Mengo celebrates Nambooze’s win

Kampala

Buganda Kingdom yesterday welcomed the win of Ms Betty Nambooze in the Mukono North by-election, saying this was a step forward in the cultural institution’s march towards achieving a federal system of governance.

An official at Mengo, the kingdom seat, told Daily Monitor that Buganda must reject “ambivalent” politicians who do not identify with its monarchist aspirations. Though she contested on the Democratic Party ticket, Ms Nambooze identified herself with Mengo during the campaign. “We are encouraging all people in Buganda to go and register and vote for those leaders who subscribe to the aspirations of the kingdom. Those who are undecided about Buganda’s key aspirations will be voted out,” the kingdom’s spokesperson, Mr Charles Peter Mayiga, said.

Referring to what he termed as the key demands of power sharing under a federal system of government and the unresolved land rights question, Mr Mayiga said, “they run away when crucial anti-Buganda decisions are being taken in Parliament and we are saying those MPs should not be returned.”

The two issues above remain at the heart of the current icy relations between the central government and Buganda. Mr Mayiga said the result “has brought a smile on our faces because she has been in the service of the king for a very long time and she has paid a huge price for the kingdom including being abducted by the State”. “Her victory to us seems to be the voice of the people saying we appreciate what she has done for the kingdom and they are sending her to serve the king at a wider forum,” he said.

Mr Mayiga, however, was conscious of the existing law which forbids cultural institutions from engaging in partisan politics. “For us,’ he said, “we do not support any given political party but Buganda’s aspirations. Whichever politician subscribes to those aspirations is guaranteed of our support”.

Ahead of the Tuesday election in which Ms Nambooze beat the former area MP and ruling party candidate, Rev. Peter Bakaluba Mukasa, observers suggested that the Mukono North poll could provide indications as to whether Mengo’s position will influence next year’s elections.

But the government downplayed this thinking yesterday with Information Minister Kabakumba Matsiko saying: “If you have been in Uganda, Mengo has not supported the National Resistance Movement but the people of Uganda still support us on merit for what we have done for our country. I know that come 2011, they will vote for the government including NRM MPs.” She, however, said the government is still talking with Mengo about its demands.
A number of the current 80-plus Buganda MPs were reluctant to speak on this matter yesterday calling it “very sensitive”. It was Kawempe South MP, Mr Ssebuliba Mutumba, who found the voice to speak up in support of Mengo’s position on Ms Nambooze’s win. “We do not have to pretend that they do not have their views and aspirations as MPs or any other leader should not pretend to serve Satan and God at the same time. You are either with them or not,” he said.

Meanwhile, the NRM yesterday conceded defeat and congratulated the DP candidate.
“The NRM wishes to inform its members and the general public that it presented the Rev. Peter Bakaluba Mukasa, the former MP for Mukono North Constituency as its candidate … NRM now informs all that it accepts the … results of the elections as declared by the Electoral Commission,” read the release signed by party spokesperson Mary Karooro Okurut. “NRM now challenges the opposition to provide credible evidence of bias in favour of NRM on the part of EC during this just concluded elections or else they forever keep their peace.”