The latest we have from the world of Buganda and Ugandan conferences is that Radio Free Buganda will broadcast live from Ttabamiruka ’10. The Chairman of the Ttabamiruka organizing committee confirmed this in an interview with the host of Enyanjanja Temanyirwa program on www.ekibakibe.com.  The interview was first broadcast last Saturday night but it continues to be repeated on www.ekibakibe.com  during the Program Enkadde times.

According to the  event program at www.ttabamiruka.com, the Baganda conference will be opened on September 4, 2010 by none other than the Lion of Buganda, Ssabasajja Kabaka, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II following the introduction of the Buganda Royal Family. Below are extracts of the program which this writer has copied from www.ttabamiruka.com.

SATURDAY:

SUNDAY:

According to a press release issued by the Uganda Democratic Federal Union (UDFU), the organization will host a summit on human rights on May 1, 2010. UDFU is led by Mr. Remigius Kintu, a long Washington DC Muganda resident. At least two times this year Mr. Kintu attended and spoke very prominently at the Boston Buganda emergency meetings hosted by Ggwanga Mujje Boston. For about  4 or 5 weeks Ekiba Kibe program on Free Buganda Radio has been advertising that Ggwanga Mujje Boston will host a Buganda liberation conference on May 1, 2010 (see “Ggwanga Mujje Boston To Hold Buganda Emergency Conference On May 1st”).

The decision by Mr. Kintu’s group to announce a competing conference on the same day as the Boston Baganda meeting, so late in the game, may not go well with the Boston group led by Mr. John Mayanja.

Mr. Remigius Kintu describes himself on the Linked In network as the owner of  Blue Nile Trading Corp. and International Trade and a development consultant. Among the other speakers at the UDFU summit is Dr. Sulayman S. Nyang  professor and chairman of the African Studies Department at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Dr. Nyang is a Gambian who previously worked as an advisor to the NRM government. Also among the speakers is Mr. Yoga Adhola, a UPC activist and former editor of Milton Obote’s The People newspaper. When he writes to Internet discussion groups, Mr. Adhola usually finishes with: “Mr. Adhola belongs to the UPC’s conservative wing of leftist purists and was editor of the party’s newspaper, The People, during Obote II”. Milton Obote is the former Uganda president who overthrew the Uganda constitution in 1966, exiled Ssekabaka Edward Muteesa II, and is blamed for poisoning the former Kabaka.

The UDFU press conference is reproduced in full below:

Columbia, MD, April 29, 2010 – Urgent Conference on Uganda: Saturday, May 1, Washington, DC

The Uganda Democratic Federal Union (UDFU), led by Remigius Kintu, will host a summit on human rights, “Urgent Conference on Uganda,” Saturday, May 1, in Washington, D.C. Presenters will address President Yoweri Museveni’s eradication of open elections, his massacre of all Ugandans who oppose him, and the conflict in U.S. policy which simultaneously denounces and supports his regime.

 “UDFU’s open forum will feature defenders of political freedom from all over the world,” said Kintu. “Speakers and attendees will develop strategies to expose and redirect the Obama administration’s support of Uganda’s oppressive government.” Saturday’s program will be held at the University Graduate School, 1325 D Street, S.E., Washington, D.C., from 1:00 to 7:00 pm.

 The UDFU believes Uganda can be democratically governed in the future once Museveni has been ousted. “We hope to establish a more democratic regime as early as 2011,” said speaker Deo Kawunde-Miti. “We will bring the best players together to devise ways of running upcoming campaigns, utilizing new social media in the villages to circumvent Museveni’s blockade of conventional news media, and contest every elected official from East to West.”

 The conference will also address the Obama Administration’s ongoing support of Museveni despite the dictator’s abysmal human rights record and authoritarian rule that stand in opposition to President Obama’s and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton’s stated foreign policy objectives.

 The opposition to Museveni contends the United State’s support of democracy in Africa is tempered by policy considerations that elevate U.S. strategic interests in the resource-rich African great lakes region over traditional American values. The United States State Department, Central Intelligence Agency, and other federal agencies use Uganda as a central stage for operations throughout the African great lakes region. Museveni has curried favor with US administrations by assisting in the war against terrorism and by contributing 3,000 Ugandan soldiers to the peacekeeping efforts in Somalia.

 Uganda is the latest example of United State’s support of dictatorial regimes in Africa, Asia, and Latin America – a policy that extends back to Guatemala in the 1950s, Chile under General Pinochet in the 1970s, and Saddam Hussein in Iraq in the 1980s and 1990s.

