Thanks for the good wk dear RK.

Please a llow me some space for a few expressions- I rarely write here...but am getting concerned at the excesses of this dictator,M7.

As a person who worked with M7 at his state house for 6 good years 24/7, M7's current actions against Buganda's ministers and the Kabaka are based on his dominant low opinion of the Baganda as a people.

From his Luwero and post-Luwero dealings and intractions with the Baganda, M7 used to tell us, his closest staff viz,　ｔhat the Baganda were:

-The most cowardly tribe of Uganda
-The most opportunistic to a level of prostitution and self betrayal/destruction
-Agendaless (irrespective of level of education or Royalty)
-And would never ever rule Uganda for a single day

These statements M7 used to 'rightly' make them every time after Royalists like the late Mugwanya and Omulangila Mulondo brought him reports at state house,about the weaknesses of Kabaka Mutebi, almost daily after midnight, right from the early 1990s.

The Baganda officials used to come to state house to backbite and defame their own king before M7 for money and government posts,including the Kabaka's own young beautiful sister (a former school teacher), by the name Ndagire, to whom was delivered 4 million shillings bi-weekly from M7 after he'd had his way with her. Things for the Kabaka were not made any better by the opportunistic defection of prof Nsibambi to the NRM,whom M7 in his absence refers to as an educated idiot!!

In all,this is the message embedded in M7's arrests to the Kabaka and his Baganda.

"I know you are cowards and the first arrests of a few of your loud-mouthed but toothless ministers will send you kneeling before me for clemancy"...(READERS WATCH BUGANDA'S RESPONSE TO M7'MOVE)!!

"As you may know, I,M7 have a low opinion of your Kabaka and society because I know all your weaknesses...opportunism, materialism and betrayal of each other...I, M7 know that within 48 hours,some Muganda will have come here to sell me information about the Kabaka and the plans of his cabinet, which I will use to blackmail Buganda and its so called king, who is always at my mercy".

I bet you readers, from my personal experience with M7 and Buganda,this is what is rotating in his bald rusting head, after ordering these arrests, because from the best of my knowledge and personal experience, this is how the dictator views Buganda, its Kabaka and society-LOWEST OPINION!!

I remember,it's the same way he used to view UPC under Cecilia Ogwal. Ms Ogwal (Like the late Mugwanya,late Price Kimera,late Kabaka Mutesa's young brother former diplomat in China-Mpisi?? later found poisoned in Fairway hotel) Mulondo,Mr. Mulwana,Princess Ndagire,Mr.Kakungulu (son of late Kakungulu, the late Kagodo,to name but a few,) used to make lots of noise from Uganda House and Lira, but many Ugandans didn't know that from 1992, up to the end of the Congo war, Ogwal was always locked up in routine secret meetings with M7 at state house every Friday at midnight. When M7 once offered her the post of Vice President before Kazibwe took it. During the Congo war, Ogwal was making noise against the war,while she had the biggest tender of supplying maize and beans to the army both in Congo and the North...M7 used to laugh any time we showed him an article with Ogwal making noise against the NRM.

M7 had wanted to make Ogwal VP to blackmail her and UPC just as he has done to Nsibambi as PM to blackmail the Kabaka and Mengo.

That is what he continues to do with the Kabaka and Baganda, I wonder how many people in the Kabaka's cabinet have the eyes to see this now-It seems even my former lecturer Apollo Makubuya,the brilliant lawyer can't smell the coffee and make a decisive move for Buganda to follow prof Mamdani's advice and join other branches of the Ugandan society to fight this NRM dictatorship before it obliterates the kingdom.

I don't live in Uganda, but I grew up in Buganda in a Muganda's family. My personal humble view is that so long as Buganda continues to blindly seek selfish agenda's from the rest of the country,it will continue facing difficulties with every central government, if Amin and Obote's examples have not provided any relevant lessons hitherto. I say this because history and contemporary trends seem to indicate that no Ugandan-non Muganda would support/tolerate the emergence/existance of a sovereign state of Buganda.This to bme, is a statement of fact devoid of any bias whatsoever. I am simply using avalable indicators to present an analysis for the predicaments currently facing Buganda in M7's Uganda. I am sure Buganda has seen these indicators in its many complex alliances since independence in 1962, todate, none of which have so far delivered a Buganda state for the Baganda.

