When this year started, I made it a point to finally visit the Twekobe, Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi’s palace in Mengo.
As someone who leaves in close proximity, I have always wanted to visit the decades-old palace, to see what lies beyond the huge perimeter wall. Well, sit back and relax as I tell you about this official residence that was home to King Freddie Mutesa until 1966 when the palace was raided by government troops and the king was forced into exile in Britain, where he died in 1969.
Twekobe’s history is written in both beautiful and painful patterns. Outside the palace, visitors are welcomed by serene, manicured gardens dotted with benches, open to the public at a modest fee of Shs 1000.
Visitors are required to register their details before heading to the tourism office, where a tour guide is assigned. After the standard welcome: “Webale kukiika mbuga, sebo,” (sir, thanks for visiting the palace) a young lady welcomed me with a smile and Elvis Ssekibuule was assigned to me as my guide for the day.
The tour begins right inside the office where portraits of the previous kings of Buganda are displayed.
“This was the first portrait to ever be taken in Uganda,” Ssekibuule said, pointing at the displayed photograph of Ssekabaka Mutesa I, who is remembered for inviting the first European missionaries to Buganda, paving way for today’s Uganda.
For the uninitiated, ‘Ssekabaka’ is the title reserved for a deceased Buganda king. The next photo on display is of “Ssekabaka Mwanga II, who is remembered for punishing the Uganda martyrs”.
Ssekibuule explained that in the kingdom, they don’t say that Mwanga killed the martyrs, but rather punished them because in that era what they did (refusing to denounce the White man’s religion) was disrespect for the king.
Other photos include Buganda’s current king, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II, his wife Nnaabagereka Sylvia Nagginda, princes, princesses and the previous presidents of Uganda. We are joined by tourists from Kenya, who are assigned a separate tour guide.
Ssekibuule explained that the history of the palace dates over 140 years, when the palace was first constructed in 1885 under the reign of Mwanga II. The palace adopted the name Twekobe, loosely translated as coming together, which symbolized the unity of the then 52 clans of Buganda – “Under the reign of Kabaka Mutebi, the bigger clans were subdivided and now we have 56 clans,” Ssekibuule said.
Today’s modern structure was constructed between 1922 and 1933 under the reign of Ssekabaka Daudi Chwa. Visitors are only allowed to admire the beautiful Twekobe from outside, not inside; only the kabaka, his visitors and housekeepers are allowed inside.
The Kabaka currently uses this former residence as his office. It is also where his throne (Namulondo) is kept. Seated on 260 hectares of land, the Mengo palace – olubiri – is surrounded by a perimeter wall constructed in the early 1950s by Uganda Clays. Apart from the main Twekobe residence, the lubiri has various houses occupied by more than 50 families that serve in the palace, as well as soldiers who provide security.
“These are mainly UPDF soldiers, because the kingdom is not allowed to have a personal army,” Ssekibuule said.
However, unlike the Kasubi tombs, where all the people who live on the premises are royalty, the people living in the lubiri have no direct connection to the Crown; additionally, there two schools within the palace walls, owned by Buganda kingdom (Lubiri High School and Nnaabagereka Nursery and Primary School), as well as extensive grounds that host massive festivals, expos and concerts.
Next to Twekobe is an old Rolls Royce seated on the track set of a Daimler and a Cadillac, which all belonged to Ssekabaka Mutesa II, giving visitors a glimpse of the affluent lifestyle Kabaka Mutebi’s father enjoyed.
“The Kabaka had so many other cars including a Bentley,” Ssekibuule said. “He was believed to be one of the richest men in the region during his time.”
Sadly, most of the kings posessions were destroyed during the infamous 1966 raid on the palace by Idi Amin Dada under instructions of then prime minister (later self-declared president) Dr Apollo Milton Obote, following his fallout with Mutesa II.
Obote went ahead and abolished all kingdoms in Uganda. Monarchies were only reinstated in 1993 by President Yoweri Museveni’s government.
“When the palace was attacked, most of the king’s belongings were destroyed. Many of his cars were burnt. Others were smashed using tractors and buried in the ground, and many were sold off,” Ssekibuule said.
The king’s wealth was reportedly mostly generated through revenue collected from his kingdom and serving in the Grenadier Guards of England.
“He was a trained military man.” Next to the Rolls Royce is the display of a military cannon to remind visitors and palace dwellers of the darkness that engulfed the kingdom after the 1966 invasion.
