How disputed Bundibugyo election ended up in tribal war

A wave of fear and uncertainty is hovering over Bundibugyo District after the February 28 clashes that left at least 12 people dead and more than 50 houses burnt.

The clashes ensued shortly after the declaration of the district LC5 results where Bundibugyo returning officer, Mr Daniel Nayebale, first declared Mr Jolly Tibemanya (Independent) winner against Mr Ronald Mutegeki (NRM) but later reversed the results in favour of the latter.

This was after rectifying irregularities that marred the tallying process, where some polling stations had been left out.

In the wee hours of January 25, the tally room in Bundibugyo became a haven of quarrels as supporters of Mr Mutegeki protested the manner in which the returning officer had declared Mr Tibemanya winner, arguing that the former had emerged winner and hence accused Mr Nayebale of swapping the results.

They held him hostage for eight hours until results were re-tallied. This saw Mutegeki declared winner with 32,848 votes against Tibemanya’s 32,548.

Mr Ausen Kyalimpa, one of Mutegeki’s agents, says Nayebale rushed to declare Tibemanya winner yet the results of other polling stations had not been added on the tally sheet.

“When we saw this man Nayebale trying to read wrong results, we refused and quickly demanded that we should re-tally the votes. We closed the door and no one in the room was allowed to move out until officials from Electoral Commission came,” Kyalimpa says.

However, after the first declaration, Tibemanya went on 93.0 UBC Voice of Bundibugyo and thanked his supporters for re-electing him. This triggered wild celebrations.

But the celebrations were cut short after the supporters were told the votes were being re-tallied. Police had to fire live bullets and teargas to disperse Tibemanya’s now furious supporters who accused the Electoral Commission (EC) of foul play.

At 3pm, Nayebale declared Mutegeki winner and this did not go down well with Tibemanya’s supporters. The town became tense following threats by Tibemanya’s supporters. It is said in Kirumya Sub-county, Mutegeki’s supporters slept in the bush that night for fear of being killed.

On February 27, fear engulfed residents of Busengerwa village in Kirindi parish, Busaru Sub-county, when Mr Nickson Bwambale, a drug shop attendant and Mutegeki’s agent, was shot dead by people suspected to be Tibemanya’s supporters and his house set ablaze.

In retaliation, Bwambale’s friends attacked Tibemanya’s supporter Taddeo Mugisa’s home and killed his wife and five children. In Mr Mugisa’s neighbourhood, unidentified people also attacked a home and hacked to death Jane Kalungi, a pregnant woman, with her 3-year-old child.

At Sure Deal Trading Centre in Kirumya Sub-county, a section of Bamba/Babwisi stormed the area and threatened to kill every Mukonzo. And when the Bakonzo learnt of it, they organised for battle. Police intervened and started firing live bullets to disperse the Bakonzo.

It is reported that the Bakonzo from the mountains descended and vowed to kill every Mubwisi, arguing that they have been undermined for long. When the Bamba/Babwisi learnt of it, they then decided to seek refuge at the Bubukwanga Rehabilitation Camp.

A source at Sure Deal Trading Centre intimated to this reporter that the Bakonzo from the mountains decided to burn houses of the Babwisi who had run away. In Bundibuturo parish, Kirumya Sub-county, houses of Bamba/Babwisi were burnt. However, they also revenged and burnt the homes of the Bakonzo in Bundimulombi, Bundikeki parish.

As a result, the a number of Bamba/Babwisi in Kirumya Sub-county are at Bubukwanga Rehabilitation Camp while a few Bakonzo have camped at Sure Deal Trading Centre. Schools in the area have since closed as a result of the clashes.

In Kirumya, Alozio Kahuta was hacked to death by unknown people. Koroneri Kisembo was also hacked but survived and is now being treated at Fort-Portal Regional Referral Hospital. UPDF soldiers have since been deployed at Sure Deal Trading Centre to contain the situation.

It is only Kirumya among the 15 sub-counties of Bundibugyo District is heavily affected by the mass exodus, even in Busaru Sub-county where the clashes started, people are in their homes.

Bundibugyo Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Geoffrey Mucunguzi says security is doing everything possible to ensure that peace is restored, but asks leaders from both tribes to come together and create harmony.

“We arrested 80 people during the attacks and 60 have been released. As security, we are still investigating people who could be behind these attacks and once they are held, they will be brought to book,” says Mucunguzi.

Why the clashes?
As the election anxiety escalated, the tension shifted from political to tribal. This was because the Bamba/Babwisi accused the Bakonzo of voting Ms Josephine Babungi as Woman MP and Mr Ronald Mutegeki as LC5.
The Bamba/Babwisi had wanted both the incumbents, Jolly Tibemanya (LC5) and Harriet Ntabazi (Woman MP) to retain their seats.
However, during the NRM primaries in October last year, the duo lost. They accused the district NRM electoral commission of being bribed to make them lose and as a result decided to run as independents. But they still lost.