The Kikuyu in Kenya who are the equivalent of our Baganda, face the same predicament with equal rivalry from the Jaluo who are the equivalent of the Banyoro.However,instead of seeking a state, the Kikuyu have exploited their central geographical position and the infractural/econ advantage to join politics and relevant security and civil service organs to wresstle power to their side rather than risking being viewed by the rest of Kenya as mere separatists striving to split the country to smaller kingdoms and Fifedoms that could destabilise the regions under revisionism, which Buganda stands to be accused of by myopic dictators like M7.The Sukuma in Tanzania have vented no sovereign designs,which begs the question,why the Baganda of Uganda when the region is thinking in terms of East Africa and the continent in terms of a USA.

Besides, even if it succeeded in attaining sovereignty, Buganda would still, in addition to possible animosity from the rest of the societies of Uganda, have to seek the protection of the British aganst its main historical rival, Bunyoro,as it was in the beginning.

Crafty, maligning, manipulating,intrasigent and a maximising dictactor that M7 is, he knows and banks a lot on these weaknesses and questions, knowing that Buganda and its malliable population (as he perceives it) would never overcome. M7 is, in his evil mind capable of inciting the rest of Uganda against Buganda at genocidal level, if he perceived a demise to his current corrupt and murderous reign.

Readers must have seen a test of my above theory when M7 deliberately promoted the presence of King Iguru of Bunyoro as clear political signal against Mutebi in whose kingdom the Swazi king was being hosted-see the point? M7 deliberately invited the Swazi king to humiliate Mutebi...to show Mutebi how real kings wield real power which he wont have unless he succumbs to M7's whims.

Question is: Which way Buganda?

-Can you (do you have the capacity/audacity to) fight and defeat M7,Bunyoro,Busoga and perhaps the rest of Uganda, to become sovereign, or do you want to maintain respect for yourself within a united Uganda under a functioning and well-meaning Federal Government. Is the time and tide currently in your favour?

Options entail costs that require a cost-benefit analysis,short of which the future of the kingdom and the respect therewith are in the swings, at the mercy of donnor caprice under dictator M7.What is Buganda's take on this situation currently unfolding-remember,M7 has a well laid out ,cronological agenda for you,with a perception that you are cowards and opportunists whom he can easily manipulate,exploit,intimidate, blackmail or simply fight and defeat. Some generals in UPDF have already floated the idea that the time for kingdoms is over and they should be abolished.

Why? -because they are parasites. -after transplanting the population with their balalo mainly on Buganda soil,NRM can now geremandise any elections,so they don't need the Baganda to win subsequent elections.

More public humiliation and blackmail of the Kabaka by M7 remains in the offing as he seeks to dictate to Mengo on how to run its affairs, including how the Kabaka should behave and who should be in his cabinet. May be ISO will even be instructed to vet the Kabaka's men before being appointed;what if M7 demands that the Kabaka himself be appointed by all Baganda through some kind of election or genertal concesus as he has insinuated for the Katikiro. And yes, he can use his guns to decree, basing on his low opinion of Buganda and the Baganda.

Bwana Makubuya,you are brilliant,THINK OF A ROAD MAP FOR BUGANDA AND ITS SURVIVAL BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE. M7 is worse for the Kabaka and Buganda than were Amin and Obote combined. Moreover, in Buganda's next negotiations,let nobody be deceived that any alliance with parties or government will ever deliver a sovereign state of Buganda through any sort/type of agreement. NEVER, from what analysis shows today and showed 'yesterday"!! Look at UPC -Kabaka Yeka alliance, Buganda and Amin's return of Mutesa:-a sham; M7-Lule:-a sham; M7-Luwero people:- a sham; M7-Mutebi:-Byoya Byanswa...So,Buganda with who next and when/what differently? ZERO!! Only a viable federal status as the best modus-vivendi for a stable strong Buganda in Uganda.

The only viable deal Buganda will ever attain is a Federal status. The sovereign/independent state of Buganda, from the facts on the ground today and from historical perspectives will and can only be obtained through "politics by other means". (see Machiavelli...however,be ware,'the Terrorist Act,which M7 has carefully coined around the arrested Ministers and subsequently,the entire Kingdom to scare the Kabaka and other Kingdoms of his ilk)...game over and out Kabisa!!

Please,anyone do remind me if a sovereign Buganda ever results from shere alliances and agreements, if I will still be a live. I will apologise for this wrong analysis.

