By Our Reporters
Just days ago, Bulamogi Chiefdom Katukiro Samuel Mutono organized a procession of the local people who gathered and matched onto Edward Columbus Zibondo’s palace in Kaliro Town Council to appreciate Minister Persis Namuganza for her outspokenness in support of Zibondo’s right to reign as Kyabazinga of Busoga. These same people, just like Namuganza, are also opposed to the constitutional changes aimed at making Gabula rule for life while turning the Kyabazingaship into a hereditary title as opposed to the status quo whereby the 11 member Busoga Royal Chiefs Council votes the next king. The processions were staged barely a week after Busoga Parliamentary Caucus MPs had met and voted to expel Princess Namuganza who is also Bukoono County MP from their fraternity. Until that procession, some had dismissed Namuganza as merely the cantankerous woman fighting a lonely battle.
Sources now say the Minister feels emboldened to fight on with even more determination. It’s in this context that, working with Zibondo’s cabinet and Prime Minister, Namuganza has worked out a mobilization program that will see her accompany Zibondo on a tour of the different Busoga Chiefdoms. In total, there are 11 Chiefdoms and senior journalist Sir Simon Muyanga Lutaaya, who speaks for Zibondo, says they are sure not more than 6 are still loyal to Gabula the incumbent Busoga king. This very weekend, Namuganza was supposed to begin her tours by taking Zibondo to her Bukoono County/Chiefdom to test the popularity of her ongoing anti-Gabula activities outside Bulamogi where Zibondo is already very popular being his very chiefdom. The Bukoono tour, that is reported to have created anxiety in the Gabula camp, was meant to commence this very weekend.
Namuganza is understood to also have been emboldened by realization that her crusade was rapidly gaining acceptance and popularity in other chiefdoms like Bukhooli, Butembe, Bunha and Luuka chiefdoms whose chiefs are understood to already have severed links with Bugembe where Gabula sits and operates from. Some have not ruled out court action against Bugembe. The chiefs in these protesting chiefdoms are said to be unhappy seeing the Gabula camp using political and military power to undermine them while propping up rival chiefs that will be subservient to the Gabula dictates.
Namuganza is also emboldened by Gender Minister Janat Mukwaya’s continued refusal to register, recognize and accept the new Busoga Constitution which Muyanga says wasn’t arrived at through consensus. Muyanga claims that even within the Gabula camp, there is no unanimity regarding this new Constitution. This is really very crippling because procedurally the new kingdom constitution can’t become enforceable until Mukwaya’s ministry acknowledges it as validly enacted. In marketing her Zibondo, Namuganza whose escort convoy has since been boosted with one more police patrol vehicle (making them two now) is riding on the anger alleged to have been created by new constitutional changes aimed at making Gabula life time king while making Kyabazingaship hereditary. It’s claimed that some of the chiefs who have reservations about this new document have since been violently attacked by the Gabula supporters, a thing that has created sympathy for Zibondo and the Namuganza cause.
She is also emboldened by the fact that Juma Munuulo the Bunha chief, the original Gabula kingmaker, has lately intensified hostilities against Gabula, the man he worked so hard to put in office. He was in fact dragged to court to answer having forged minutes of the meeting during which the 11 Chiefs are supposed to have agreed to vote Gabula next Kyabazinga ahead of Zibondo. Having been clobbered by Gabula supporters, Munuulo now misses some teeth and was almost blinded during the same attack as Gabula supporters descended on him as he returned from court. He was accused of betrayal after lawyers squeezed him during cross examination into admitting he had indeed forged minutes. Namuganza is also emboldened by the President’s continued ambivalence on the matter. The President’s indifference has fermented rumors that the big man from Rwakitura might after all be acquiescing to the Namuganza project. But Gen Proscovia Nalweyiso, an influential State House official, rejected all this during a last week appearance on Moses Balyeku’s Baba FM radio.
She denied Museveni or State House being behind Namuganza’s antics and she also disputed the assignment of a 2nd police patrol car onto the Namuganza convoy. She politely questioned what had warranted that additional deployment. Namuganza is also deriving courage from the solidarity statements that have so far been made by some of the well-respected opinion leaders in Busoga. Besides Katuntu who last weekend told Capital Gang listeners that being expelled from Busoga Parliamentary Caucus wasn’t a big deal meaning that Namuganza could politically do without its membership, Dr. Frank Nabwiso (a leading Busoga intellectual and scholar/researcher on the Kyabazingaship institution) also gave a media interview vehemently defending Namuganza. He argued that these are views many Basoga acquiesce to but they are only too fearful to speak out. He challenged Namuganza rivals to respond to the questions she has raised as they are without attacking her personality.
Nabwiso, who claimed that Gastar Mugoya who chaired the caucus meeting wasn’t someone that should be taken seriously, likened this to overlooking the message while attacking the messenger. He claimed that Namuganza’s views were synonymous with how the ordinary Basoga feel about their region and the quality of leadership Bugembe has given so far under the leadership of Gabula. But the failure or refusal by police to curtail her mobilization activities thus far is something that has as well emboldened Namuganza to soldier on. During the Kaliro processions, police deployed heavily not to break up the crowd but to ensure maximum security. There are credible intelligence fears that Namuganza’s tours, marketing Zibondo if allowed to go on, could incite Gabula rivals and result into a secessionist movement being declared, a thing that would leave the Kyabazinga cultural institution the way we know it today very much weakened if not totally obliterated. See more in the related picture story showing the Kaliro crowds that camped out in solidarity with Namuganza a few days ago. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755!
