By Dr J. Muwanga-Zake

I sometimes sit back and wonder what went wrong in Uganda, once the pearl of Africa. If only we could lay hands on the cause of the turmoil that sweeps through our motherland, we could possibly see some lit tunnel. That is, as we seek solutions, we must have a clear understanding of our problems.

I present these views from my rather narrow experiences of Uganda, and as a Muganda. Hence feel free to critique and correct my perceptions or better still, give your own - it is only a debate. I will however request you to be true to your feelings and tell the truth and real experiences. I also admit ahead of your further reading that I am part of the problems, and have failed Buganda and Uganda in some ways. For example, I run away instead of seeing to the development of Uganda. Nonetheless, I think we have to debate issues.

My thesis is that Buganda holds the key to stability in Uganda, and that the root cause of Uganda's instability is the disorganisation and weaknesses of political structures in Buganda. We Baganda have failed as a tribe to clearly state our vision to the rest of Uganda. I am not saying that we must lead other tribes or regions. Rather, we must critique our value systems, such as the Kingdom, and the Ugandan constitution in terms of how it relates with our values and regional political leadership. This should not in any way prevent us from belonging to national political parties or from contesting Uganda's leadership positions.

Of course we Baganda seem to be traumatised into believing that values such as the Kabaka cannot co-exist with national interests. What are 'national interests' anyway that exclude a value that one large tribe holds so dear? Wrongly, Ugandan unity is almost made to be synonymous with anti-Kabakaship or denial of one's tribe. Thus we see many Baganda national party leaders or national ministers keeping a distance between themselves and the Kabaka, as if they would loose their national stature the moment they mention that they in person met the Kabaka the other day. The people who caused that trauma however have always started with the King to gain the Uganda presidency! Every Ugandan president had to appear to be doing something for the Kabakaship in order to put Uganda together. Thus, Kabakaship could in fact not only be a foundation for Buganda's but also for Uganda's unity. Of course Ugandan leaders have to appear to be doing something for every tribe - for instance by balancing the cabinet along tribal proportions without clearly saying so. Or need we mention again how Amin and Museveni tried to appease the Langis (of course not the UPC, whose leadership is present in Kampala) by visiting the Obote family at Akokoro?

Thus, leadership in Uganda inter alia requires the support of every tribe, including Baganda whose support appears to be particularly important. In other words, we Baganda have historically supported all Ugandan presidents, who finally messed up Uganda. First, it was the Lukiiko that wrongly imagined that Obote and UPC would be custodians of the Buganda Kingdom! Then, we danced when Amin took power and returned the remains of Sir Edward Muteesa - the largest celebrations for Amin's take over were probably in Buganda. We could not take a stand for the Late Prof. Yusuf Lule or Binaisa, although I think that was an opportune time to correct the political climate, and the Late Muwanga did nothing that would show any fair treatment to his tribe. These three Baganda, educated as they were, were successfully USED as fronts to hoodwink Baganda! The other prominent one, Nkangi who saw the end of Sir Edward Muteesa's Kingdom, is among those writing the constitution and advising Museveni against multipartyism and federo. We allowed Museveni to use Buganda for the war that removed Obote II, and Museveni is reported to have the largest support in Buganda, despite lack of development in the areas that were destroyed during the war.

We even thought that Sir Edward Muteesa, Lule and Binaisa would survive without an army! Remember how we danced "Twagala Lule" facing live bullets - Ssemogerere kept quiet. Museveni (then a Deputy Minister of Defence) was personally among the people who forced us off the streets of Kampala using bullets, and then shortly afterwards he was in the Luwero triangle using the same people he forced off the streets for his war. I hear that one agreement was to return the Kingdom - Museveni thinks he has met that agreement because none [of] us dares to tell him that we would prefer some executive regional powers to Kabaka rather than a cultural Kingdom. Or is this the kind of Kingdom we want? I do not know the answer since the question of Kabaka's powers appears to be under cover even within the Baganda. In any case are we not naïve to imagine that Museveni would command an army that would give power to Kabaka? Put it simply, we need to put our house in order.

One problem I see that forces Baganda to support any upcoming military leadership, and possibly confusing other regions in Uganda and other countries, is that Baganda have become weak due to lack of clarity on and transparency of political systems within Buganda and how these relate with national or executive powers. This is exacerbated by political in-fighting in Buganda. Such weaknesses imply that Baganda have to seek protection, thus supporting any Ugandan leader who can cover up for those weaknesses and protect the King. It is, I believe, due to the same political weakness that we Baganda would mistrust a Muganda president. Hence, we destroy potential Baganda presidents. In that way we end up supporting wrong leaders that have lead Uganda into turmoil. We should thus blame ourselves as much as we blame other Ugandans for our problems.

Buganda is a key role political player in Uganda and sways political direction. Its influence on Ugandan politics is of course the worry of every potential leader, thus leaders attempt to disorganise Buganda once they are in power (such disorganisation messes up Uganda further). Regardless, Buganda can stabilise Uganda by re-organising its political structures in Buganda, so that it stops to wildly support any leadership in Uganda.