The recently-published plan to redevelop the 200-acre Kabaka’s palace (lubiri) in Mengo, Kampala, has drawn mixed reactions, with prominent Baganda either critical or tightlipped about it.
On November 29, Buganda Katikkiro Charles Peter Mayiga used the Buganda Investment Forum at Serena hotel to unveil plans to turn the lubiri into a modern facility with leisure parks, a teaching hospital, five-star hotel, conference center and education complex.
The plan also includes a new and modern Twekobe, (Kabaka’s house), with the old one – built in the 1950s – becoming a museum. Mayiga was upbeat that investors would provide the money needed for the redevelopment.
“These projects will be done under a joint venture and we are looking for partners to invest with. The kingdom will provide the land while the investors will contribute the other resources,” said Mayiga, as quoted by the New Vision newspaper.
This is the second such plan for the palace. In 2008, the then new katikkiro JB Walusimbi announced redevelopment plans that included an airfield, but he left before implementing them.
Critics claim Mayiga’s plan is inconsistent with Buganda’s tradition of consultation before any major project is undertaken.
“The biggest problem with institutions like Buganda kingdom is that it has so many stakeholders with divergent views and elongated cultural norms which must be safeguarded,” Mukono Municipality MP Betty Nambooze Bakireke wrote in an open letter to Mayiga – suggesting that Mayiga had only consulted a few businessmen.
Former katikkiro Dan Muliika said besides the official palace (Twekobe), the lubiri had other houses with different functions. For him, any development of the lubiri should aim at rebuilding such specialized units.
“There is no reason why you should bring up a plan before it is discussed in the lukiiko [traditional parliament] so that all people are given an opportunity to contribute,” said Muliika, whose confrontational relations with the Museveni government contrast sharply with Mayiga’s strategic-engagement approach.
“It means that now you’re emulating the ‘Above of Uganda [President Museveni]. All the mistakes committed by Uganda’s ‘Above’ stem from the fact that he thinks he is the only one who is knowledgeable.”
Muliika said that traditionally, Buganda used to make her decisions through various councils: “Subject the plan to the people’s contribution and we will not have any quarrel if the people endorse it.”
Like Nambooze, Muliika said he was concerned about norms that govern the palace.
“For example, when you go to the palace with your wife, she ceases being yours the moment you approach the palace gate,” Muliika said, wondering whether such norms would be protected if a hotel were built in the palace.
JUST A PLAN
Some of the other prominent Baganda appeared hesitant to speak for or against the plan. Former Katikkiro Joseph Mulwanyammuli Ssemwogerere said he would comment once he got more details.
Omutaka Namwama, the head of the Kkobe clan, also declined comment on the “tough” issue. He referred us to Omutaka Kayiira Gajuule, the Mbogo clan head, who speaks for all clan heads.
But Kayiira said: “We will be meeting next week and I can’t comment [on it] now until we have finished meeting as clan heads.”
Contacted for a comment, Buganda information minister Noah Kiyimba suggested that the critics’ concerns were premature.
“The katikkiro is going to talk about those issues in details in the next Buganda Lukiiko that will sit in January next year. But what was presented was just a plan that awaits people’s views only that it was misrepresented to appear as if we were inviting investors to come and redevelop the palace,” Kiyimba said.
He added that the katikkiro was acting on a report by the Francis Kamulegeya committee, which was appointed by the Kabaka to look into the redevelopment of the palace.
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