{"id":143604,"date":"2010-01-06T01:08:46","date_gmt":"2010-01-06T06:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skyscrapercity.com\/showthread.php?t=1039069"},"modified":"2010-01-06T01:08:46","modified_gmt":"2010-01-06T06:08:46","slug":"museveni-faces-complicated-new-%c2%91war%c2%92-with-baganda-%c2%97-analysts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/143604","title":{"rendered":"Museveni faces complicated new \u0091war\u0092 with Baganda \u0097 analysts"},"content":{"rendered":"
President Yoweri Museveni may have won the 22 year-old war against northern Ugandan rebels, the Lord\u0092s Resistance Army, but another, much more complicated war is afoot \u0097 with pro-monarchy supporters of the Buganda kingdom.<\/p>\n

Analysts say the \u0093war\u0094 took a new turn on December 17, the day Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II, traditional king of the over five million Baganda, called a conference in the heart of the city to denounce opponents of his demands for poltical power.<\/p>\n

Baganda are Uganda\u0092s largest and most influential tribe. They live on the northern shores of Lake Victoria \u0097 the country\u0092s most fertile belt.<\/p>\n

Baganda kings, who had reigned in almost unbroken succession since the 1300s, had almost absolute sway and could demand death on the spot, as they did for the 22 world-renowned Uganda Martyrs in 1884.<\/p>\n

Ugandan legislators began debating a new Bill in parliament mid-December aimed at allowing disparate districts to come together and form regional blocs that would resemble the old kingdoms, albeit without political power for the monarchies.<\/p>\n

Titular heads<\/p>\n

Where kingdoms existed \u0097Bunyoro in western Uganda, Busoga in the east, Lango and Acholi in the north \u0097 the traditional leader would be titular head of these regions.<\/p>\n

But his role would be limited to appointing at least 15 per cent of his own representatives to a regional legislative assembly, purely to oversee cultural matters.<\/p>\n

\u0093That is not the federal system we are demanding,\u0094 said Betty Kamya, Member of Parliament for the strategic Lubaga North constituency southwest of Kampala.<\/p>\n

\u0093What we are asking for is a full-fledged federal system of government that will allow the regions to plan and execute their own development,\u0094 she said.<\/p>\n

Museveni was warned by analysts in 1993 when he allowed monarchies to once again practise \u0097 27 years after they were brutally abolished by former leader Milton Obote of the Uganda People\u0092s Congress.<\/p>\n

The war in the north of the country has all but ended after a lengthy process of peace talks with LRA boss Joseph Kony, although the elusive rebel leader is yet to pen the accord brokered by former Mozambican president Joachim Chissano.<\/p>\n

\u0093It is the new war that he has to brace himself for,\u0094 said Isha Otto, whose northern Ugandan Oyam South constituency neighbours Obote\u0092s political cradle.<\/p>\n

\u0093It is much more complicated. It is in the capital,\u0094 added a political science lecturer at Makerere University.<\/p>\n

The September 2009 riots, in which a police station was set ablaze and scores of people killed brought Kampala to a standstill for three days after the government blocked Kabaka Mutebi\u0092s representative from accessing a region the Kabaka wanted to visit.<\/p>\n

It was the worst challenge in a long time to President Museveni, a former guerrilla leader.<\/p>\n

\u0093He has to redefine his weapons,\u0094 said a Baganda politician. \u0093These could involve boycotts \u0097 and that\u0092s a lethal economic weapon,\u0094 she added.<\/p>\n

Ugandan laws do not proscribe boycotts. One called by the Buganda kingdom earlier this year throttled the operations of The New Vision, forcing them to ask for forgiveness from the king, after the profitable government daily alleged he had mortgaged a key kingdom property for cash.<\/p>\n

Front-page apology<\/p>\n

The paper was forced to run a front-page apology \u0097 a thing it has done very rarely since Museveni came to power.<\/p>\n

Demanding a full federalism for Buganda, Kabaka Mutebi pointed to the outcome of a nationwide exercise to draw a new constitution that ended in 1992.<\/p>\n

The Constitution, which was debated before coming into force in 1995, however deleted this clause on federalism. Instead, the government handed down decentralisation, with power and budget control being given to districts, leading to many new ones being created after local politicians demanded them.<\/p>\n

\u0093The small districts are not viable; which is why we need the regional tier system being proposed by the government,\u0094 said Oyam legislator Otto.<\/p>\n

\u0093That, we in Lango support; federalism, we do not,\u0094 he added in an interview.<\/p>\n

Lango \u0097 the birthplace of Obote\u0097 is viewed with suspicion by the Baganda after Obote abolished the kingdoms in a 1967 constitution.<\/p>\n

But the Baganda need all such big ethnic groups to support its quest for a federal system of governance, analysts say.<\/p>\n

All round support<\/p>\n

The kingdom would need the support as well of Bunyoro \u0097 which has consistently been a key Buganda opponent from the times of colonial rule; Busoga, a traditional ally and Acholi. Recent moves by these tribal groups have tended to isolate Buganda, seen as an arrogant partner.<\/p>\n

All Uganda\u0092s traditional leaders met in the country\u0092s west recently to agree a common development goal, officially dropping demands for full-blown federalism and forming a business wing to invest money for profit to run their kingdoms.<\/p>\n

Buganda says the president is fronting these groups to weaken Buganda. He is also accused of encouraging tiny clans to break away from the kingdom. Two of these \u0097 the Baruuli and Banyala, central Ugandan districts \u0097 have done so and been recognised by the president as legitimate kingdom entities
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President Yoweri Museveni may have won the 22 year-old war against northern Ugandan rebels, the Lord\u0092s Resistance Army, but another, much more complicated war is afoot \u0097 with pro-monarchy supporters of the Buganda kingdom. Analysts say the \u0093war\u0094 took a new turn on December 17, the day Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II, traditional king of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143604\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}