The Obudhingiya Bwa Bwamba (OBB) big-wigs in the area were not happy when Tibemanya and Ntabazi lost. They looked at this as a challenge to their newly installed kingdom because they suspected the flag bearers to be backed by the Bakonzo. This created fear among the supporters of Mutegeki and Babungi.

It became a bitter pill for the Obudhingiya to swallow because they thought Mutegeki and Babungi were not in support of the Obudhingiya. This saw the Obudhingiya Bwa Bwamba deputy premier, Rev Tomasi Kamuhanda, and chief elder Fulgensio Bamwitirebye start campaigning for the independents; Tibemanya and Ntabazi.

It, however, raised concern among some Bamba/Babwisi who questioned the manner in which the cultural leaders were getting involved into partisan politics.

The duo would then go to 93.0 UBC Voice of Bundibugyo to openly campaign for the independents. Despite it being a government Radio, the flag bearers were allegedly not given airtime, which hurt some Bamba/Babwisi.

On December 12, 2015, six clans of the OBB cultural institution petitioned prime minister Wilson Mubulya over his failure to warn some kingdom officials who were playing the politics of divisionism, hence making the institution political rather than cultural.

This left the institution divided because some of the clan heads who petitioned were relatives of the NRM flag bearers and could not bear being discriminated during functions of the institution.

These clan leaders have since fallen out with the institution, something that has created fear among the Bamba/Babwisi who think that this institution could collapse.

One of the clan leaders who has fallen out with the institution, told Sunday Monitor on condition of anonymity that people have not realised why this institution was installed.

He says it has been used by some officials as a family property and that they are using it to create divisionism.

“How do you tell people that there could be war if at all Tibemanya and Ntabazi are not re-elected? This is unfair because people have their own rights. Some officials even claim that they are the ones who brought this institution.

So how do you expect such a cultural institution to stay longer?” he asks.

However, the spokesperson of the OBB, Rev Geoffrey Kyomuhendo, says clan leaders who peddle such information just want to tarnish the image of the institution. He says no official has created division between the Bamba/Babwisi and the Bakonzo, stressing that their major aim is to promote peace in the area.

2014 Rwenzori attack still haunts
Many of the Bakonzo interviewed by this reporter say they voted out Tibemanya and Ntabazi for their failure to harmonise the two tribes during their reign.
During the 2014 Rwenzori sub-region attacks which left at least 90 people dead, the Bakonzo youth known as “Esyomango” attacked the military barracks in Kanyamwirima in Bundibugyo.

Their aim was to show their dissatisfaction to government regarding their “marginalisation” in the district by the Bamba/Babwisi.

The Bamba/Babwisi accused them of plotting to attack their king who had been installed in May 2014, a claim the former disputes. Majority of the people who died were Bakonzo.

When the Bakonzo youth tried to escape from Kanyamwirima barracks, they reached Bundimulombi Trading Centre, Kirumya District, but unfortunately they were killed by people believed to Bamba/Babwisi, who accused them of being rebels. This hurt the Bakonzo so much and they accused Tibemanya and Ntabazi of doing little to rescue the situation.

However, the duo describes such allegations as defamatory and baseless.

After this incident, the Bakonzo vowed not to vote for Tibemanya and Ntabazi as a way of expressing their dissatisfaction. And it’s against this background that the Bakonzo influenced the elections in the district.

There are 38,000 registered voters in Bughendera constituency and about 60,000 voters in Bwamba County. Bughendera is heavily occupied by the Bakonzo while the Bamba/Babwisi dominate Bwamba.

The Bakonzo, therefore, gave a bloc vote to the NRM flag bearers and these votes, coupled with the ones got from Bwamba County, made the flag bearers win the hotly-contested election.

Retired Col Martin Kamya Ayongi, the king of the OBB, is son to the late Yeremiya Kawamara, a Mubwisi who joined hands with the late Isaya Mukirania, a Mukonzo and father of Obusinga King Wesley Charles Umber, to fight against the Tooro dominance in the 1960’s in the famous Rwenzuru movement. The duo wanted to have independence from the Batooro.

February 18 election
During campaigns and after the February 18 election, supporters of Tibemanya and Ntabazi kept on warning that they would attack those of Mutegeki and Babungi if they won. All candidates in Bundibugyo who contested for LC5 and Woman MP are Babwisi/Bamba. The Bakonzo, therefore, did not have candidates on these positions but were supporting Mutegeki and Babungi.

When Ntabazi lost to Babungi on February 18, this shook the OBB institution and the king, Col Ayongi, convened a crisis meeting on February 22 at 10am at his palace in Mirambi Sub-county.
This meeting was attended by more than 500 people and he allegedly said the Babwisi/Bamba must fight what belongs to them.

The king’s message then gave morale to Babwisi/Bamba youth who started mocking the Bakonzo as foreigners who are refugees in Bundibugyo. It is this same issue that has always created bad blood between the two tribes because the Babwisi/Bamba boast that Bundibugyo is their land, something the Bakonzo dismiss as lies.

Obudhingiya speaks out
In a press conference held at the OBB offices on Saturday last week, the institutions spokesperson, Kyomuhendo, said the Omudhingiya (king) did have meetings with his people but noted that they were not political as some people have always alleged.

