with creating the pressure that has forced the NRM  into such manoeuvring in the first place.

We are probably just at the beginning of this NRM generosity. Cash has been promised for the renovation of Kingdom properties, as well as clearing some rent arrears. It is important therefore that all the important stakeholders: people from outside Buganda who are watching in amazement; the activists who recognise an attempted bribe when they see one; and the leaders of Buganda government business to recognise that these manoeuvres will end up strengthening Mengo, not dividing her.

END

According to a fund raising video playing on pastor Jackson Senyonga’s website, his Christian Life Ministry (CLM) and President Museveni’s government have agreed that, “if the ministry constructs a new hospital in Kampala, the government will convey  title to the 75,000 seat stadium known as Mandela National Stadium over to us with all its facilities and acreage” to CLM. While Pastor Senyonga might have reached the said agreement with President Museveni, the stadium capacity claim is totally untrue. The official capacity of the Mandela National Stadium which is reported by president Meseveni’s own ministry of sports is 45,000 seats. And according to Uganda laws, the agreement would be illegal since the Uganda president has no constitutional powers to give away public property, even if he has broken the law in the past. And the Uganda parliament has never passed  a bill to support Pastor Senyonga claims.

Pastor Senyonga’s video also contains other controversial claims which many Ugandans might call outright lies. For example, the narrator tells his innocent American Christian audience that, thanks to their past support and the successes of CLM, “Islam was  over 30% in the past but has now reduced to about 10%”. And one of the graphics they use to support that statement shows and Arab man – clearly not filmed in Uganda and possibly included to tap anti-Arab/Moslem feelings among the audience. On the contrary, data from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics shows that the percentage of Moslems has never been higher than 13% since census taking started in Uganda. That is more than 50 years ago.

You can view Pastor Senyonga’s fundraising video at www.christianlifeministries.org.

In August 2008, the Daily Review of San Francisco, California, reported that Jackson Senyonga, 41, of Uganda was arrested by sheriff’s deputies at Oakland International Airport on suspicion of fondling a 13 year girl seated next to him on an August 16, 2008 flight.  The alleged molestation was said to have occurred on a flight from Denver to Oakland. The Alameda County, California prosecutors said that they had referred the case to the FBI because of jurisdictional issues from being on the plane. The status of the child molestation case against Pastor Senyonga could not be established at the time of writing this report.

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?

People in all corners of Buganda have now heard of Kabaka Mutebi’s journey to Buluuli, to preside over Buganda’s 46th Independence cerebrations, and President Museveni’s decision to stop him (Kabaka) from reaching his destination. Baganda also now know that Kabaka Mutebi made the decision to travel to Nakasongola after getting fed up with the increasingly  dictatorial behavior being shown by President  Museveni and his men coupled with evidence that Katikkiro JB Walusimbi may be part of the problem.

Virtually all the 46 Baganda who this reporter spoke at Nabugabo, Katwe and Nakasero Market were very happy that, by going to Buluuli, bravely exposing Museveni’s true colors on Buganda and disassociating himself from JB Walusimbi, Kabaka Mutebi made the situation 100% clear to Baganda. The 37 out of 46 who claimed to be below 35 years in age declared their 100% support for Kabaka Mutebi and claimed that they are ready to risk anything to serve him in any way he orders them to. And 21 of those 37 claimed to be members of CBS Fans Club or Nkoba za Mbogo or Baana ba Kintu.

A 27 year old Muganda young woman who runs one of seven separate hardware businesses in a single shop, next to Nakasero market, told this reporter in Luganda, “Ba ffe atukakasizza mu ngeri ye eyamagezi nti Walusimbi bamumutega butezi. Ate natumanyisa nti musajja muzira kufa era amalako nnyo. Kati katulabe buno bunamawanga obutubba abaana n’abazukulu baabwo gyebanazza ebyaffe”  (“Our [husband] has wisely given us the signal that Walusimbi is a Trojan horse. And he has shown that he is a brave man who can see us through all. Now let’s wait and see where the children and grand children of these foreign thieves will take our things.”)

In a related development, Buganda’s Minister of Information, Charles Peter Mayiga, has announced that a special meeting of the Lukiiko (Buganda Kingdom Council) has been scheduled for October 27, 2008, to discuss, among other things, President Museveni’s decision to restrict Kabaka Mutebi’s movements in Buganda.

In a highly belligerent move on October 8, 2008, President Museveni of Uganda ordered his heavily armed anti-riot police ready, with teargas, to stop Kabaka Mutebi from visiting the Buluuli Ssaza (county) Headquarters in Nakasongola. The Kabaka of Buganda was on his way to open the ceremony celebrating  the 46th year since Buganda gained independence from the British. President Museveni’s operation was executed by his minister Ruhakana Rugunda, who claimed in a statement that it is Katikkiro JB Walusimbi who first brought up the idea that Kabaka shouldn’t travel to Buluuli.

Buluuli is one of Buganda’s 18 counties. However, since 2000, President Museveni has invested more than 2 million dollars on a project to weaken Buganda by creating his own anti-Kabaka “sub kingdom” in Buluuli,  headed by a “Sabaruli”. Museveni’s current Sabaruli is called Salongo Mwogezi Butamanya. Apparently, Museveni instructed Ruhakana Rugunda to stop Mutebi from reaching his intended destination after getting intelligence reports that the Kabaka had drawn huge crowds of Baganda and Baluuli on his stops in Kakooge and Migyera towns. It was emerging that the crowd would be even be much larger in Nakasongola, which would embarrass President Museveni, who October 9th Uganda celebrations keeps shrinking.