Govt asks King Mumbere to rebrand, reject Yiira State

What you need to know:

It is now five years since government troops attacked the palace of Rwenzururu king Mumbere, leaving more than 100 people dead. Mumbere remains under house arrest in Kampala, with 153 of his royal guards freed, but another 79 remain in jail. Jerome Kule Bitswande engages kingdom premier Joseph Kule Muranga on how the institution has soldiered on.

It is now five years without the king, how are you managing?
We had clashes that led to the death of more than 100 people and the arrest of so many others, including the king and acting prime minister, who were taken to Kirinya Prison [in Jinja]. But the king, his prime minister, and four minors were granted bail in 2017, while another 132 kingdom loyalists were also released in January this year. But we are moving on and have made tremendous progress.

What exactly caused the clashes?
The cultural institution was doing what it thought was right, but they were acting in total disregard of the law of the land that stipulates that all cultural institutions are under the jurisdiction of government. They can’t decide on collection of taxes and can’t raise a militia, among others. But there were some people who thought as an institution, we could create our own independent state, what they called the Yiira State. Our cultural institution is not the only kingdom that has assumed a lot of powers, including arresting people, killing others, collecting taxes as the kingdoms had before the creation of the 1995 Constitution.
So, some people, especially those who had been in the mountain, thought that when our cultural institution was recognised, it would assume such powers. This is what accounts for the clashes that happened in 2016.

Are you saying the push for Yiira State was a Rwenzururu agenda?
No, it was not! Our cultural constitution doesn’t talk about a state within a state, but to some people, the thought still lingers. There are even some old men who attacked me when I told them that this cannot work. So those fighters from the mountain were pushing for this agenda.
They were saying: “We fought, we fought!” and couldn’t appreciate that the Yiira State was a shattered dream. So, they kept on preaching the gospel until it erupted into a confrontation between government and the kingdom.
By the way, even in our cultural constitution, we don’t have royal guards; they just appear in the rules and guidelines. They were just simple people to carry out a few activities during royal functions just like those of Buganda. They were not even meant to hold any weapons. So, we, the elite, knew what the constitution allows us to do but the misconception of our old people is what caused us the clashes.

Why didn’t the elite educate the old men?
Generally, there was no education of the masses. And by the way, before the recognition of the kingdom, we proposed a committee of all ethnic groups in the region led by a magistrate. They were to educate the masses about the cultural institution set to be restored. We even dedicated a Shs800m budget for the drive to take two years, but this never happened. This is why many of our people remained confused.

So how are you correcting this misconception?
We are now working on educating our people. We have printed the kingdom charter and constitution, and are encouraging our people to read them. These are the guiding documents of the kingdom. I was surprised that even some of our kingdom officials didn’t have the constitution. This is the reason we had royal guards massively recruited yet government was supposed to provide them.
We are also engaged in negotiations with government so that we resolve this matter. We believe we need to forgive each other and move forward.

What would you forgive each other about?
There were two ‘heinous’ sins that happened and could have been avoided. The first mistake was for the cultural institution subjects to attack government installations, especially military barracks and police posts. Why attack and kill people who are not against you? After that, government looked at the kingdom’s loyalists (royal guards) as enemies. The second mistake was for government to send troops to surround the palace. The people are not armed; you know they are not a threat. You could have left them in the palace, cut off water and food distribution, cut off food supplies and cut off electricity. These people would have surrendered. But because the soldiers were scared, they thought the loyalists had magical herbs, they threw bombs into the palace to cause an unnecessary bloodbath. You kill people in 100s. It was a massacre!

But Gen Peter Elwelu [who commanded the raid] believes he took the right decision
He is just justifying his actions, but according to military tactics, you can’t kill people like that. Even when the [National Resistance Army] NRA was capturing Mbarara [Barracks under Tito Okello regime], there were some soldiers who still belonged to the other government, they were surrounded and supplies were cut off until they surrendered because of hunger and thirst. Why couldn’t they do the same here? You have all the sophisticated weaponry against people who are wielding pangas [machetes] and knives and then you decide to kill them summarily in hundreds? No, you can’t operate like that! That is why we are saying let us reconcile because two wrongs don’t make a right.

Rwenzururu kingdom premier Joseph Kule Muranga

So where have the negotiations reached?
In the negotiations, we were tasked to denounce the Yiira State, and you saw how Nyabaghole (Queen) ably did that. We were also tasked to rebrand the institution so that people appreciate what it is. This is the reason we have since worked on our guiding documents. We are also setting up structures similar to those of other cultural institutions in Uganda.

We have also tasked government to build a residence for the king. So far, five acres of land have been procured by government and once we finish titling that land, the Ministry of Defence will commence construction.
We are also asking government to establish a ministry to specifically look at the challenges within the Rwenzori Sub-region. This area has suffered conflict for about 100 years but there has been no deliberate government effort to rehabilitate, demobilise and reconstruct the community.

Why can’t government just reconstruct the demolished palace?
The king cannot return to the same place where there was a bloodbath. It is a taboo in our culture. So, that place will never house the king any more, we could turn it into a museum or something else. As Banyarwenzururu (Rwenzururu subjects), we shall develop that one.

So, what has the prime minister been up to since the crisis?
Well, we are managing! Since 2016, a big number of royal guards and the king have been released on bail. We are also still negotiating for the release of the others. We have put up the prime minister’s office at Buhikira Royal Hills. We are also constructing his private residence in Nyangereka in Hima. We are also running a Green –Rwenzori Campaign so that we mitigate the effects of climate change and global warming.
With a lot being done without the king, is his return still urgent?
It is still completely necessary that the king returns home.
There are some functions such as the coronation anniversary that have not been celebrated ever since he left. The people are also craving to be with their king.

As his second in command, I would be engaging him more if he was around but these days, we only communicate by phone. It has also become difficult for me to raise funds from the subjects to run the kingdom because they demand their king returns home first.
We also have proposed income-generating projects such as establishing a cultural village at the Royal Hills to boost our tourism, and establish irrigation schemes on our rivers to boost food production. We have also designed a 25-year development plan for the kingdom, but all these can only be done once we have stabilised.

So, when is the king returning to his kingdom?
I can’t say that. When His Majesty will reunite with his subjects is purely at the discretion of the government. But we continue negotiating to have this process expedited. Covid-induced lockdowns also affected our negotiations because shortly after the release of the first batch of royal guards, another 48 were set to be released but the process was halted.

How is the king being taken care of?
We are not doing anything for him. Government is in charge of everything, including his housing and feeding. We thank the government for that but in any case; it is government holding him there.
Any plans for the widows, orphans and loyalists languishing in poverty?

As a kingdom, we don’t have any resources to support those families, but we have written project proposals to different development partners. We hope they materialise so that these families get some relief. We also want our youth to be pre-occupied in economic activities to avoid being idle and easily manipulated.
Last words

What is your message to the sides in the conflict?
Those who died cannot return, and government cannot be wished away. Each side should appreciate its mistakes and we reconcile and move forward. But government should give some compensation to families that lost their loved ones both on the side of the kingdom and government because both sides lost people, most of whom were breadwinners.

Your last words?
I appeal to our people, especially those of us in the kingdom Cabinet, to work towards making the institution more relevant to government and the community. We need to focus on being actors in the socio-economic transformation of our people. I also ask government to revitalise Kilembe Mines and Katwe Salt Factory and construct the airport so that they can be employed. This will reduce redundancy in our communities.