Museveni first seized power in Uganda in 1986.  He continued to rule in the 1990s through sham elections. In 2001, he had the term limit provision of the Ugandan constitution eliminated so that he could, in effect, be “President for life.”

The urgency of this conference is underscored by Museveni’s escalating human rights violations. In April, Museveni’s security officers shot and killed in cold blood 20 Ugandan students engaged in a nonviolent demonstration against Museveni in Kampala.

“The 24 years of Museveni and his NRM* dictatorship; its effect on Uganda and the great Lakes region” by Mr. Yoga Adhola, political activist and former editor of The People Newspaper. (*Museveni’s National Resistance Movement)

 “Non-violence through Economic Boycott and Embargo” by Dr. John DiJoseph Ph. D., Professor of Non-Violence Studies, Loyola Graduate University, Columbia, MD.

 “The Discovery of abundant oil and gold in Uganda. Is it a blessing or a curse?” by Mr. E. Leopold Edwards, founding member of TransAfrica Forum; Chairman, National Coalition on Caribbean Affairs Inc., Silver Spring, MD.

 “Federal Governance in Uganda” by Mr. Remigius Kintu, Chairman, UDFU, and author, Africa, My Beloved: A Liberation Plan for a Free & Sovereign Continent, American Heritage Publishers.

“Uganda After Museveni and his NRM Regime” by Mr. Deo Kawunde-Miti, Educator; Graduate of Makerere University, political Activist with Uganda Young Democrats.

 Closing Remarks by Remigius Kintu will be followed by a question and answer period and discussions. There is a $20 tax-deducted donation suggested. Refreshments will be served.

The Buganda Liberation conference that Mr. Robert Kabuye has been announcing on his SMS based Ekiba Kibe program  for the last 4-6 weeks is all set for Saturday May 1, 2010. According to an email we received from a source in Boston who is close to the organizers, the Baganda conference will discuss two key topics. The first topic is the progress made so far on the work of liberating Buganda. The second topic is how to deal with the coming 2011 elections. The email from our source did not provide details about speakers.

It is not yet clear why a conference that is supposed to be about how to liberate Buganda from occupation by the Uganda army will spend half of its attention on the next Uganda elections, which are organized by the occupation NRM government. Similary, we do not yet have information on the speakers. In the past only Baganda politicians have attended Boston Baganda conferences – Abed Bwanika, Hussein Kyanjo and Betty Kamya.

The “Olukiiko Lw’Okununula O’Buganda” conference will be held at Our Lady Comforter of The Afflicted, 920 Trapello Road, Waltham, MA 02462.

According to the Waltham page under www.boston.com, non-Baganda Ugandans in the Boston area: “will gather at Waltham Square Saturday to share their condolences and raise money for the Kasubi Tombs, an important Ugandan landmark that was destroyed in a fire last month.” Many Baganda were not impressed and mounted  a campaign to boycott the NRM funded event and, if possible to have Mmengo reject the funds.  Click  on Ekiba_Kibe22Apr10A to listen to the campaign by Baganda using Ekiba Kibe program on SMS based Free Buganda Radio.

The online article quotes Ruth Ndyabahika,  a Rwandese and one of the event organizers saying that: “the tombs are culturally important to Ugandans and many are feeling the loss.”  This writer has also seen information from the organizers showing that the event is sponsored by non-Baganda groups of Ugandans like Twegayite and Banyakigezi. Ironically, members of these same group openly made fun of Buganda and labelled the Kabaka of Buganda a trouble-maker. When Baganda in Boston and New York/New Jersey organized events to mourn the loss of Kasubi Tombs these non-Baganda kept away.

As of Friday April 23, 2010, the NRM’s chief agents in the USA, Perez Kamunanwire and Ruhakana Rugunda planned to attend, with Rugunda as chief guest. Funding for the event reportedly came from the New York NRM station chief, Rugunda.

The main concerns are that (a)  organization such as Banyakigezi and Twegayite never send any condolences to established Baganda institutions like Ggwangamujje NY/NJ or Ggwangamujje Boston or to the elected Kabaka’s representatives in area, (b) in the organizers minds, Kasubi Tombs are just a Uganda landmark or tourist attraction, As one email we got from Boston put it: “Bano Abakiga n’Abasoga abamu balowooza nti obukulu bwa Kasubi tourism. Kiringa Omuyitale obutamanya nti Vatican eri ku mutima gwa buli Mukatuliki, ye nalowooza nti omugaso gwaayo kuleeta balambuzi mu Yitale.” (“Some of these Bakiga and Basoga think that the most important things about Kasubi is being a tourist site. It is like an Italian who does not understand that the hearts of Roman Catholics and thinks that the Vatican is an Italian tourist attraction.”)

