Full plate for new Buganda prime minister

Recently, the Kabaka of Buganda formally appointed a new prime minister, or Katikkiro — a young and sophisticated lawyer, Charles Peter Mayiga.

The royal legacy in Uganda is one of the country’s defining characteristics, and Mayiga’s relative youth — he is just in his 40s — is perhaps a sign that the king wants to move the kingdom’s affairs away from a business-as-usual approach to a fresh, more definitive engagement with the State.

Mayiga’s appointment and transfer of power was symbolised by the handover of the Ddamula, the mace of the office of the Katikkiro, which represents the king’s authority over his people. Together with the palace in Mengo, the seat of the king, and the tombs of the Buganda kings at Kasubi, the Ddamula is a defining symbol of the kingdom.

This was the fifth time in only 20 years that the Kabaka has appointed a new prime minister, traditionally referred to as “king outside the palace” or “final authority.” The Katikkiro is charged with running the day-to-day affairs of the kingdom.

Although traditional kingdoms in Uganda do not wield official political power and are limited to cultural roles, they still have a huge role in defining the country’s character.

The Buganda Kingdom constitutes the central region of the country, where about 31 per cent of Uganda’s 35 million people live. The Baganda make up about a quarter of the nation’s population, the single largest ethnic group.

With their cultural influence, the Buganda may be expected to dominate the highest political office, the presidency. But at Independence in 1962, the Baganda were so deeply divided along religious lines that they were too weak to provide leadership and character to the newly created state of Uganda. The divisions were between Catholics and Protestants.

In Uganda’s 50 years of Independence, three Baganda men have held the post of executive president for a combined total of 18 months. Three men from the north held the office for 21 years and one from the west, Yoweri Museveni, has held it for 27 years.

At independence, Buganda’s Kabaka, “Freddie” Mutesa II, was Uganda’s ceremonial, non-executive head of state, but his reign came to a swift, violent end in 1966 when Prime Minister Milton Obote sacked him using army chief Idi Amin, and proceeded to abolish kingdoms and declare the country a republic. The Kabaka escaped guerrilla-style and, after walking through the forest, made his way out of the country. He died three years later in exile in London.

With the abolition of the kingdom, the Ddamula went missing until 1993 when the kingdom was restored, with Prince Ronald Mutebi as new king.

The story of how the greatest treasure in the kingdom was kept safe for 27 years (1966-1993) is yet to be told. It remains part of the secrecy surrounding the kingdom’s inside affairs.

Dramatic escape

The last Katikkiro when the kingdom was abolished, Jehoash Mayanja Nkangi, returned it intact to Kabaka Mutebi. Nkangi had made a dramatic escape from his office on Mengo Hill in Kampala on May 23, 1966, the day the palace was attacked in the bloody coup by Milton Obote, and hid in a madman’s house a few kilometres away for two weeks. By the time he emerged to hitch rides on trucks carrying construction materials headed for the Kenyan border, he must have looked as mad as his host and saviour.

After a brief stay in Nairobi, he found his way to England, where he worked as a university lecturer until Obote was overthrown by the military in 1971.

He kept a low profile throughout the military government until it fell in 1979 and he contested the presidency in 1980 on the ticket of the Conservative Party, the smallest in the race of four. He again kept a low profile through the unstable years until 1985, when the Tito Okello junta made him minister, as did the subsequent administration of Yoweri Museveni.

When Museveni restored the kingdom in 1993, Nkangi returned the Ddamula, which the new Kabaka handed to his first premier, an old comrade of Museveni from Dar es Salaam University in the 1960s, Joseph Mulwanyammuli Ssimwogerere.

And last month, Kabaka Mutebi retrieved the Ddamula in a secret function from outgoing Katikkiro, JB Walusimbi, pending its official handover to the newest Katikkiro, Mayiga.

One factor already distinguishing Kabaka Mutebi from his forefathers is the high rate of turnover of Katikkiros, a clear sign that the modern kingdom, which turns 20 years in a couple of months, is yet to acquire a definite character. Like President Museveni, the Kabaka has had five number twos since he took office.

The choice of the relatively young Mayiga could be an indicator of the legacy Kabaka Mutebi wants to leave. The Kabaka is a cultural leader, so his political will is exercised through the Katikkiro.

The move to restore the Buganda kingdom had been resisted by major political camps in the country before 1993, including the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), and it only succeeded because President Museveni forced it on the Army Council, then the highest authority in the land, before the enactment of the 1995 Constitution.

Partisan politics

Mutebi had supported the armed struggle of 1981–1986 that brought Museveni to power, by encouraging the Baganda to join and assist the guerrilla National Resistance Army. The kingdoms had been restored on the understanding that they would remain purely cultural organisations that must never engage in partisan politics.

