MPs in talks over Kabaka's powers
By Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda
Feb 20, 2004
KAMPALA - Legislators from Buganda met at Parliament yesterday to discuss Kabaka Mutebi's disappointment at being a king without any powers.
The MPs met in the Training Suite.Buganda Caucus Chairman Tim Lwanga, who also is the minister of state for Ethics and Integrity, chaired the meeting.About 40 MPs, including Vice President Gilbert Bukenya, from the 13 districts of Buganda attended the meeting.
Mr Lwanga declined to disclose to journalists what happened at the meeting.
In an uncharacteristic _expression_ of frustration, Kabaka Mutebi told his subjects at his Banda palace on February 15 that government returned structures to the Buganda Kingdom but not its power.
Mutebi said his lack of meaningful authority has frustrated his efforts to help his subjectsThe Kabaka, according to a statement aired on Radio Buganda, questioned several times the relevance of the kingship that was restored in 1993 after it was abolished in 1966.
He said that he exists only in title and that he has no power to solve his kingdom's problems.However, sources at the meeting said the Kabaka's statement was reviewed and MPs resolved to seek audience with him.
The meeting, a source said, mandated the caucus executive to liaise with Mengo, the nominal seat of the kingdom, over the planned visit to the Kabaka.
The MPs also agreed to hold an internal seminar to discuss the proposals the Mengo establishment submitted to the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC).
The proposals include a federal system of government, return of Kampala to Buganda, powers to levy tax and return of the Kabaka's 9,000sq miles of land.
The MPs said they need a common stand on the proposals. The meeting resolved also to meet with President Museveni to thank him for the developments in Buganda and to ask him to grant the region's demands.A 13-member committee was set up, with each district sending one representative, to work out an agreeable document that would be presented to Mr Museveni.
"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the state."
- Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels - Hitler's propaganda minister