The campaign by the NRM to promote Kasubi as a “Ugandan” historical site is especially sensitive to Baganda because it suggests intentional cultural genocide. To them, Kasubi is an active burial site for Buganda’s Kabakas and all grand children of its founder, Ssekabaka Muteesa II. Members of the fast reviving Basamize (Buganda native religion) movement believe that the spirits of all the four Kabakas buried at Kasubi live in the  Kibira section of the tombs. Miraculous, the Kibira was not destroyed by the Kasubi fire on  3/16 due to a sudden cloud of rain that fell for a few minutes just before the whole building could get destroyed.

We received an email  from the management team of the popular Internet Baganda radio, www. Ababaka.com saying that they will start broadcasting directly to occupied Buganda on Saturday March 27, 2010. Ababaka.com has been in operations for a long time and attracts listeners from all over the world  on Saturdays and Sundays. Most of these listeners are in North America, Europe, South Africa and other countries with good Internet connections. Its programmes focus on Buganda issues and interests because you need a computer to listen.

Transmission time is 8:00 – 9:00 PM Buganda Standard Time (Esaawa za Buganda biri ezekiro) on band SW 15410 khz.

What is new and big is the fact that from March 27, 2010 people with ordinary  Baganda in Bukunja, Bamunanika or Kibibi with Short Wave radios, will be able to listen to Ababaka.com programs using their simple Short Wave radio sets. Just over a month ago SW radios started selling like hot cakes here in Kampala after rumours that a Baganda radio was going to start broadcasting. It is expected that once the radio starts, SW radios will again go on heavy demand. And Ababaka.com programs are expected to be very popular if they remain focused on Buganda issues as they are now.

Ababaka.com depends on devoted Baganda donating their time and money. For more information and to find out how you can make a donation to this Buganda public radio visit www.Ababaka.com on the Internet.

We reproduce the email that we received from Ababaka.com below.

Dear Buganda Post Admin.

We would like to inform you that Rediyo y’Abaganda on AbabaKa.com will start broadcasting on Short Wave  tomorrow on Saturday, 27th March 2010, at 17:00 – 19:00 UTC/GMT on frequency 15410 khz in the 19 m band. We will start with transmitting once a week, and only the first transmission will be for 2 hours. Commencing from Saturday, 03rd April 2010, our program will last for one hour, except in special cases. It will always start at 17:00 – 18:00 UTC/GMT, which is 8:00-9:00pm local time. Note our  frequency; 15410 khz in the 19 m band.

Long Live The King Of Buganda.

[Omulongo A.K. Kigongo]

For Ababaka.com Admin. Team

A man who claimed to be a Rwandese former soldier in both Uganda and Rwanda, went on SMS based Free Buganda Radio and called on Baganda to wake up and liberate their country Buganda. Without giving many details, the Rwandese talked in Luganda about the experiences of Rwandese refugees in Uganda and how they fought to take power in their country. He encouraged Baganda to wake up to the reality that their fight would even be much easier because they have many technology advantages, especially the internet and modern communications. He warned that Museveni only works on the basis of lying and betraying others. Without going into details, the Rwandese claimed that Museveni made do a lot things after making promises to them only to betray them.

The mysterious Rwandese told Robert Kabuye on Ekiba Kibe program that his name is Ntare which means a lion in Kinyarwanda. Ntare said that, while in Mr. Museveni’s NRA, he served in Lubiri, Katabi, Mbarara, Toro, the North, and other places.

Asked by Mr. Kabuye if Buganda can liberate herself since she is much bigger than Rwanda, Ntare replied in Luganda: “Abaganda muli bangi era mwesobola. Musomye, mulina sente, mulina abaana, mulina baakapu mu nsi yonna… Muve mu kutya.” (”You Baganda have a large population and are very capable. You are well educated, have money, have children, and have a based around the world… You must stop being cowards!”).

Click on Ekiba_Kibe23Feb10D and Ekiba_Kibe23Feb10E to listen to Robert Kabuye’s two part interview with Ntare.

