Kings seek meeting with Museveni over Kasese killings
George Kyaligonza, UKCLF general secretary
Kampala- Traditional leaders under their umbrella body Uganda Kings and Cultural Leaders Forum, are seeking audience with President Museveni to discuss the Rwenzori clashes and continued detention of the Rwenzururu king.
The secretary general of the forum, Mr George Kyaligonza, yesterday told Sunday Monitor at a press briefing at Hotel Africana in Kampala that the leaders have drafted resolutions they seek to present to the President regarding the clashes.
Mr Kyaligonza said the leaders are also urging government to expedite investigations and accord a fair hearing to all people involved in order to restore harmony in the Rwenzori sub-region.
“Therefore, it is in this interest that the kings and cultural leaders seek to meet the head of state over the Kasese clashes,” reads part of their press statement dated December 3.
Mr Kyaligonza said the leaders are seeking audience with President Museveni because of the mounting pressure from their subjects about the imprisonment of Rwenzururu King Charles Wesley Mumbere.
The presidential advisor on political affairs, Mr David Mafabi, welcomed the move by the kings to meet the President as a step in the right direction, but quickly added that the outcome would rest on the kings’ agenda for meeting the President.
“As President, he is supposed to meet everyone with an agenda, but for this particular request, we need to find out if it is representative of every institution in the country or it is made up of only a few people,” Mr Mafabi said.
Mr Henry Ford Murima, the Uganda Kings and Cultural Leaders Forum press advisor, said the kings and cultural leaders are aware that King Mumbere could have committed some mistakes but are seeking the President’s pardon.
Mr Murima regretted that whenever the cultural leaders talk about the killings in Kasese, some government officials accuse them of politicising the issue.
“I know that these killings could have been avoided if the soldiers who commanded the attack had been professional enough,” Mr Mirima told Sunday Monitor in Kampala.
Mr Mumbere was arrested at his Buhikira Royal Palace in Kasese Town by the Uganda People’s Defence Forces, in a joint operation with the police and was airlifted to a high-security detention facility at Nalufenya in Jinja, following fresh clashes that rocked the Rwenzori sub-region last weekend.
