Tension grips Kampala NRM regime as ex-premiers join opposition

Former Buganda Katikkiro, Dan Muliika ( second right0)during a recent Buganda Emmergency meeting in Watertown, MA. H.Maina/Ajabu

Rogers Muyanja, Ajabu Africa News, posted June 15, 2010

TWO ex-Buganda Kingdom Katikkiro (luganda for premiers) have publicly decided to support the opposition and immediately called on the kingdom subjects to unite behind them.

Addressing a gathering of Inter Party Cooperation (IPC) former Buganda Katikkiro (premiers) Joseph Mulwanyamuli Ssemwogerere and Dan Muliika last week declared their support for the Inter-Party Cooperation (IPC), a loose grouping of opposition parties planning to field a single presidential candidate next year.

Katikkiro Semwogerere asked Buganda to stop complaining about bad leadership but instead stand up to it. “You keep complaining about the bad leadership but what have you done about it?” Katikkiro Semwogerere asked amidst jubilations from the well attended gathering.

On the same note, his predecessor Dan Muliika popularly known for his rhetoric against the ruling party asked Buganda to “...come out and fight for your country…”

Buganda is the kingdom of the Baganda people, the largest of the traditional kingdoms in present-day Uganda (Central region).

The 5.5 million Baganda make up the largest Ugandan ethnic group, representing approximately 16.9% of Uganda’s population. The name Uganda, the Swahili term for Buganda, was adopted by British officials in 1894 when they established the Uganda protectorate, centered in Buganda.

The two premiers declared their support for the Inter-Party Cooperation (IPC), a loose grouping of opposition parties planning to field a single presidential candidate next year.

They are also special advisers to Buganda’s Kabaka (king) and have offices at the Bulange, the power seat of the kingdom. Ssemwogerere served from 1993 to 2009 and was replaced by the radical Muliika who only served for a year.

The function attracted senior opposition politicians, among them FDC president Kizza Besigye, JEEMA’s flag-bearer Hussein Kyanjo, UPC’s Joseph Bbosa and DP’s Erias Lukwago and Betty Nambooze, who urged their party members to support the cooperation.

Responding to the development, the Government Chief Whip, Daudi Migereko, said: “What Dan Muliima is doing is nothing new. This is what he has always done even when he was in Mengo, but the NRM emerged victorious.”

He added: “The NRM will recruit more people in Buganda and we shall concentrate on grassroots mobilization and service delivery to attend to issues that ordinary people consider important.”
Ssemwogerere was applauded by the opposition supporters after he read a nine-page statement critical of the Government in which he once served as the Masaka district administrator.

“I have requested the Kabaka to allow me resign my position as his adviser to start a crusade of ensuring that we have a change in the country’s leadership. We cannot sit and watch when everything is going wrong,” he said.

President Yoweri Museveni and Ssemwogerere studied at Dar-es-Salaam University and became members of the Front for National Salvation rebel group formed by Museveni in 1973 to oust Idi Amin.
“I offer my service to this nation by acting as a midwife of change. I will mobilize our people, political and civil society organizations to bring about change needed to make Uganda a prosperous and great nation,” Ssemwogerere said.

Former Buganda Katikiro, Dan Muliika

He attacked the Government over corruption and “inequitable” economic growth. He amused the gathering when he said the roads are so bad that it is hard to distinguish them from pot-holes, yet, he argued, trillions of shillings are dedicated to roads annually.

They north said they were not joining any opposition party, but support the IPC objectives, which Kizza Besigye had outlined earlier.

They appealed to the DP to join the IPC, saying unity and cooperation was the best weapon to “topple the current corrupt and militant regime”.

Addressing the meeting, Besigye said the IPC government would urgently solve the main Buganda kingdom concerns.
“I equivocally commit FDC and IPC to the following: Establish a fair and workable federal system of government for all parts of Uganda that aspire to it, organize a national convention at the earliest time to resolve outstanding constitutional issues and to immediately return all properties of Buganda kingdom,” he announced.

Besigye also said the IPC would, on its first day in office, open CBS, the kingdom’s radio station.
The station was closed over inciting violence during the riots which rocked Buganda late last year after premier JB Walusimbi was stopped from entering Kayunga district to prepare for the Kabaka’s visit.
Besigye also pledged to ensure that the Kabaka enjoys “unfettered freedom” to move within his kingdom and to ensure its “territorial integrity”.

