Kabaka Mutebi at 30: Success amid turmoil

“Nze nga Kabaka wa Buganda, Siribatiiriraranga (I as the Kabaka of Buganda, I will never forsake you,” Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Kimera Mutebi II, the longest reigning king of Buganda, and the 36th among his predecessors, swore at Naggalabi, Budo as he raised a spear as part of the rituals of his first coronation.

Whereas Kabaka Mutebi this past week made clear his powerlessness while marking 30 years of his kingship, Mr Stephen Lwetutte, a human rights lawyer based in the United Kingdom, reckons there is a lot that Buganda’s reigning monarch should be proud of.

“His reign has been a delicate balancing act and no mean feat to achieve,” Mr Lwetutte says.

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Throughout his kabakaship, and working with four katikkiros (prime miisters) in Joseph Mulwanyamuli Ssemogerere, JB Walusimbi, Dan Muliika, and Charles Peter Mayiga; Kabaka Mutebi has sought only the strictest fidelity to hard work. He believes it is only through great effort that Uganda’s quest for a federal system—commonly referred to as federo—will reach a logical conclusion. 

READ: Buganda stronger as Kabaka marks 30 years

In rekindling his demand for this special status, Kabaka Mutebi risked opening an old wound that saw Milton Obote fall out with his father—Kabaka Mutesa II—in 1966. This culminated in Kabaka Mutesa II’s exile in 1996 and abolition of all kingdoms—including Buganda—a year later.

“Obote had a misconception that the existence of Buganda and other kingdoms was hampering the unity of Uganda,” Mr Israel Mayengo, a former minister in the Buganda Kingdom, says, adding, “There is generally a thinking that Buganda threatens the existence of the powers at the centre.”

Ms Joyce Mpanga, a senior monarchist, says the return of the kingdom included frantic negotiations and coordination between the supreme council and the central government. Along with Ms Mpanga, other members of the supreme council were Paul Kavuma, Joseph Musoke, the Namasole of Kanyanya, and lawyer John Katende. The latter offered an office where meetings were held.

Mr Nelson Kawalya, a former Buganda Kingdom health minister and speaker of Lukiiko (Buganda parliament), vividly remembers the frantic negotiations between both parties. 

He particularly remembers when then Ssabataka (crown prince) Mutebi and his designates almost failed to convince the central government to green-light the restoration of Buganda Kingdom.

“Some government officials said let there be a kingdom but with no authority. And because the kingdom had been abolished 27 years before 1993, government officials thought the ordinary Muganda, especially youth, would remove the king themselves,” Mr Kawalya says, adding, “People with such thinking backed our side.”

No friction

Interestingly, the kabakaship under Mutebi II has largely pulled in the same direction with the central government insofar as breathing life into sectors such as health, education and agriculture is concerned.

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In the 1990s, when Ugandans refused to immunise their children against polio, the kabaka’s reassurance to his subjects proved pivotal, and the vaccination exercise was accepted. In its 2022/2023 budget, Buganda Kingdom announced it was setting up three Level-IV health care facilities in Buddu, Kyaggwe and Ssingo. 

Already the kingdom is running Kalasa Health Centre IV in Makulubita Sub-county, Luweero District, and Nsangi Health Centre IV in Nsangi Town Council.

Through the strategic plan 2009-2015 and under the theme “Buganda bulamu” (Buganda is life), the Mutebi kabakaship showed just how intentional it was about transforming the health situation of its subjects.

Elsewhere, the Mwanyi Terimba campaign is widely acclaimed for reigniting the once upon a time floundering cash crop that is coffee. The kingdom is also engaging in agricultural extension services through a nonprofit, Buganda Cultural and Development Foundation (BUCADEF).

An avid jogger, the kabaka has also been keen on sports. The revival of two football tourneys—Bika Bya Baganda and Amasaza Cup—has had a unifying effect as has the Kabaka’s Run, which is in the 10th year of its staging.

Hollowness
Yet despite all of this, a deep sense of emptiness that was projected in Kabaka Mutebi’s speech marking the 30th anniversary of his accession to the throne abounds. 

“The kingdom is around but it is not as it should be,” admits Mr Mayengo, adding, “Much of its life was never returned with it. There is no regular income. We act like a charity. We are running a skeleton administration and this has affected us to get to greater heights.”
Mr Jonathan Mwesigwa Ssekiziivu, the author of a book titled Federalism: The Most Suitable Form of Governance for Uganda, alleges that a cabal of criminals who feign allegiance to the kabaka have complicated things further.
The land question also remains a thorn in the kingdom’s proverbial flesh, with its own land board accused of evicting kabaka’s own people in various areas of Buganda. This is after the Buganda Land Board (BLB) leasing away land that has been previously under use by schools or health centres. In the area of Makindye, Kampala, the BLB has been accused of refusing to renew some leases and officials taking over land.
Among administrators within Mengo itself, there is visible divisionism with the council of bataka (clan leaders) sometimes complaining about being subsumed by the katikkiro. Early this year, they took their issues to President Museveni in a meeting put together by Ms Joyce Ssebugwawo, a junior ICT minister in the central government. Remarkably, they asked President Museveni to purchase land for them to erect their headquarters yet much of the land in Buganda is owned by the kingdom.
 

Role in education 

There is a deliberate move by the kabaka to improve education. In March 2020, Kabaka Mutebi, through Katikkiro (premier) Mayiga, sent proposals imploring the central government to include local languages, agriculture and Information Communication Technology as compulsory subjects in the Education ministry’s curriculum.
Buganda Kingdom’s footprint at all levels of education is also remarkable. From Nnabagereka Primary School to two secondary schools in Kampala and Wakiso; right through to a technical Institute (Uganda Royal), a vocational institute at Bbowa on Bombo Road and Mutesa I Royal University, the kingdom cannot be accused of being a passive observer. Add the thousands of education bursaries Kabaka Mutebi has given since 1993 and the picture that emerges is of a kabakaship keen on formal education.