Bunyoro suit: Queen given ultimatum to respond

According to Mr Dovico Batwale, who is  coordinating the case on behalf of Bunyoro,  their London-based lawyer communicated the development to them after filing a fresh suit that seeks court to award damages to kingdom.

A British Court has given a 21-day ultimatum to the Queen to explain why a case against Britain over alleged atrocities committed against Bunyoro Kingdom during the colonial period should not be heard and determined.

The protracted war between Bunyoro and the British colonial soldiers began in 1893 and ended in 1899 during which Bunyoro claims that more than 2.4 million Banyoro were killed reducing the area’s population to less than 150,000 people.

According to Mr Dovico Batwale, who is  coordinating the case on behalf of Bunyoro,  their London-based lawyer communicated the development to them after filing a fresh suit that seeks court to award damages to the kingdom.

Through Mr Frank Abbey Okello, a lawyer attached to Falcon Legal Consultancy firm in the United Kingdom, the group seeks ₤700 million (over Shs2.752 trillion) in damages. 

However, the group claims that the Queen promised to pay only Shs2 trillion.

 “Her Royal Highness pledged to send reparations through the government of Uganda but they [payments] still remain unclear,” he said. 

Mr Batwale said Britain is responsible for the killing of Banyoro, their livestock, the looting and pillaging of minerals and other resources and laying the kingdom to waste by gazetting more than half of their prime land as forest reserves and game parks.

 This was after Omukama Cwa Kabalega resisted British colonialism.  

A statutory notice seeking reparation for alleged human rights abuses, loss of lives and property was served to the British Government through the British High Commission in Kampala in the municipal courts of Uganda in 2004 through Ms Ayena Odongo & Co. Advocates,  by a 10-member team on behalf of the aggrieved indigenous Banyoro.