These are my views from personal life experience reading of dictator M7 who currents reigns over a Buganda and Uganda he despises and willfully enslaves.

God bless you all.

Kahuma

The arrest of those three officials of Mengo and being framed as rebels is to target Kabaka. With out mentioning that group, is to formulate one then they link it to Mengo establishment which is headed by Kabaka. Give it time you will hear.

On "More details on arrest of Buganda officials"
Please people with some military experience, help us understand the notion that Rwanda would need to import arms from S. Africa in order to assasinate Museveni! What kind and how many of these "arms" are needed just to assasinate one individual! Doesn't Rwanda really have arms in its arsenal right now to assasinate anyone they would want to? If some one claimed that Rwanda was importing rams to prepare for war, may be I would buy such an asserstion, but this whole asassination claim that needs buying more arms doesn't carry a lot of water to me. Let someone knowledgeable shed more light on this.
Thanks

Dear Mr. Kahuma;

Thank you for your datailed information on Buganda. Most of your contribution is true. Museveni's aims and objectives are intended to destroy Buganda - completely! It is true and obvious that Museveni hates Baganda more than Obote and Amin combined. It is true that a lot of senior Baganda officials has contributed a lot to the suffering of Buganda and Uganda in general long even before indipendence up to this day. It is sad and shameful to many of us innocent Baganda that our own people are the ones setting the destruction of our region because of material things. Look, how can our professors like Lule, Nsibambi, Makubuya, Bukenya..... be redused to such level of killings their own people for such petty presents? Yes even Lule because you wonder how he joined Museveni to fight for democracy yet it was Museveni who stood the ground to overthrow Lule! Anyway, thank you Mr.Kahuma. It is now entirely up to we Baganda to see beyond our noses and do exactly what is expected from us by sound minded Ugandans. Fellow Baganda, let us join those sound minded Ugandans to retore peace and the respect our country deserve by stopping the madness of Museveni.

Lastly, I would like to remind my friend Mr. Kahuma that the official political line of the Buganda Kingdom, we Baganda know is not about Buganda becoming a sovereign state, it is about Uganda attaining a federal (federo)system of government to those regions who aspire for it OR if possible for the whole of Uganda. Do not forget that Buganda fought for a federal system for Uganda thus the 1962 constitution granted a semi - federal for Uganda because certain regions did not aspire to get a full federal system.SO let us not confuse Ugandans on Buganda desire for the love it aspire to attain for a federal system of governance for UGANDA.

RONALD MULYAZZAWO (LONDON)

Response to Kahuma and Museveni’s perception of Baganda as cowardly, opportunistic and agenda less.

If the Baganda are as cowardly as Museveni perceives them, then why did he not start his war to overthrow Obote from his own area of Ankole? It was the Baganda who paid the highest price for the removal of Obote than Banyankole or any other tribe.

I was in Kampala in January 1986 during the fall of the city, and the first faces I saw of Museveni’s liberators were Baganda children called Kadogos. Museveni and the so called courageous Banyankole were hiding behind these Baganda orphans. These Baganda orphans called Kadogos captured the Lubiri barracks. I used to live in Mengo during the fall of Kampala.

If Museveni despises the Baganda as cowards, then why did he and some Banyankole devise a plot to kill Kaggwa who was their best machine gunner? The answer is because they were afraid of him and because he was a Muganda.The most able bodied soldiers and potential Baganda leaders in the NRM have all been systematically eliminated over the years. The names include Mugabi, who was shot at point blank range by Jack Musinguzi on the orders of Museveni. Ahmed Seguya, Sebyala, Captain Musisi, and many others who were all killed on the orders of the so called brave Museveni. Is the reason for the murder of all these people because they were cowardly Baganda? Not at all. The reason is because these people showed incredible courage in the battle field and Museveni became worried about them as potential rivals.

There is no way Museveni could have come to power without the Baganda’s support. Why did the NRM have to expel nine Baganda military officers all at the level of Captains at one swoop on fabricated charges that they were planning to assassinate the President? The reason was because he was worried about the Baganda. He knows their courage. Those few Baganda who betray their tribe are not real Baganda. Many people call themselves Baganda, but when they are not. Many Banyarwanda and foreigners who came to Buganda in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s are now Baganda. Such people cannot have the love for their adopted tribe at heart because they are genetically not Baganda. These are the ones betraying us now.

