Buganda should take Regional Tier - Museveni

President Museveni has admitted that relations between his government and Buganda Kingdom are at their worst ever but has ruled out making concessions to try and break the ice.

In an interview with Sunday Monitor, President Museveni says Buganda’s demands for political power were addressed through the Regional Tier that was introduced as part of the amendments to the 1995 Constitution.
“In the Regional Tier we did the maximum that one can put up without interfering with the other crucial elements because we were mixing decentralisation to the districts and those who wanted some level at the region, some tier,” President Museveni said.

“I think when these people sit down, they will see that Article 178 [of the Constitution] is the most optimal. They may still be having some aspirations [but] I don’t think there is more one can do without interfering with the basic aims of both devolution of power and national integration and regional integration.”

Admits failure
In the interview conducted by Monitor Managing Editor Daniel Kalinaki, President Museveni admits to failure by his government to fight corruption and notes that it is easier to build an army than to develop the capacity to fight corruption.

“Within a reasonably short time you can train an armed force that can deal with this killing, smuggling, poaching and so on. But embezzlement needs different types of soldiers because it is not an overt crime,” Mr Museveni says in the interview. “We could disband Amin’s army and build a new army quickly but you could not disband a medical service and build another one quickly.”

While arguing that “nobody is above the law”, President Museveni also defends his decision to reappoint Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa and former health minister Jim Muhwezi to Cabinet after they were censured by Parliament on allegations of influence-peddling and abuse of office.
Mr Muhwezi is facing corruption-related charges over the embezzlement of money in the Health ministry while Mr Kutesa is one of several ministers being investigated by Parliament over influence-peddling in the on-going Chogm inquiry.

Mr Museveni tells this newspaper that it was not an error of judgment to reappoint the two officials to government and reveals that the NRM government prefers “to aggregate the positive qualities of people and use them to achieve results and at the same time try to suppress their negative tendencies”.

The President also defends his controversial proposals to ring-fence elective positions in Bunyoro region for indigenous people as a “very clever” solution that supports, rather than undermines, national unity.
In the interview conducted this week, Mr Museveni also defends the decision to almost double the number of districts in the country from 56 in 1992.

The smaller districts do not contradict the vision of regional integration, the President argues, and are a small price to pay for the “emancipation” of downtrodden minority groups. The President also speaks out supporting minority groups like the Banyala to establish cultural institutions while remaining opposed to the traditional kingdom of Ankole, his home area.

“People in Ankole are not interested in those kings,” Mr Museveni tells Sunday Monitor in comments likely to rile pro-Obugabe groups in the area. “They are very prosperous without kings. If you want to see people who are thriving without kings, go to Ankole. They are thriving and the truth is they have no interest.

No district council has ever passed a resolution calling for that king to be there. So there is no basis. The people do not need it. They have not shown that they need it. So we cannot allow some of these people to come and impose themselves on these people.”

Click here for interview