Ex-Katikkiros join Opposition

Kampala

Two former Buganda Kingdom prime ministers (Katikkiros) have joined the Opposition coalition, the Interparty Cooperation. Mr Joseph Mulwanyamuli Ssemwogerere and Mr Dan Muliika yesterday announced that they had taken “a well-informed judgment” to join FDC president Kizza Besigye in a nationwide campaign “to help Ugandans take charge of the governance of their country”.

The two officials made the announcement at the launch of Dr Besigye’s mobilisation campaign for Buganda region at Pope Paul IV Memorial Centre in Kampala. “It’s not a decision that I have come to lightly or without massive soul searching,” Mr Ssemwogerere said.

“I have quietly travelled widely across Buganda and Uganda. I have sounded out peers and opinion leaders from various native nationalities and across the spectrum of religious and political belief,” said Mr Ssemwogerere, who was Buganda’s Katikkiro from 1994 to 2006. “Everything I have seen and heard; all the materials I have read have compelled me to take a step forward; to stand up and be counted because Uganda is in need of positive and constructive change,” he added.

Mr Muliika, who succeeded Mr Ssemwogerere as Buganda Premier in 2006 and served for 11 months, said he took a decision to join the IPC in order to help the oppressed people of Uganda set up a new democratic system of governance. The IPC is a loose coalition of five opposition political parties fighting to overthrow President Museveni’s government.

Mr Ssemwogerere, who is credited for steering Buganda Kingdom right from its restoration and rebuilding its structures and image without a whiff of internal controversy, told the gathering that included UPC Secretary General Fred Bossa and JEEMA’s presidential candidate, Hussein Kyanjo that time to change the country’s top leadership has come. He added that change cannot come if all the enlightened individuals in the country remain on the sidelines.

Do our part
“We have to engage in the struggle to bring change in this country. All of us have to do our part and I have decided today to come up and do mine,” he said. Mr Ssemwogerere said he had already tendered in his resignation from his position as special adviser to the Kabaka in order to take part in active politics and that the Kabaka had given him the nod.

He pointed out poverty, corruption, poor infrastructure, declining education standards, lack of drugs in hospitals and inequitable resource distribution as some of the reasons that have compelled him to oppose President Museveni’s government.
“Is Uganda a country in which all of us, our children and many generations to come live and will live in freedom and harmony?” he asked an ecstatic crowd, who retorted with a ‘No’ response.

The two officials made it clear that their first victim will be Dr Badru Kiggundu’s-led Electoral Commission which they accused of incompetence and rigging in favour of the ruling party-NRM. They advised Ugandans to go and register to qualify as voters in the next elections.

Rescue power
“We must fight to return power back to the people and establish our own system of governance that has the mandate of all people,” Mr Muliika said. “I request the IPC to sit and write a manifesto which we shall all support. We have been changing governments through guns and stolen votes but it’s time to do it through democratic means.”

While Katikkiro, Mr Muliika in 2006 invited Dr Besigye to Bulange, Mengo, to pay homage to the kingdom officials and enlist their support. During the event, Lt. Ramathan Magara, a security operative, shot into a crowd of Dr Besigye’s supporters, killing two and permanently maiming a third. He was sentenced to a 14-year jail term by the High Court.

At yesterday’s event, Dr Besigye sought to resurrect the Bulange tragedy. He described Mr Ssemwogerere as a “good friend” and Muliika as “a fellow witness in the 2006 fatal Bulange shooting” and thanked the two gentlemen for joining the struggle. He promised to grant federal to all regions of Uganda and also return the Buganda property if elected into power in 2011.

“I wish on behalf of the FDC and IPC to unequivocally pledge to pay all the outstanding debts owed to the kingdom,” Dr Besigye said. “I will re-open CBS and pay appropriate compensation for illegal closure by the government and ensure that the Kabaka enjoys unfettered freedom to move within his kingdom.” The FDC leader, however, explained that his pledge does not mean that Buganda will be accorded a special status to enable it have a hegemony over other communities.