Former presidential candidate in 2016 general elections and FDC strongman, Kizza Besigye has condemned the recent violence in Kasese and called for international investigation to reveal the truth about a matter that has reportedly left over 70 people dead.
In an exclusive interview with EagleOnline, Dr. Besigye said the government ought to own up and address the real issues afflicting the ‘Banyarwenzururu’.
“It was not necessary to exterminate the people. I condemn the actions of government and I think there should be international bodies to investigate and reveal the truth,” Dr. Besigye said.
Besigye also said it was “unfortunate that public institutions like police and army are being used to commit crime like what has happened in Kasese.”
Dr Besigye said the problems of Kasese are three: lack of respect for the traditional leader by government, the land question and politics. He added that “having installed Mr. Charles Wesley Mumbere as king, government thought they would manipulate him like in other areas but Mr. Mumbere turned out to be no-nonsense individual.”
“The people of Kasese and wider Banyarwenzururu have several grievances that have been mismanaged. Mr Museveni and other NRM people thought they would grant and manipulate the king just like Buganda where they set up other traditional leaders but after having realized that Mumbere was not easy to manipulate, they instead started divide and rule by setting up other traditional leasers like Omudingiya and among the Basongora,” he said.
On land, Dr. Besigye said the donation of land for the prison farm at Mubuku and the other land given to national parks left the Banyarwenzururu landless, a development he said, was compounded by the recent land redistribution where cultivators were allotted less land as compared to pastoralists.
“The government has also been discriminatingly giving much land to Basongora as compared to other groups,” he said, adding that politics had also led to the divide in Kasese.
“Above all, the politics of Kasese has been supporting and voting for Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party and that voting consumed people like Crispus Kiyonga (former Minister of Defence) and Dura Muhindo Mawa (former Kasese district LCV chairman) and some of these politicians have been trying to say FDC is subversive,” he said of the current volatile situation in Kasese.
