Prof warns Buganda over land fights
Mr Badru Kateregga, a professor of history and senior member of Buganda Kingdom Lukiiko (Parliament). Photo by James Kabengwa
What you need to know:
- Prof Kateregga said Lwadda hosts cultural sites for other clans and is sacred in Buganda.
- The Deputy spokesperson of BLB, Mr John Mark Golooba, said the Mpologoma Clan has only two acres, not a square mile as they claim.
Kampala. A professor of history and senior member of Buganda Kingdom Lukiiko (Parliament) has warned that a clique of youth within the Buganda Land Board were openly defying the Kabaka’s orders not to lease land that hosts schools and cultural installations.
He said such greed, selfish pursuits and hostility pose challenge to the king’s authority and if not checked, risks collapse of one of Uganda’s oldest cultural institutions.
Prof Badru Kateregga, who is the vice chancellor and founder of Kampala University, warned: “When because of greed we forget our history, norms and culture, we are not sustaining Buganda. We’re slipping it into crisis. The norm today by those youth is to commercialise everything and make deals from kingdom land regardless of its ritual values.”
“They may lead to the collapse of our cherished kingdom. Mengo needs an Inspector General to look into the activities of these people,” Prof Kateregga added.
Mr Kateregga, who is also the chairman of Mpologoma Trustee Ltd and an ardent financier of kingdom activities, was speaking yesterday following a controversy over the kingdom’s land board decision to lease an important Buganda cultural site at Lwadda in Wakiso District.
The controversy
The site is majorly owned by the Mpologoma (Lion) Clan although other clans also have installations there.
In the wee hours of Monday last week, graders descended on the site levelling the ground for access roads with surveyors planting mark stones.
Prof Kateregga said Lwadda hosts cultural sites for other clans and is sacred in Buganda.
“I personally met the Kabaka thrice and he ordered BLB (Buganda Land Board) to issue our clan with Lwadda land title but they defied because they are looking for quick money,” Kateregga said.
But the Deputy spokesperson of BLB, Mr John Mark Golooba, said the Mpologoma Clan has only two acres, not a square mile as they claim.
“All other clans got titles in names of clan heads. It is only the Mpologoma Clan that missed because our head was away in exile. So the title was written in the names of the Kago, who was resident in the area,” he said.