The easiest way for one to become a Muganda is to call yourself a Mulangira, i.e. Prince or Princess. This is because Balangira do not have a clan, and therefore their lineage is hard to trace. So people like Professor Nsibambi, Tamale Mirundi,Princess Ndagire,Prince Mulondo,the late Mugwanya,Mulwana, may fall in this category.Jealousy and the love for money can be the motivating factor of even close relatives of Kabaka Mutebi like Kakungulu,Mpisi and even Princess Ndagire to betray their King.Offcourse in every tribe there are bound to be Judases.But it is wrong to characterize all Baganda as such.

It is the Baganda who hid Museveni in Luwero.This shows that the Baganda can keep a secret. A Muganda man in Luwero was tortured and even killed , but he never disclosed to the soldiers of Obote where Museveni was hiding.

If Museveni is so courageous and clever as he claims, then he should remove the gun from Uganda politics. He should let the people say what they want without being intimidated and harassed. He should let police and the courts do their work without being tampered with by his intelligence organizations like the CMI.

Museveni being a great coward, he always hides behind the gun. The so called cowardly Baganda are defenceless.But let both sides be equally armed and then see who is a coward and who is not. Had Museveni started his war of liberation in Ankole, and not in Buganda, he would not have succeeded. I know so many Banyankole who were Obote staunch supporters, who used to celebrate with Obote during the heroes day at Bushenyi, who immediately changed sides as soon as Museveni captured power and are now Museveni supporters.

To say that a Muganda will never rule Uganda for a single day is not for Museveni to decide. Man proposes but God disposes. The greatest weakness of the Baganda is their civility. We intended to play the political game according to the rules democracy. The problem is that our enemies are not as civilized as we. When we hope for fair elections, Museveni only thinks about rigging them. I am a hundred percent sure that if elections are held today in Uganda and in a fair environment without intimidation, Museveni can never win any election, unless he resorts to Robert Mugabe’s tactics. If DP and FDC are not allowed to campaign in Kampala, and their supporters are harassed, how can you then turn around and call their supporters cowards?

A coward is the person who points a gun to a defenseless person, and then claims to be stronger than him. Adolf Hitler killed six million Jews, because they were defenseless and not because they were cowards. This does not mean that the Jewish victims of the holocaust were cowards. Let Germany now attack Israel and see if it can defeat it? In the same way Obote humiliated and killed many Baganda, because the Baganda were defenceless.But the army we used to call strong melted away when faced with an equally armed young Baganda orphans called Kadogos.Just our Baganda children called Kadogos sent Basilio Okello and his forces fleeing from Kampala to Gulu.

Museveni’s military victory was brought about by the fearless Baganda children who were orphaned in Luwero and elsewhere in Buganda. Without their courage and sacrifice, Museveni and his Banyankole and Bahima clique of tribesmen would never have come to power.The people Museveni is turning around to despise as cowards and opportunists are the ones to whom he owes his Presidency.The day you will lose their support you will go as Obote did. It may take longer but it will happen. The Bible says that “by strength shall no man prevail.”

Seezi Sewagaba

Dear RK

Thank you very much for bringing us latest information on the happenings in our country. I wish to comment on a posting by a certain Kahuma who contributed under the heading "more on the arrest of Buganda Officials"; and to generally contribute to debate about the goings on.

Mr Kahuma raised good comments but in his wide discourse clearly himself fails to hide his "contempt" for the Baganda. One such blunder is to misrepresent the aspirations of the Baganda as including having a sovereign state. This could have been expected from any other than a well wisher of Buganda and Uganda as a whole. Buganda has consistently demanded for a federal arrangement for her and other regions, to bring about better accountability for use of resources and allow entities determine their development agendas. You will note that this tendency, while cherished by Buganda for a long time, has gained more prominence over the past few years; obviously because of a wide perception that state resources are increasingly being used by the state for activities that are non-developmental. Consider for example that our taxes are being used to fan regional wars, pay educational and support fees for children of Somali warlords, fund presidential helicopter trips for Congolese war criminals- the list is endless.

