Kasese attacks: What next after killings, palace raid?

In ruins. Police and journalists tour the burnt out Omusinga’s palace at Buhikira on after the clashes. Photo by Abubaker Lubowa.

What you need to know:

  • Some sources have told Sunday Monitor that there may be a plan to coalesce cultural leaders within the Obusinga bwa Rwenzururu to come up with a leader to assume King Mumbere’s throne.
  • In doing so, the government may be hoping to isolate the individual, while winning back the hearts of some of the kingdom loyalists.

Kasese- Exactly one week since a joint raid by the police and the army on Rwenzururu Kingdom’s Buhikira Palace and the arrest of King Charles Wesley Mumbere, more questions than answers are still being raised.

Police says 62 people died, but sources both within and outside the security forces, put the death toll at more than 100.

The testimony from a former politician from Rwenzori sub-region, in some ways, gives credence to reports that more than 100 people could have died in the latest conflict.

For instance, the politician claims he was close to King Mumbere’s Buhikira palace and left Sunday night for Fort Portal. On Monday, he says, 90 bodies were brought to Buhinga Hospital mortuary. Others were sent to Kyenjojo and Mubende hospitals because all Kasese mortuaries were ostensibly full.
The deadly raid on the palace also led to the arrest of several people, including Rwenzururu King Mumbere. The commander of the operation, Brig Peter Elwelu, called the Rwenzururu royal guards terrorists.

King Mumbere has since been charged with murder in connection with unrelated death of a policeman in March. He remains detained in Jinja awaiting more charges.

For the better part of the week, police spokesman Andrew Felix Kaweesi has bombarded the media with a narrative that seeks to isolate Omusinga Mumbere from his kingdom.

Police claim he committed the alleged crimes, which the Force says may stretch to terrorism, murder, abetting terrorism and attempted murder as an individual.

Some sources have told Sunday Monitor that there may be a plan to coalesce cultural leaders within the Obusinga bwa Rwenzururu to come up with a leader to assume King Mumbere’s throne.

In fact, Mr Kaweesi hinted on this possibility during a media briefing at the palace on Thursday when he was asked what the State was planning to do with the burnt-out Buhikira Palace the moment it ceases being a crime scene.

“This is the home of the Bakonzo Cultural Institution, Mumbere is an individual who has participated in committing crime, so, we are not closing the Bakonzo Cultural Institution and I think there are others. The cultural leaders will sit and determine how they will manage their cultural centre,” Mr Kaweesi said.

In doing so, the government may be hoping to isolate the individual, while winning back the hearts of some of the kingdom loyalists.

By hastening such transition, if at all it exists, the calculation would be to rally some people who might have had issues with the way King Mumbere’s administration was conducting business, including alleged taxation and brutalisation of some of his subjects.

Read:

Why Mumbere was charged in Jinja

The Rwenzururu king was charged with the March 24, murder of police constable Godfrey Kasimba.

In an interview with Sunday Monitor shortly after the raid, Ms Winnie Kiiza, the Kasese Woman MP and Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, made it very clear that an attack on the Rwenzururu king was an attack on all his followers.

But there is a silent anti-monarchy or anti-Mumbere group that government is said to be courting in an attempt to return normalcy to the restive community.

The army and police have continued to mount operations within and outside Kasese, making more arrests that have added to the more than 136 already confirmed as being held in various undisclosed detention centres.
The security forces seem to have resorted to a two-pronged approach: Instead of only using force against the population that has openly defied them, the forces have also sought to engage the community in some form of dialogue.

Within the army and police, there is a belief, backed by both intelligence and fear that those fighting them have not given up on challenging the State but simply gone into strategic retreat.

The forces also believe that the dissenters have a strong backing from militias mainly in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that the military could have moved on some of the said militias across the border in DRC but Mr Asuman Mugenyi, the police director of operations, denied any attack on DRC soil. He, nonetheless, confirmed the security forces have sealed Uganda’s border.

Kasese District Resident Commissioner James Mwesige has already announced the government’s offer of amnesty to the royal guards who surrender but by the weekend, none had reported to police.

During a December 1 meeting between security officials and local leaders to salvage the amnesty offer, Kasese leaders traded accusations, including creation of non-existing ‘wanted’ lists to stoke fear within the population.

Kasese Municipality Mayor Godfrey Kabbyanga, in an interview with this newspaper, advised leaders to avoid blaming each other and instead concentrate on what will build peace.

“What has spoilt the district is politicising everything good and bad,” he said.

Mr Nelson Mbathulagho, a district councillor representing Bwesumbu Sub-county where many policemen were killed, advised the leaders

Families check corpses to pick out their dead

Ms Mbambu like hundreds of Rwenzori region residents anxious about whereabouts of their missing relatives, paced up to Kasese Municipal Health Centre

“One church elder, Mr Cesi Tibamwenda, was arrested from church and was undressed yet he was a master of ceremonies at a function on the day of the raid,” Mr Mbathulagho said.

Going forward, Mr Sibendire Bigogo, the Kasese District chairman, said leaders should build confidence in the population for a better future other than violence.

Mr Mwesige proposes rehabilitation for the innocent royal guards as a first step for a future peaceful Kasese.

“Those who attacked people and killed them will be charged, but those royal guards who have done nothing, let them come, they will be given amnesty without any charge,” Mr Mwesige said.
Previous attempts to bring peace to the community, including some this year, have not borne any fruits. Will the soft and hard power approach yield fruit? Only time will tell.