Monday, February 17, 2003
Mengo Could Have a Point
Two weeks after representatives of the Buganda Kingdom presented their views to the Constitutional Review Commission, in which they demanded a federal system of government for Uganda, the country has been abuzz with debate on the subject.
Even though Buganda was only exercising the same right that other contributors to the constitutional debate enjoyed when they presented their views before the same forum, its proposals seem to have touched a nerve.
While calls for "federo" have in the past come from what was perceived to be the ruling clique in Mengo (Buganda's capital), the Kabaka's men pulled off a coup of sorts when, using the kingdom's FM station CBS, they rallied supporters of the cause to mount the biggest procession in Kampala since the presidential campaigns nearly two years ago.
Among Buganda's more sensitive demands was that the country return to the 1962 dispensation � under which Buganda and a handful of other monarchies enjoyed a federal status in an otherwise unitary state � and that Kampala revert to the administration of Buganda.
Predictably, the demands provoked outrage from leading figures in the government, prompting Movement vice-chairman Moses Kigongo to issue a statement reminding Movement cadres that Buganda had done nothing wrong when it presented its views to the CRC.
The issue of federo was obviously getting out of hand and the Movement, which has always dangled this carrot to swing the vote at critical times, did not want to rock the boat just yet.
While Mr Kigongo's edict seems to have stopped unco-ordinated statements from the ruling party for the time being, it is obvious that federo is a question that will not go away.
There have been suggestions that the question be put to a referendum while the extreme view is that the demand represents the interests of a minority clique and should be ignored.
Whatever the case, there are difficult questions to be faced in seeking a middle ground. The reactions to the proposal suggest that Buganda has not quite addressed the fears at the heart of this debate and Mengo must do more to demonstrate that it is not masking demands for feudalism behind its quest for federalism.
Rather than a referendum, it would have been easier and cheaper to put the question to rest through a multiparty election, where those who believe it is a popular cause would campaign on such a platform.
It is quite possible that in the absence of space for political expression, factions with otherwise conflicting interests have jumped onto the federo bandwagon because that is where they find space for expression.
In the circumstances, it would seem there is no running away from the demands of the times. For the Movement and Uganda, accelerating the pace of political reform might be the only feasible way out of the present impasse.
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