Muliika said the IPC’s manifesto should be made available to promote its presidential candidate.
“We support the IPC because it has similar concerns that hurt the people of Buganda. It is time for people with qualifications to contest for all elective positions because no one will defend Buganda’s interests better than ourselves,” Ssemwogerere stated.

Following this move, the Kingdom’s deputy information Minister Medard Lubega Seggona when contacted on phone by Ajabu Africa said as a Kingdom they have sympathy in those that share the same cause with the Buganda.

‘It’s inevitable not keeping such people in our prayers.” Seggona stated adding that “Since we don’t have the freedom to stand on pulpits and show our support to them, we shall always keep them in our prayers.”
When asked if the Kingdom rallied behind the two former Katikkiro, Seggona was adamant to admitting it but stated that “The two have lived long enough to know so much that we find it inappropriate to argue against their decisions.”

Former local government minister and now head of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Jaberi Bidandi Ssali while addressing his national coordinators at the party headquarters in Bukoto, a Kampala suburb said individuals should choose either to be in active politics or to serve cultural institutions.

He argued that doing both would cause problems to traditional leaders and cited cases where some individuals, who engage in active politics also hold responsibilities at Mengo, the seat of Buganda Kingdom.

Without mentioning names, he said such individuals are playing ‘double standards’. “This should be an example to people who are in politics and culture to stop double standards. We should avoid hiding behind the Kabaka when other forces are throwing stones towards us.” Bidandi stressed.

Both Muliika and Semwogerere have been serving as Kabaka’s advisors. Ssemwogere announced at the function that he will back the Inter-Party Cooperation in its campaign in the 2011 general elections.
He also urged other parties, notably the Democratic Party, to join the party coalition. Bidandi’s PPP has also refused to join the IPC, a loose alliance of FDC, UPC, CP and Justice Forum (JEEMA) that plan to field a single presidential candidate.

The National Resistance Movement’s (ruling party) deputy spokes person Ofwono Opondo when contacted by Ajabu Africa called the two ex-premiers’ move a joke when he said that during their terms in office none of them was an achiever.

“If they were doing well for the Kabaka why were they sacked?” Ofwono asked adding that “Muliika served for only 11 months, is that not a sign of inefficiency?”

Ofwono wondered what former Katikkiro Mulwanyamuli Semwogerere had done during his term of office when Buganda held s string of campaigns to eradicate poverty, improve education and the infrastructure in the region as well as increasing food production as a means of creating wealth among Baganda. “I sincerely hold due respect for former premier Semwogerere but I wonder if he ever lived up to that? Or he rather left Baganda in a worse state?

He went on to argue that in the 1996 presidential elections, Katikkiro Mulwanyamuli, and then agricultural minister in the Buganda government Duncan Kafeero together with one Maj. Fred Mpiso who was later identified to be an operative with the defunct Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) a rebel group formerly active in some parts of western Uganda handed then Paul Kawanga Semogerere a banquet of flowers allegedly from Kabaka Ronald Mutebi.

“Did Baganda listen when that happened?” Ofwono wondered and sited the recent presidential elections where Besigye handed the then Katikkiro of Buganda Dan Muliika a hoe at the Buganda Headquarters (Bulange), he stated that Muliika called on Baganda to show Besigye their support, but it did not yield to anything.

“As NRM we are going to mobilize and stay in touch with directly elected leaders and our grass-root mobilizers who are trusted by the Buganda which is going to be one of the major reasons for our winning the up-coming presidential elections.” Ofwono promised.

President Museveni, the incumbent presidential aspirer has held this office since January 26, 1986 when he came in power after a coup d’état after overthrowing the then government of the Late Tito Okello Lutwa father to his deputy foreign affairs minister Okello Oryem.

This is going to be the third time Besigye the largest opposition party leader is going to stand against Museveni after the 2001 and 2006 presidential elections where the two battles ended up in court with the supreme court accepting in 2007 that the 2006 presidential elections were marred by violence, intimidation of voters and ballot staffing though four out of the seven judges concurred that that was not enough to order a recount or re-election as had been asked by Besigye.

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