SMS based Free Buganda Radio (also known as Radio Bu)  and its Ekiba Kibe program have gone to another level by getting a page on Facebook. The move to Facebook was announced by Robert  Kabuye e Boston during his evening the February 19, 2010 evening broadcast.  After getting a tip from one of the Buganda Post readers, we found  Mr. Kabuye and his Ekiba Kibe program on Facebook (www.facebook.com) under the name Kabuye Boston Robert.

In the same program, Robert Kabuye offered prayers to the Democratic Party (DP), which appears to been permanently split into two factions. Commenting on one of the factions which, according to Mr. Kabuye, is lead by Nasser Ssebagala and Norbert Mao, the broadcaster from the Ngeye clan called on all Baganda to remain focused on the noble cause of liberating Buganda.

Click on Ekiba_Kibe19Feb10B to listen toKabuye’a  February 19, 2010 Ekiba Kibe broadcast on Radio Bu.

Uganda’s NRM government is now blaming Baganda musicians for composing popular songs which forced it to close the Buganda kingdom radio stations, CBS FM. One of the conditions that NRM gave for reopening CBS FM radio is that the Buganda must publically apologize for allowing anti-NRM government broadcasts on the radio. Last week a Uganda government committee on the closure of CBS FM Radio announced its evidence that CBS FM broadcast dangerous materials in September last year and causes the Kayunga riots. According to the Uganda government owned Luganda newspaper, Bukedde, that evidence includes popular Baganda songs. As part of the evidence the Uganda government blames CBS FM Radio for playing these songs so frequently that when the NRM blocked Kabaka Mutebi from going to Kayunga on October 10,2009, these dangerous songs gave thousands of youths ideas to riot.

The Buganda government has already ruled making a public apology as one of the many tough conditions that the NRM government gave for reopening CBS FM Radio. Evidence on the ground indicates that the Bataka (clan elders) and a large majority of ordinary Baganda are behind Mmengo’s decision not t apologize for without any clear statement of what Buganda did wrong. The NRM’s government Bukedde quoted Buganda Deputy Minister of Information, Medard Sseggona, as saying: “Bannaffe abo balimba, lwaki teboogera mazima nti balina fitina, n’empalana ku Kabaka okusinga okwekwasa obusonga obutaliimu?” (”Those people are lying. Why don’t they accept the truth that their problem is jealousy, envy and hate against the Kabaka?”). Bukedde also claims that Sseggona praised composers of pro-Kabaka songs and encouraged them to continue. The problem is that NRM government media have a record of twisting what Mmengo officials say, so it is difficult to know if Owek. Sseggona actually made these statements.

The song which is said to be most offensive to Uganda’s rulers is Landiroodi (slang for Land Lord). The song, by Ronald Mayinja, calls Kabaka Mutebi the Buganda landlord which translates to three different titles that Baganda have used on their Kabaka for centuries – Ssabataka (head of all land settlers) or Nanyini Nsi (owner or master of the country) or Nanyini Ttaka (owner or master of all land).

Other songs that are very upsetting to the NRM government include these below;

• Maaso Moogi (”Sharp Eyes”, another title Baganda have used to described their Kabaka for centuries) by Buddo Secondary School choir.
• Tuli ku Bunkenke (”We are in high risk times”) by Ronald Mayinja.
• Twagala Federo (”We want a federal system of government”) by Jjingo Show.
• Mambo Baado ( Swahili for “There are more issues to come”) by Joseph Mayanja (Jose Chameleone).
• Ensonga y ‘Ettaka (”The land issue”), believed to be by Monica.

Although none the so called dangerous songs talks about violence, rebellion or even political action, Uganda’s rulers, through their spokesman Aggrey Awori, claim that those songs contain enough hints of hatred and division that by playing them repeatedly, CBS FM Radio incited people to riot when the NRM government stopped Kabaka Mutebi from visiting Kayunga.

Mr. Museveni’s NRM government has told Buganda officials who were in the final stages of preparing to open a Buganda TV station to forget it. The order was given by the chairman of Mr. Museveni’s broadcasting council, Godfrey Mutabaazi. According to the Baganda Eddoboozi newspaper, the Kabaka of Buganda first thought of opening a TV station, to develop his kingdom,  a few years ago. Buganda government officials formed a separate company called Diamond Communications Limited to implement the Kabaka’s plans. And on February 24, the NRM government’s broadcasting council  issued a licence to Diamond to open the TV station. Since then, Buganda officials have been working hard, including ordering equipment from overseas, to put everything in  place for the Buganda TV station to open.