That Buganda is currently under siege is undeniable. That this has for long been planned is also a fact for the president has long boasted how he has the means to "cut the Baganda to size" and how he had elaborate plans how to do it. Cut them to size for what? Like some prominent reporter in the East African region commented, the Baganda have given everything and gained hatred and jealousy in return why? It is also obvious that dragging on debates in controversy and arresting law-abiding citizens in their country has been one of the "successful" methods for impoverishing this region. Has any one thought out how many resources and energies the Baganda and other peace-loving people have spent on countering negativity? How many schools, hospitals and welfare programmes would these resources have developed?

Yet current events, saddening as they may be, may actually be blessings in disguise for the common baganda who, mired deep in poverty and despondency, have been deeply asleep. How much worse can things be for a people persecuted for a benign and softie identity? It is ironic and quite disturbing that whenever Buganda brings up the notion of a federation, a deluge of negative emotions spill; to the effect that other regions in Uganda will be marginalized. Yet it does not require a genius to see that this is the only way that the country will catapult economically and socially. Federation does not necessarily mean Buganda getting a special status. Indeed special statuses are only conferred by nature and God and these may actually only be perceptions. It is also not true that Buganda would get a lion's share of the national cake. Resources under a federal arrangement are disbursed in consonance with developmental needs and indeed, such an arrangement may actually benefit other regions better as many of them actually would qualify for "development" or "equity" budgets. It is worth wondering whether the unviable clustering of sponsored "investments" (read criminal and dubious undertakings) in Buganda by the current regime has not been a deliberate plan to attract unnecessary envy and jealousy towards the Baganda who actually do not benefit from them. Why would a patriotic leadership ignore the development of other regions which even the colonialists left in sound shape with functional urban centres? Do people from the other regions therefore have sound reasons to reject a sound redistribution through federation?

While it would be tempting to condemn Federal pessimists negatively, it is perhaps better to look at the general trend in perceptions and thinking in our country. Over the past decade or so, the level of critical thinking and analysis, especially the youth in our country has fallen to pathetic level. One would not expect much to happen differently considering a fossilized leadership, with the youth receiving recycled, cliched and opportunistic inputs from would-be leaders who have not benefitted from foresight, planning and thinking, but are looking at power at all costs. We have reached a level of debating issues academically, simply because we have the means and platforms to do so, without looking at the context and implications.

This is the exact reasons why the Buganda ministers have been arrested because they brought the facts out in a way that would allow the population to see things in better light-"thinking out of the box"

I have been tempted to write to RK, through the editor sir because I feel that it is incumbent on some of our patriotic lot with the means, to bring issues out clearly for the benefit of those who may not have had the capacity to perceive them more objectively although well meaning.

It is also undeniable that RK is now the prime source of info in the region. While some of the data previously was questionable, RK is becoming better everyday-thank you! Furthermore, the contribution of RK to change now and in the future is gross and tremors are certainly being felt in the right places.

Further, to comment about the interesting trip to South Africa by Ugandan intelligence officials to convince the former not to sell arms to Rwanda for clandestine activities in Uganda (if indeed true) This only shows how pathetic the administration in the country has become and how cheap they can stoop to achieve their sinister agendas. There is no doubt that this is a ruse to give a wider dimension to the Buganda issues and criminalize a people. Precedents certainly prove this to be so. Anyone can remember how the president boasted of having spoken to former SA president Nelson Mandela to prevail over the UN decades ago, to prevent Olara Otunnu, a Ugandan then from assuming a high UN Office; on account that the latter had been involved with politicians who ravaged Luweero!. More recently, the reigning SA president Mr Thabo Mbeki was advised by our enlightened leader to throw Dr Besigye out of SA as he was a terrorist. Even cheaper, was the year 2005 phone call from Mr President to George Bush of the USA telling him how there was now incontrovertible evidence linking Dr Besigye to terrorist activities. This was during a presidential campaign period in Uganda. You can therefore see a systematic effort by a client state to get to the bottom of the mud pit, at great cost to the country. To label someone or an entity as terrorists on the international scene, warrants a blank cheque from paranoid set-ups in the West.

For starters, there would be no need for anyone to import arms from anywhere to harm a Ugandan president for the country is awash with free and cheap arms; unless of course, in the minds of the advisers to the demagogue, it requires a world war to remove such a demonic creature from power.

In my next discussion, I will highlight likelihoods and how issues will certainly boomerang on the tormentors in Kampala. I will also advise the great Buganda on the way forwards. The timer to destiny has started counting.

Thank you editor for publishing my comments.

Phillip Tulibasajja
Washington