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Controversy about Rukungiri municipality

July 22, 2010

Chairman,

Rukungiri District Council

Dear Mr. Chairman

Controversy about Rukungiri municipality

As you know, I have complained to the President through the Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, the Speaker of Parliament, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament about the irregularities surrounding the upgrading of Rukungiri town to a municipality. I have also sent to you two correspondences on this subject. I have received a response from the Leader of the Opposition. My complaints which still stand include the following:

First, for Rukungiri unlike other towns the Minister of Local Government who has responsibility for towns and municipalities did not issue a notice in advance that Rukungiri town was being considered for upgrade to municipal status. Accordingly, there were no consultations whatsoever between district council representatives and their constituents especially those that are going to be affected directly.

Second, you, as chairman, convened an emergency session of the District Council when you knew that the people who would have sounded the alarm were attending a function in Kagunga sub-county which according to our culture you should have attended.

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Museveni’s philosophy and mission for Uganda

Yoweri Museveni who is a Nilotic-Muhororo was born in Ntungamo district, some forty miles from Mbarara town in southwest Uganda. Just before becoming president in 1986, Museveni was interviewed by John Nagenda. The interview was published in March 1986 in New African magazine. He articulated his philosophy and mission for Uganda. He has been president for over twenty years and he is running again for re-election to another five-year term starting in 2011.

Yoweri Museveni reported that his movement and army adopted a correct political line based on the philosophy that the people of Uganda are sovereign and anybody who is against the people is an enemy of Uganda. He added that the people of Uganda were united because they have common interests – same problems caused by natural barriers and backwardness due to lack of development hence their desire to act in concert than in conflict. Tribalism and religious conflicts were induced by leadership which pushed artificial interests rather than those of the population.

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Exposing silent genocide in Uganda

Santayana reminded us that “Those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it”. We should not forget that Uganda has been recorded as a country where genocide has already taken place (Fran Alexander et al., 1998).

Those who want to prevent genocide in Uganda must study carefully the definition of genocide and then analyze what is going on in their communities because genocide may be taking place slowly, incrementally and silently without being noticed. Ugandans know the type of genocide that took place in Rwanda – the armed killing of targeted groups that took place in 1994. Genocide that takes place silently and incrementally overtime is difficult to detect and much less to condemn. Let us revisit the definition of genocide which has the following elements:

  1. Killing members of the group
  2. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
  3. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
  4. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
  5. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another.
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Why imposed foreign ideas don’t work

When you force a square peg into an object with a round hole you won’t succeed.

You damage both objects or one gets more damaged than the other. Similarly, when foreign projects or ideas, however altruistic or technically sound, are imposed especially quickly on different cultures, chances are they will not succeed and people in the receiving cultures might get hurt in the process. Foreign ideas such as indirect rule, modern birth control and structural adjustment programs that have been imposed on recipient populations have generally run into difficulties and caused suffering.

More often than not people hesitate to accept new ideas for rational reasons. For example, subsistence farmers are generally hesitant to replace old with new seeds for fear that if something goes wrong they might starve. Peasant farmers hesitate to sell their land and start business in towns for fear that business failure might spell disaster for the entrepreneur and his/her family. Poorly educated workers generally hesitate to look for another job especially during economic hard times because should they fail in the new job, they may not get another one or do so quickly. So they stick with what they have regardless of low pay and/or unsatisfactory working conditions.

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Bahororo history – conclusion of the first phase

Bahororo people have led the Uganda government since 1986. When an individual or a group of people emerges from obscurity to prominence – national or international – it is expected that there will be scrutiny sometimes with disquieting revelations. But as they say you cannot have your cake and eat it too! Who are Bahororo and what are their characteristics?

  1. Bahororo people are Batutsi from Rwanda who entered Uganda in the mid-1600s and founded the short-lived Mpororo kingdom in parts of southwest Uganda and northern Rwanda. The kingdom collapsed within one hundred years because of internal feuds among princes. The northern part was absorbed by Rwanda and the southwest part by Ankole. Some Bahororo returned to Rwanda, others sought refuge in Nyakinengo of Nyakagyeme Sub-county of Rujumbura County in Rukungiri district. The rest remained in Ankole or scattered to other parts of Uganda (Buganda, western, northern and eastern regions where many still live) where they continued their herding culture as cattle owners or herders of others’ cattle. Following their incorporation into the Ankole kingdom, Bahororo became commoners/Bairu (slaves). To avoid this categorization, they adopted the name of Bahima in Ankole and Rujumbura. In other parts of Uganda they adopted local names and local languages. However, wherever they are they have tenaciously clung to their Nilotic/Bahororo identity because their men do not marry from other ethnic groups except their own Nilotic group.
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What the next Uganda government must do

