Kadaga gives chiefs 30 days to pick Kyabazinga

The Speaker of Parliament, Ms Rebecca Kadaga (L), consults the acting spokesperson of the Chiefs Council, chief Yasin Ntembe during a meeting in Bugembe last Sunday. Looking on is the deputy speaker of the Busoga Lukiiko, Ms Florence Biruma. PHOTO BY MOSES OKEYA

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Speaker says she is tired of wasting her time and resources on an issue that has dragged on despite established mechanisms to elect the Kyabazinga.

Jinja- The Speaker of Parliament, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, has given the 11 hereditary chiefs of Busoga Kingdom a month to either elect a Kyabazinga or lose her support.

The chiefs constitute the electoral college that elects the cultural leader.

Speaking during a stakeholder’s meeting last Sunday at the kingdom headquarters in Bugembe aimed at solving the impasse, Ms Kadaga said the chiefs should never involve her in kingdom affairs again if they fail to present a Kyabazinga by August 27.

“Please royal chiefs, without any excuse, I want us to be back here on the 27th of next month when you are showing us a substantive Kyabazinga. This must be done without fail,” she said.

Ms Kadaga said she was tired of wasting her time and resources on an issue that seemed to have failed to reach a logical conclusion despite the fact that the Chiefs’ Council, from which a Kyabazinga is elected, is in place.

“We have had several meetings with the royal chiefs, but nothing ever comes to yield. I am tired. What I want now is a Kyabazinga elected,” she said.

The Speaker said she had on many occasions been used to lobby for funding from government and facilitate the resolution of the impasse that started following the death of Kyabazinga Henry Wako Muloki in September 2008, but those interventions have been futile due to endless bickering among the chiefs.

The stakeholders also agreed that singing of the Busoga anthem and adorning of traditional wear, gomesis and kanzus (tunics) be suspended until a substantive Kyabazinga has ascended the throne.

The acting chairperson of the Busoga Chiefs’ Council, chief Yasin Ntembe, who the public had earlier attempted to bar from making a speech, apologised for the mess that has plagued the kingdom for last six years.

Chief Ntembe said his colleagues had now buried the hatchet and are ready to elect a Kyabazinga.