After 1966, Obote turned the entire Mengo establishment – including the administrative Bulange buildings and Twekobe, as well as the palace grounds, into army barracks that the Obote, Amin and Museveni armies occupied until 1993.
Ssekibuule said the cannon displayed in the palace was gifted to Amin by his friend, former president of Libya, Colonel Muamar Gaddafi.
INSIDE THE TORTURE CHAMBERS
One of the more painful things during my visit was the slope down to the infamous Amin torture chambers, where at least 25,000 Ugandans reportedly died during Amin’s eight years’ regime.
As I walked down a narrow path that leads to the chambers, I could almost hear the wails and screams of Ugandans who lost their lives in that place at the hands Amin’s soldiers. The ‘dungeon’ was never part of the original lubiri; it was an Amin creation.
Ssekibuule said after Amin captured power in 1972, he hired engineers from Israel, who constructed the chambers as an armory. Amin would later use the chambers to extract information from those he suspected to be against his regime and these ranged from politicians and lawyers, to intellectuals, businessmen, religious leaders and more.”
Although many Ugandans are familiar with Amin’s infamous State Research Bureau that was based in Nakasero, Ssekibuule said the former president had various torture chambers spread across the country, and Mengo was one of them.
As of today, only the torture chambers at Mengo have been preserved. According to Ssekibuule, “Many people who died here did not know that they where right in the city center”, because they were blindfolded and driven around for a while, until they lost sense of direction.
The chambers are made up of five small rooms that would be packed with more than 100 prisoners. The hallway was typically filled with water and prisoners who failed to ‘cooperate’ would be dropped in the water to be electrocuted.
The walls still have visible bullet holes and blood stains, painting a picture of the close-range executions that were the order of the day. The bodies would later be dumped in the manmade Kabaka’s lake, just a stone’s throw away, and others buried in mass graves that have not yet been identified.
Because of this utter desecration of a once flamboyant and prestine palace, Kabaka Mutebi chooses not to sleep in the Twekobe palace, due to the painful, bloodstained memories that are now associated with the place.
Also, traditionally the king sleeps in Twekobe only if his Katikkiro (Prime Minister) occupies the Butikkiro. The Katikkiro stays in Lweza. Mutebi has other palaces around the sub- region, including in Banda, Kireka, Bamunanika and Nkoni, among others.
“Many people are believed to have died in this place, that’s why the king chose not to use it as his official residence,” Ssekibuule said.
THE ROYAL FIREPLACE
On to the lighter parts of this tour; one of the features that stand out at the palace is the Kyoto Ggombolola, a significant royal feature in the kingdom. It is a traditional fireplace, which is not supposed to burn out as long as the current king still reigns.
According to Ssekibuule, the role of lighting this fireplace lies with the Nakinsige clan.
“The fire symbolizes that the Kabaka is still on the throne and it should never burn out.”
The fireplace is lit by firewood specifically from the mutuba (fig) tree, which is also used to make bark cloth.
THE ROYAL MILE
You possibly have heard about the Kabaka’s roundabout and the royal mile. This stretch of exactly one mile from Twekobe straight to Bulange (where the Buganda Parliament and administrative offices sit) did not come by mistake; it was constructed to resemble the royal mile in Scotland.
The Royal Mile has two roundabouts; one inside the palace and the second one at the halfway point, decorated with a gigantic split long drum commissioned by the former executive director of KCCA, Jennifer Musisi.
The king is the only person allowed to drive through the roundabout, as opposed to going around it.
“It is a sign of respect and symbolic; the King [referred to as Lukoma Nantawetwa – unbendable – among other titles] moves in a straight line,” he said.
In Mengo, this public road is called Kabaka Anjagala road and is lined with trees of the same name, or jacaranda in English. Many think that the name of the road is derived from the jacaranda trees lining it, but the reverse is true; the trees adapted the name from the stretch on which they stood.
Ssekibuule said the king used to gift his visitors with jacaranda tree seedlings and they would go home and brag about it: “Kabaka anjagala, olaba ampadde n’omuti! (the king loves me, he has even given me a seedling).”
And like that, the tree came to be known as kabaka anjagala and they still stand proudly along the royal mile, recently punctuated with sculptures of various animals that make up the clans of Buganda.
I actually enjoyed this tourism right in my backyard. There is a lot to see and do in the palace; foreigners even enjoy a homestead experience, learning how to prepare and cook a traditional Ganda meal.
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