Inside plan to reconcile Kaliro with Kyabazinga

The tensions only subsided in 2014 when then Speaker of Parliament, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, sought President Museveni’s intervention. The intervention culminated in Busoga’s 11 hereditary royal chiefs electing Prince Gabula on August 23, 2014 before he was crowned as substantive Kyabazinga on September 13 that same year.

Mr Kagoda says he is interested in a united Busoga because he has a “very strong and firm history” of the former Kyabazinga, the late Muloki.
“At that time, I was a youth leader, and we were moving throughout Busoga. There is no area in Busoga that has never received the late Muloki,” he says. He adds that he equally had a strong relationship with the late Prof Nadiope Gabula “who is the father of the present Kyabazinga.”

Mr Kagoda says he moved together with Prof Gabula when he assumed the office of junior Tourism minister. 
“So now, I am using that knowledge and history to mobilise the rest of the Balamogi to appreciate that Busoga has 11 chiefdoms and Zibondo (Wambuzi) is one of the 11 chiefs.” 
Other hereditary chiefdoms include Kigulu, Luuka, Bukono, Busiki, Bugweri, Bukooli, Bunya, Bunyole and Butembe, each with their own chiefs. 

Busoga Kingdom attorney general Alex Luganda says this perceived kyabazinga-Kaliro rivalry is a topic that is always discussed in hushed tones, but Mr Kagoda has succeeded in lifting the veil.
“He has openly discussed unity and the need to work together. I think all institutions need to work like that,” Mr Luganda reckons.

Progress
Mr Kagoda says the division is not real because the people of Kaliro have been moving to Kamuli. There have been intermarriages and a shared business bond. He says his engagement to see that Bulamogi works with the rest of the kingdom has also seen the people of Kaliro accept whatever comes from the Kyabazingaship, which wasn’t the case before. 

“During the Covid-19 pandemic, the kyabazingaship sent maize flour (posho) to Kaliro District, but it was rejected. However, last year, when 1,000 hand hoes were sent, they were well-received by the people of Kaliro, and they are demanding more 10,000 hoes from the Kyabazinga,” Mr Kagoda reveals. 

Mr Kagoda further explains that Ms Kadaga, now the First Deputy Prime Minister, who doubles as the Kamuli District Woman lawmaker, is also being well-received in Kaliro District. 
“For 10 years, Ms Kadaga couldn’t step into Kaliro District, she had been maligned as the one who took the lead in ‘hijacking’ the kyabazingaship,” he says.
He adds: “But she has visited Kaliro District three times and thousands of people have turned up.”
 
The speaker of the Busoga Lukiiko (parliament), Mr George Mutyabule, says the storm over the kyabazingaship has calmed down. He further explains that by the end of this year, the kingdom has been charged with mobilising resources to renovate Prince Wambuzi’s Palace in Bulamogi chiefdom as a heritage site and “in recognition of the brotherhood and harmony amongst the 11 hereditary chiefdoms.”

Subjects speak out 

Mr Yusuf Kisira, an educationist from Bulamogi, says the chiefdom lost valuable services for some years after some selfish individuals tried to drag it into resistance. 
“We are talking of connectivity and bargaining power. We need the Kaliro-Kamuli road tarmacked so that we cross to Kampala through Kayunga. So, we can’t afford to lose the Kyabazinga as our father and voice. It is a family and as usual, family differences come, but are sorted out,” he says. 

Ms Ruth Nabirye, a resident of Kagulu where the oracles and rituals are done, says they work together with Balamogi from Nawaikoke, and therefore, issues of leadership have been overtaken by events. 
She adds: “Nawaikoke in Bulamogi, Irundu and Kagulu in Bugabula remained business partners; the few who had smuggled the Kamuli-Kaliro rivalry into Busoga Kingdom affairs are now silent and ashamed because blood will always be thicker than water.”