I am writing this article on the assumption, inter alia, that:

  1. the new government will muster sufficient political will, genuine and real commitment to raise the standard of living of all Ugandans
  2. Ugandans and their friends and partners will recognize and accept that Uganda is basically an agrarian country dominated by peasants
  3. Ugandans will put the highest priority on meeting the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter
  4. the empowerment of the poor through inter alia mass quality education, healthcare and appropriate technologies will be promoted
  5. external advice however sound will not deliver without support from the nationals
  6. there is a recognition that structural adjustment has been a failure in social and environmental terms and sustaining economic growth
  7. development strategies are home designed, executed and owned
  8. land is life and a basic asset for peasants
  9. the respective roles of the state and the private sector will be redefined in a mutually reinforcing manner
  10. a bottom up approach will be supported through appropriate policies, strategies and institutions
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Uganda must embrace the idea of inclusiveness and compromise

Uganda has reached a political impasse with the potential for explosion largely because of winner-take-all or zero-sum game mentality.

During the campaigns for the 1980 elections, I had the opportunity to talk to the leadership of the three parties because I had gone to school and university with them, reconnected with many of them after graduation, and made new Ugandan friends in the United States, Europe and Africa. I counseled that whoever wins the election should include Ugandans from the other two parties and stressed the need to pull together particularly given the ruinous years of Amin’s rule. The response was lukewarm and nothing came of it. The result was a destructive guerrilla war and overthrow of the Obote II government.

Let me share other experiences and hope that they will help those in present and future leadership positions.

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Uganda’s downward spiral must be suppressed quickly

In my book “Uganda’s Development Agenda” published in 2008 I wrote a chapter comparing independent Uganda with medieval Europe (500-1500 AD). I showed similarities in the low standards of housing, clothing and eating as well as in agrarian economy and low level of technology. Since the publication of the book, I have conducted further research about Uganda and concluded that its problems have gone beyond standard development challenges.

The mounting problems including absolute and relative poverty have been suggested as part of the reasons why many Ugandans have turned to unusual behavior including witchcraft, human sacrifice, excessive alcoholism etc.

A few years ago while on vacation in Uganda, a python was killed in our village. It had to be incinerated and the ashes scattered so that parts of the snake are not used for witch craft. I also learned that cats were disappearing mysteriously because parts of them are used for witchcraft. I had a conversation with a senior citizen in the area who said that people have lost faith or suffered a rupture in institutions that sustained them forcing them to turn to witchcraft.

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Uganda politics is a mixture of religion and ethnicity

I have been involved in Uganda politics at theoretical and practical levels since 1960 when I was in high school (senior two). I participated in district and national elections as a polling officer in former Ankole and Kigezi districts. I was also involved in student politics and the political processes that culminated in the Moshi conference before Amin fell from power in 1979.

At the height of political activities during the 1970s I worked in Brussels (Belgium), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and Lusaka (Zambia), where Ugandans lived as refugees (Lusaka), workers at ECA and OAU (Addis Ababa) and delegates to international conferences (Addis Ababa and Brussels). I moved to New York in the mid-1980s when politics among Ugandans was hot before the fall of Obote II government.

The conditions of my job in these places and my own neutral orientation offered me a unique opportunity to interact with many Ugandans. Throughout these interactions I did more listening than talking and got a feel of Uganda’s political pulse and the forces involved. My literary work about Uganda politics and economics has benefited from these interactions and the knowledge accumulated since 1960.

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When will Uganda become an independent country?

According to Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary independent means, inter alia; not dependent; not subject to the control, influence, or determination of another or others; not subordinate; not depending on another for financial support; self-commanding or self-directing; bold, unstrained and controlling or governing oneself.

After the Second World War, British colonial authorities realized that time had come to involve African participation in colonial administration and to make sure that there was an orderly transfer of power to stable, pro-British governments. The innovative policies designed by Arthur Creech Jones and Andrew Cohen in 1947 represented an attempt to anticipate the growth of nationalism and as the first steps in creating a future ‘informal’ empire. These proposed initiatives were to remain confidential. London was expected to conceal its hand and to “withhold from aspiring colonial politicians the knowledge that Britain had already decided to reward them in the future with political power” (L. J. Butler 2002).

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