By Guest Writer
As a Mugisu/Mumasaaba, I have gotten excited to see and read President-Elect Y.K Museveni’s X Formerly Twitter that Bamasaaba/Bagisu are fond of clashing in his presence every time he meets them at his Country home or in Bugisu. He says and I quote “the Bamasaaba/Bagisu engage in unnecessary quarrels and bickering amongst themselves, accusing each other on flimsy issues, so I close my eyes until they finish their quarrels then I wake up to bid them farewell.”
I partly agree with H.E the President because I believe this group has been a small, selfish clique of people who regularly meet the President. Most of the other people have painfully not had opportunity to see him and I believe this minority clique can change and I know that most of them show they are changing and some have passed on.
I can assure the President and the entire nation that Bagisu are steadily moving away from their Artificial bravery (Dutch-Courage). In the 60s, 70s and part of the 80s, the men and women in Bugisu were very organized and rich, and therefore had no time to bicker. That is why they could afford to host then youthful Museveni, now Four-Star General and Commander-In-Chief and President of Uganda for that matter.
They were so cohesive that they would secretly work underground, keep a dissident (rebel) for years without leaking any piece of information to then Authorities of the time (Iddi Amin Dada and Obote). Bagisu of the time upheld their culture to the letter. It was abominable for a Mugisu/Mumasaaba man to engage in rumormongering, rumormongers were known to be lazy people.
Only a portion of Bagisu/Bamasaaba women/ladies would involve themselves in village/group rumormongering, mostly about their “lazy/weak” men and they would laugh loudly especially at the rivers and streams. They abandoned these norms of cohesiveness (young men and women dug in groups-digging SACCOs), confidentiality and some kind of deep state behavior.
It is said that he who despises his/her culture is a slave because culture is a weapon and LANGUAGE is the trigger pin of that weapon. The Bible Scripture Gen 11:1-9 “and the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the East, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole Earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will restrained from them, which they have imaged to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth, and they left off to build the city. Therefore, is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth, and form thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.”
Does any Ugandan see the meaning of the issues stated in the scripture? And if you’re a Mugisu/Umumasaaba like me, do you notice where we went wrong ourselves? If we were cohesive (together) as our grandparents, President Museveni would not be saying what he is referring to us today, 2026. Instead he would still be respecting and camping in; Malukhu, Namakwekwe, Busiu, Soono, Bumasata, Bubita, Bunaporo, Buyobo, Sebei and other places in the region sharing a local meal of malea (baby bamboo) with kaalo (busima bwe buulo), roasted maize, bogoya, pottage and sugarcanes.
Major Natasha Lokho of Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) recently at Senior Command and Staff College at Kimaka said and I quote her “spiritual sentiment must be followed by structural sincerity. When citizens raise concerns, power listens, when power listens, healing begins.” So power in this case means the President of the Republic of Uganda and other coercive instruments (military, police, prisons, intelligence agencies), please listen and let healing begin in Uganda.
Abraham Masilow famously said “if the only tool you have is a hammer; it is tempting to treat everything as if it were a nail.” Now therefore, when the people of Bugisu ran out of all options of engagements such as Agriculture and cross-border trade and found themselves engulfed with landslides/ flash floods which sweep almost all their livelihoods, leaving them with bare soils, rocks, famine, unpredictable weather due to climate change effects, they now have emptiness hence poverty and rumormongering which the President is talking about. Even the monies he gave to the farmers and peasants in Bugisu through the Unions were squandered by the messengers including members of parliament.
However, Bagisu/ Bamasaaba still retain only one collective conveyor item, the Imbalu which continue to collect us together every even year like now 2026 in strategic studies, we refer to Imbalu as soft power. This is when our brothers and sisters from Bungoma and Transnzoia (Babukusu) in the Republic of Kenya join us with a storm of joy at the Cultural and Heritage site at Bumutoto, we feel re-energized and comfortable especially in the presence of the Right Honorable Speaker of the Kenya National Assembly Moses Masika Wetangula who is our own tool of reference even though he is across the border. We cannot have any motion of Fear or Flight because of speaker Wetangula. We entirely rely on him for protection at this time when Ugandan High Table is still struggling to create space for Bugisu.
This is therefore to request and humbly invite our old FRONASA (Front for National Salvation) friend Yoweri Museveni to be in attendance so that we reconnect as Bagisu. With this current rebuke, we can reflect, stop the bickering, accusations and counter accusations, childish quarrels because we have lost quite a number of opportunities and now it’s time to recover. Now we repent our sins before you commit us to join as partakers at the High Table. I rest my case, Much obliged, Nabendeh S.P Wamoto (0776658433) & Email: simonwamoto@yahoo.co.uk. Culture and Heritage Leader answers the President. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
