The ongoing violence in Kasese and the attendant behavior of Rwenzururu King Charles Wesley Mumbere has re-ignited debate on the relationship between Uganda’s royalty and the Executive led by President Yoweri Museveni.
It is important to note that since Independence in 1962, the monarchs in Uganda have had a not-so-cordial relationship with the central government, the climax of this antipathy resulting in the attack on Mengo on April 24, 1966 that led to Kabaka Edward Mutesa of Buganda being deposed (Uganda Crisis) and the subsequent abolishment of the kingdoms by then President Apollo Milton Obote in 1967. Other kingdoms affected by Obote’s directive included Ankole under Omugabe Charles Gasyonga, Bunyoro-Kitara under Omukama Tito Winyi Gafabusa IV, Toro under Omukama David Mathew Patrick Olimi Kaboyo VII and Busoga under Kyabazinga Wilberforce Kadhumbula Nadiope, Uganda’s first Vice President under Obote from 1962 to 1966.
Partly because of his recalcitrant character and loose oversight over the army, Obote was deposed by Colonel Idi Amin Dada, a former Army Commander of the Uganda Army. However, much as Amin did all in his power to appease Ugandans during his early days at the helm of government, he did not pretend about monarchism and conspicuously refused to reinstate the kingdoms during his 8-year rule between January 1971 and April 1978 that was characterized by brutality. And when the Tanzanians and a few Ugandan exiles finally drove Amin out of Kampala, the two subsequent short-lived governments under Yusuf Kironde Lule, a former pro-monarchist, a Godfrey Lukongwa Binaisa, a former adherent to republicanism and both Baganda, turned a ‘deaf ear’ to calls for the reinstatement of Kingdoms. Indeed, it was Binaisa who, while serving as Attorney General, drafted the ‘pigeon-hole Constitution’ of 1967 that abolished the kingdoms.
Then enter Obote II under the Uganda Peoples’ Congress (UPC) in December 1980, and there was no talk whatsoever about the reinstatement of the kingdoms for all the five years Obote was in power. This was not surprising as he was the one responsible for their abolition in 1967.
However, the fire for regal reinstatement in Uganda received a boost with the assumption of power in 1986 by the National Resistance Movement/Army (NRM/A). According to reports, many Baganda decided to support the bush war against Obote on the understanding that on attainment of power, the NRM/A would restore the Buganda kingdom. In his submissions on the ‘Buganda Question’ one of the pro-Buganda advocates, NRM/A veteran and Minister without Portfolio Hajji Abdul Nadduli, has attested to this development. He is nonetheless not a lone voice as Presidential Advisor John Nagenda, one of the instrumental personalities that introduced then Prince Ronald Muwenda Mutebi to the NRM/A will tell you.
And so it was in 1993 that NRM/A Chairman Yoweri Museveni convened a High Command meeting in Gulu in 1993, and introduced the subject of the return of kingdoms in Uganda, otherwise known as the Restoration and Restitution of the Kingdoms 1993 Bill. At the time, the move elicited some opposition and the notable voices included among others then Brigadier David Tinyefuza (now General Sejusa); then NRM/A Chief Political Commissar Lieutenant Colonel Dr Kizza Besigye, then Presidential Private Secretary (PPS) Lt. Col. Serwanga Lwanga and former pro-monarchist, the late AlHajji Abubaker Kayama Mayanja who, even at one time reportedly asserted that the Baganda had sold then ‘Republic House’, the former seat of the Buganda Kingdom that was called Bulange.
But despite all the said protestations, the NRA High Command okayed the restitution of the kingdoms, and their position was reinforced when the 1995 Constitution fully recognized the kingdoms and the ‘powers of their Kings’. However, under the new law there was a catchphrase; cultural leaders as they were called then were not to indulge in politics; they were to remain apolitical!
This unforeseen development took the pro-monarchists by surprise, with the Buganda group saying they had been given ‘byoya bya nswa’, literally meaning that little or nothing had been achieved out of the engagement the pro-monarchists had had with the NRM/A government. However, the government insisted that Buganda would get back all its properties, piecemeal, as this would allow for a smooth reclaim without necessarily rocking the political status obtaining in the country then. Both groups were dissatisfied with the offers accorded each other, resulting into lingering questions on the good faith of the negotiators. Further, the lack of appreciation for what was on offer would lead Baganda pro-monarchists officially led by then Katikiro Joseph Mulwanyamuli Semwogerere to advocate for a Federal (Federo) status, while the government through the local government ministry insisted on having a ‘regional tier’ system, hitherto an obscure amalgam of the two political systems.
However, talks about the two political systems stalled when Kabaka Ronald Mutebi appointed diehard monarchist Dan Mulika as the new Katikiro, replacing moderate Mulwanyamuli, a one-time close confidant and Dar es Salaam University Old Boy (OB) of Museveni, who even served as a Special District Administrator (SDA) in the early NRM/A administration. Mengo went cold, so did the Kabaka who, at the time, was also blocked from accessing parts of his kingdom including areas in Buruuli and Kayunga, home to the antagonistic Baruuli and Banyala, respectively. The blame for the woes encircling the Kabaka as an individual and the Buganda kingdom as an institution was laid at the door steps of government and at the time, somewhere in 2009, President Museveni lamented that the Kabaka had even refused to take his calls. Apparently, it is not only Kabaka Mutebi who has refused to take Mr Museveni’s call when there is a stalemate between the traditional leaders and central government and sources say the current standoff between the Rwenzururu King Mumbere and Mr Museveni’s government saw the former at one time refusing to take the President’s successive calls shortly before he was arrested.
Meanwhile, in an almost similar protest, in July 2014 Tooro King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru IV started fasting, ostensibly protesting against Mr Museveni’s perceived decisions to create more ‘kingdoms’ out of his kingdom. At the time it is not known whether King oyo alsao rejected taking Mr Museveni’s calls but the then Tooro Prime Minister Steven Kaliba said that the king was ‘disappointed’ by the creation of the Obusinga Bwa Rwenzururu and the Obudinghiya of Bwamba, which had ‘divided and weakened the power and supremacy of the Tooro Kingdom’. Mr Kaliba also said that King Oyo was disappointed by the government’s failure to return Tooro Kingdom’s assets.
Another interesting tale about Uganda’s hierarchical executive powers and traditional leadership has it that one elderly King from western Uganda allegedly close to the powers that be when he gave a ‘restricted number’ to one of his prominent subjects who had been involved in a land dispute and wanted the standoff resolved in his favour. After placing the call which allegedly rubbed the ‘powerful man’ the wrong way, phone communication between the ‘powerful man’ and the royal was called off indefinitely!