In announcing the surprise cancellation of the TV licence, Godfrey Mutabaazi claimed that the licence had to be cancelled because Buganda has taken too long to open the station from the date they got it.  Mutabaazi claimed that it was against the laws and regulations governing broadcast licences to delay as much as Buganda did. The TV licence cancellation comes only one week after the NRM government similarly the licence for a new Buganda radio station. The radio licence had also been obtained by Diamond Communications in 2008 and was not related to the CBS FM radio stations, which the NRM government closed late in 2009.

When the NRM government cancelled the new Buganda radio and TV licences, it completed a total radio and TV information blackout on Kabaka Mutebi and his development programs from the citizens of Buganda.  In October and November 2009, the NRM government ordered all media houses in Uganda to stop reporting might promote the image of Kabaka Mutebi or his programs or Buganda identity. And that was after Buganda’s main station CBS FM Radio and its two channels were illegally closed.  The timing of the cancellations and closures seem to be aimed at bankrupting Kabaka Mutebi’s projects and forcing Buganda to apologize for resisting the NRM government’s plans for the kingdom.

Now, the only public channels in Uganda which the Kabaka can reliably use to guide his subjects in development are two Baganda owned newspapers, Eddoboozi and Ggwanga. However, the two publications are also operating on slippery ground. However, Buganda is far from down and out. Baganda in Europe and the USA have started a variety of media outlets and some of them are dedicated to Buganda national interests. For example, last week word spread like fire around Kampala surburbs that a Baganda radio called Ababaka (www.ababaka.com)  was going to start broadcasting on Short Wave (SW) every Saturday and Sunday from 8:00PM – 10:00PM. Our reporters in Kampala have not yet been able to find people who have a SW radio and were able to tune into Ababaka Radio last weekend. However, the word continues to spread and Short Wave radios are selling very well.  The USA based Baganda radio does not need a licence from the NRM because it is supposed to use satellites to transmit but it is hard to know yet if the NRM  interfered with it at all. Ababaka Radio has been broadcasting for a long time and  is already very popular in the diaspora especially in the USA, UK and Germany.

Robert Kabuye says no to the claim by UDII members that every one against the presidency of Yoweri Museveni is fighting for the same thing. In his Ekiba Kibe program of February 8, 2010, Mr. Kabuye make it clear that when he organized the Baganda demonstration of January 26, 2010 at the United Nations, he advertised that it was about the liberation of Buganda.  He says: “Buganda Post kyeyayogera kyali kituufu..byetwakootinga byaali bituufu. Kubanga ffe twategeka okwekalakaasa kwe New York era kwali kuyitibwa ‘Okununula Buganda’” (“Buganda Post was correct. What we quoted was correct. Because we organized the New York demonstration and it was called ‘Liberating Buganda’”). Mr. Kabuye requests the UDII people to come out and state what their true objectives are [not just saying that they are against Museveni].

Mr. Kabuye and his Ekiba Kibe program are  probably the most visible action ever by disapora Baganda to advocate for Buganda liberation without apology or signs of “ate banagamba batya?” (“what will the others say?”). According to our sources in Boston, many older Baganda with dreams of becoming major political figures in Uganda have made attempts to claim closeness to Kabuye. Even Ruhakana Rugunda, the NRM ambassador  to the UN, has reportedly paid people to set up fronts to recruit Kabuye and then disorganize him. However, most of the them have been disappointed when the Ekiba Kibe program and Bu man has stubbornly insisted that anything he does must be focused on the liberation Buganda from Museveni, the NRM and their occupation Uganda constitution. Kabuye says on his program that Buganda must be ruled as an independent kingdom with Kabaka on top. And he has previously explained that the independent nation system worked for over 600 years. Yet the foreign systems of Unitary, Regional Tier, Decentralization, and Federo have all failed to work for Buganda and Uganda in the last  40 years.

In a related story, we have been able to confirm reports that Kibanda Cinema (video hall) operators in Wandegeya (Kyadondo county), Kalisizo (Buddu county) and Mukono (Kyaggwe county) were caught by the NRM police playing Ekiba Kibe programs to their customers and were told to stop or they will be arrested. The CDs with the recordings were also confiscated.

Click on Ekiba_Kibe08Feb10B to listen to the February 8, 2009 Ekiba Kibe broadcast.