But by the time the Constitution was enacted two years after restoration, relations between Buganda and the national government were souring over the limits to the kingdom’s powers and activities. During the constituent assembly debates, the Baganda delegates pushed for an autonomous federal status for the kingdom, called “federo,” as had existed before the 1966 abolition. But they lost when the kingdom’s own Chief Prince, the elderly Besweri Mulondo, who was an assembly delegate, denounced it at the last minute.

The Constitution was, thus, enacted without giving Buganda the “federo,” but provided for a compromise “regional tier” government for the kingdom and any other group of districts that wished to come together under such an arrangement. Indeed, districts in the Busoga sub-region created a regional tier a few years later amid great fanfare, but it seemed to have been forgotten immediately after the ceremony at which the Busoga regional tier charter was signed.

The Buganda kingdom scoffed at the regional tier, which also required that the Katikkiro be elected instead of being appointed by the Kabaka, and continued demanding “federo.”

The reason the Kabaka and his establishment are opposed to an elected Katikkiro is the fear that the central government and any other powerful forces could influence the election and force a premier who may not be totally loyal on the Kabaka.

Kabaka Mutebi’s first Katikkiro, the lawyer-banker turned freedom fighter Mulwanyammuli Ssimwogerere, spent all his 11 years in office negotiating with the central government for the return of Buganda’s “things,” which included properties grabbed by the state in 1966, and, of course, “federo.”

Being an old comrade of President Museveni, Ssimwogerere finally reached an understanding with the government and oversaw the return of many kingdom properties. But when he was on the verge of agreeing to the regional tier arrangement, kingdom conservatives accused him of selling out to his old friend. The Kabaka apparently bought this view, and while acknowledging his premier’s role in building kingdom institutions and structures over a decade, he demanded Ssimwogerere’s resignation along with all his ministers.

Ssimwogerere surrendered the Ddamula, and it was passed on to Daniel Muliika, a man viewed as a radical monarchist, who would tackle the Museveni government uncompromisingly. Well, Muliika did not disappoint and, within a year of his Katikkiroship, communication with the central government had completely broken down. The Kabaka was left with no option but to drop this zealous kingdom supporter.

After retrieving the Ddamula from Muliika, the Kabaka appointed a stop-gap Katikkiro, Emmanuel Ssendawula. After about a year, the Ddamula was handed to a substantive Katikkiro, JB Walusimbi, in 2008. Walusimbi, an engineer, ran his office “scientifically,” establishing several economic structures and restoring the negotiations with the state.

Although the bloody riots of 2009 took place during his time, Walusimbi remained moderate, and finally reached an agreement with the central government on the return of the kingdom’s “things”. But he also appeared bent on accepting the regional tier arrangement, which conservatives and radicals would not hear of. So, he was allowed to retire.

On the eve of the 2011 presidential elections, when the government was ready to return “everything” to the kingdom, a suspicious Kabaka halted the process, saying it would be misunderstood as supporting Museveni’s candidacy.

Last month, Walusimbi returned the Ddamula for handover to the new appointee.

Mayiga, Kabaka Mutebi’s fifth Katikkiro, is a brilliant lawyer, a published author, and a passionate supporter of the monarchy, who has been serving as the kingdom’s information minister. During the 2009 falling out between the kingdom and the state, he was arrested with two other officials and held for a week.

Unlike his elderly predecessors, Mayiga’s sophistication and youth are likely to change the rules of engagement with the state. But that is yet to be seen.

Treasonous activities

Mayiga has been running a weekly programme on the kingdom’s CBS radio, educating the Baganda on their political rights and economic opportunities. He is the first person to be appointed Katikkiro while still having a pending case with the state. He was accused of “treasonous activities” four years ago.

But Mayiga, who has researched and written extensively on Buganda, is also aware of the changing context in which the kingdom operates.

He is known to admire Mutesa I, who reigned towards the end of the 19th century, and invited the missionaries and started negotiations on co-operation with Britain instead of armed confrontation.

The new Katikkiro, thus, does not praise Mutesa’s successor, Mwanga II, who fought bitter guerrilla wars against the British to resist the colonisation of Uganda, alongside King Kabalega of Bunyoro, with whom he was exiled to the Seychelles after the British established their rule over the country.

The most glaring issue in Buganda today is the poverty levels in a kingdom that surrounds the capital city Kampala.

So hopeless is life in much of Buganda that many youth have sold the land of their forefathers and bought boda boda motorcycles to do business. Some girls, who access the parents’ land titles, sell the land to acquire visas and air tickets to migrate overseas.

For a region with great agricultural potential and access to markets, and which has enjoyed peace and stability for 27 years, the neglect of agriculture is a matter of great concern.

The most urgent issues in the kingdom are therefore quite obvious, and the new Katikkiro’s performance will be easy to assess after a couple of years in office.

It will be interesting to see how a Katikkiro who is a passionate believer in Buganda’s sovereignty but also recognises the futility of taking on the superior state authority will go about securing a better deal for the kingdom than his predecessors.