Rev Kyomuhendo instead accused the Bakonzo for training a militia group, called “Esyomango”, arguing that they are the ones to blame for the recent clashes in the district.

“The public should be in the know that his highness the Omudhingiya didn’t have any influence in such violence as presented in the newspapers. What happened in Bundibugyo weren’t clashes between Bamba and Bakonzo, but it was Bakonzo militia group “Esyomango” who jealously invaded some Babmba/Babwisi homes and started butchering people, burning houses and forcefully evicting them,” Rev Kyomuhendo said.

He further stressed that in all communication and meetings with authorities, they have always informed them about the plans that the Bakonzo have in the Rwenzori sub-region.
Mr Richard Gafabusa, a Mubwisi and MP-elect for Bwamba County, blamed government for not cautioning the Bakonzo youth when it granted them amnesty after the 2014 Rwenzori attacks.

He noted that these people have not realised the mistake they did and that since they are living among other innocent people, they could carry out attacks any time.

To Gafabusa, the cause of the previous clashes between the Bakonzo and Babwisi/Bamba has not been answered.

Rev Kamuhanda faults the Bakonzo from Kasese for influencing the issues in Bundibugyo yet it’s a different district. He says during elections, Bakonzo from Kasese flocked Bundibugyo to support Mutegeki and Babungi, calling it an expansionist move intended to encroach on the OBB.

But Mr Christopher Kibazanga, the MP-elect for Bughendera disapproves Rev Kamuhanda’s notion, saying Ugandans have a constitutional right to traverse the country. He says the Bakonzo from Kasese should not be an issue to discuss but rather focus on how the two tribes could live amicably without clashing.

Security personnel on spot
Both the Bakonzo and Bamba/Babwisi accuse the RDC and police of being partisan. The speaker to the council, Mr Ben Bikopo, says government representatives forgot why they were appointed.

He accuses that the DISOs, RDC and other security agents of failing to stop the OBB officials who were preaching malicious information on Radio, adding that if they had controlled them, perhaps clashes wouldn’t have erupted.

“These people have been making reckless statements but security was just looking on. We tried questioning the RDC but he didn’t give us any answer as to why he couldn’t bring such people to book,” he says.

The chief elder of the OBB, Mr Fulgensio Bamwitirebye, says security agents in the district are instead siding with the Bakonzo.
However, Mr Mucunguzi, the RDC, dismisses both claims as lies, arguing that some political camp wanted to bribe him against the other but turned down the offer because as a leader, he has to treat both people equally.

He adds that investigations are under way to arrest those who burnt houses but notes that the complainants must have enough evidence to pin the accused.

Bughendera District factor

This has been one of the trending topics before, during and after elections. A couple of years ago, leaders in the Bundibugyo Council unanimously passed a resolution to carve Bughendera District out of Bundibugyo.

Mr Justus Bajombe Nkayarwa, who moved a motion for the creation of the district, has since disowned the idea, accusing the Bakonzo of not respecting the Obudhingiya Bwa Bwamba.
Mr Gafabusa says the Bakonzo’s demand for a district is not straight forward.

He says the Bakonzo keep saying they want independence as though they are in bondage, noting that Bughendera County has both Babwisi/Bamba and Bakonzo and that when the latter demands the district in such a way, it remains unclear whether the former would survive discrimination. However, Mr Kibanzanga argues that a district is just a government unit of administration and that this does not mean a particular tribe could stop the other for expressing their cultural rights as the Babwisi/Bamba think.

When President Museveni visited Bughendera during the presidential campaigns, he said it would be elevated to a district status.

About the clashes

The post-election clashes in Bundibugyo were more of tribal than elections. Elections were just a sparking point that revived the past grudges between the Bamba/Babwisi and Bakonzo.
The Incumbent LC5, Mr Tibemanya, who lost to Mr Mutegeki, says he won’t be seeking court redress as some people think.

He has also warned those fighting in his name to cease fire and promote peace and unity in the area, adding that the declaration form for the winner was given to his opponent and that this shows that he lost the election.

Mr Mutegeki, the LC5-elect says unity and peace are the major tools to development and that this could be achieved if leaders respect each other and also espouse the interests of the people who voted them into power.

Asked about government’s take on the post-election clashes in Bundibugyo, government deputy spokesperson, Col Shahan Bantariza, says conflict resolution begins with local leaders. He challenges leaders in Bundibugyo to be neutral while handling such clashes.
He, however, warns cultural leaders against involving themselves in partisan politics since it is illegal and that both tribes must find a way of restoring peace in the area.

The two tribes have different cultural leaders. The Bakonzo pay allegiance to Rwenzururu King Charles Wesley Mumbere while the Babwisi/Bamba pays allegiance to Rtd Col Martin Kamya Ayongi.
The Bakonzo in Bundibugyo have always protested the manner in which the Bamba/Babwisi have wanted to impose their king on them.

This is the same thing which the latter refused when the former’s kingdom was recognized in 2009.