![]() |
|
LED BUGANDA: Ssemwogerere |
SIR� Now that Mengo has submitted its proposals purporting to represent the views of all Baganda, it is hoped that all Ebimeeza and Capital Gang will take leave from debating Museveni�s successor and the third term and concentrate on the five demands as Uganda�s political stability and economic prosperity largely depend on them.
I, for one, have misgivings about these demands, from past experience, as follows:
Firstly, prior to the 1900 Uganda (Buganda) Agreement, all land in Buganda estimated to be 19,600 square miles belonged to the Kabaka. In short, the agreement, apart from land which vested in the Protectorate Government as Crown Land, several parcels of the famous 9,000 square miles of land popularly known as �Akenda� were allotted to the churches; the Kabaka; the royal family; the ssaza chiefs and the 8,000 square miles to other chiefs and prominent individuals as private mailo land. (Note that �mailo� was coined from �mile� as 640 acres comprised one square mile). In the event, it was on Crown Land that the colonial government established institutions and towns like Kampala, Entebbe, Masaka, etc. All freehold land granted to churches, the Uganda Company and others was registered out of the said 9,000 sq. mi. The people I have talked to who support the demand for �Akenda� don�t really know where this huge parcel of land is physically located!
In 1962, all the residue of the Crown Land was vested in the Buganda Land Board as public land, which in 1967 was vested in the Uganda Land Commission upon the abolition of the Buganda Kingdom by Milton Obote. The Land Act, 1998, re-vested the same land into district land boards as public land to be administered in trust for the Baganda.
Contrary to this constitutional arrangement, the Baganda�s demand now is that the whole of the 9,000 sq. mi. should be returned and the Kabaka should be the landlord of all land in Kampala, Entebbe, Masaka, etc, from which he will collect busuulu and envujjo (ground rent and royalties, respectively). Is thi!
s possib
le? Why don�t the Baganda first surrender to the Kabaka the 8,000 sq. mi. which they enjoy and hold as private mailo as a sign of great respect and sacrifice?
Secondly, the federo demand is not new because it was granted to Buganda under the 1962 constitution. However, as the rest of Uganda was under a unitary form of governance, which the UPC and DP strongly supported, there was a stalemate that resulted into the 1966 crisis and the famous �Mengo battle� when Obote�s forces attacked the Lubiri and Sir Edward Mutesa fled into exile in Britain where he died. As Prof Ali Mazurui once observed, a square peg could not fit in a round hole.
So federo could not fit in a unitary form of government which, apart from the other kingdoms whose semi-federo status was indeed a mockery, the rest of Uganda embraced.
The questions to be asked are: Will federo this time succeed? What guarantee is there that there won�t be a repeat of the 1966 constitutional crisis?
Thirdly, the 1962 and 1967 constitutions made Kampala and Entebbe special cosmopolitan districts. Hence, in 1962, Buganda established the Mengo Municipality to accommodate the sentiments being advanced now. To demand that Kampala be under the Kabaka, to me, is a mission impossible. Such a reckless demand will never be acceptable to other Ugandans, unless, of course, Buganda is looking for trouble. It is a city for all Ugandans.
Fourthly, will the demand that Kabaka in Buganda be the third after the Vice-President and the President, taking precedence over the Chief Justice, be acceptable to Ugandans? I strongly warn all politicians whether Movementists or Multi-partists against supporting Buganda�s demands in order to gain temporary cheap popularity and political expedience, like Obote did when he supported Buganda�s demand at the London conference, only to throw them away through the window in 1966. I hope that this time round politicians will not take this dangerous and adventurous course and land Buganda and the rest of Uganda into another!
constit
utional crisis.
Kkulumba-Kiingi, Kampala
Published on: Monday, 3rd February, 2003 |
