The president appoints a cultural ruler an ambassador and the king’s subjects accuse the president of disrespecting the king and his kingdom. But as EDRIS KIGGUNDU found, the president appears blameless.
As controversy swirls over Kyabazinga William Gabula Nadiope IV’s ambassadorial appointment, The Observer has established that Busoga kingdom officials lobbied for the job.
Some of Gabula’s subjects are angry that President Museveni gave their leader a public job, in effect making him a ‘public servant’. They argue that as the traditional leader of the Basoga, Gabula is supposed to be served.
The Observer has learnt that key kingdom figures made the first step towards Gabula’s appointment after it appealed to Museveni for ‘assistance’.
Sources close to State House told us that the ambassadorial appointment was discussed in a series of meetings between the president and officials from the kingdom. Some of the meetings, which were attended by Dr Joseph Muvawala, the Busoga prime minister, and other officials, took place around November last year, while others happened last month.
KYABAZINGA’S WELFARE
In the meetings, the Busoga officials told Museveni that it was becoming difficult for the kingdom to marshal funds for the personal welfare of the Kyabazinga. They said that a fund set up to cater for the welfare of Gabula did not rake in much cash because some of the prominent people from the sub-region reneged on their promise to contribute monthly towards the Kyabazinga’s upkeep.
In one of the meetings, Muvawala said the Shs 5 million paid to cultural leaders per month is insufficient for Gabula. Without any significant regular source of income, the kingdom felt it had no choice but to seek more support for their leader from the state.
Sources told us that the president was shocked but not surprised to learn about Gabula’s predicament. Museveni reportedly promised to find “something” for the king; and he did last month, when he appointed Gabula an ambassador in charge of special duties.
Asked to comment on our information, Justice Forum (Jeema) president Asuman Basalirwa, a prominent Busoga politician, said he was aware that some kingdom officials lobbied for the job.
“It is a shame that we reached this extent of lobbying for a job. We have not failed to look after our king. The problem is that we have weak and inefficient leaders who cannot mobilize Basoga to fundraise for their leaders,” said Basalirwa, who has threatened to sue if the appointment goes ahead.
I KNOW THE LAW
Not that Museveni will be quaking over Basalirwa’s court threat. Officiating at the 78th anniversary celebrations of the Kyabazingaship on February 11 in Namutumba district, Museveni defended his decision.
“I have seen some people criticize my recent decision to name Kyabazinga William Gabula a special ambassador in the Office of the President. As someone who was involved in restoration of kingdoms, I know the laws governing them. I know where a cultural leader can contribute to Uganda without interfering with the law,” he said.
At the same function, Gabula had been expected to publicly comment about the appointment but he did not. We have been told that Gabula’s facilitation and pay will be considerably higher compared to what ordinary diplomats earn.
Unlike other ambassadors, Gabula was also not vetted by parliament’s appointment’s committee yesterday, something that we are told had been agreed upon. Efforts to talk to Muvawala were futile as he did not pick or return our phone calls.
However, in the immediate aftermath of the appointment, he said the kingdom was “grateful to the president”, maintaining that the king will take up the post.
Yet with pressure mounting from Basoga for their leader not to accept the appointment, Muvawala has since kept his statement to the refrain: “we are still consulting.”
To be fair, Gabula is not the first Kyabazinga or even cultural leader to occupy a seemingly political position in Ugandan history. In the 1960s, Sir William Wilberforce Kadhumbula Nadiope III was vice president of Uganda at a time when Edward Mutesa II was the president of Uganda.
However, at that time Uganda was under a federal system of governance in which kingdoms played a leading role in the leadership of society. Secondly, unlike today, there was no law prohibiting cultural leaders from dabbling in politics.
DIVIDED OPINION
The decision to appoint the Kyabazinga as ambassador has split opinion in Busoga. Some Basoga say the king is still youthful, highly-educated and therefore deserves to put his skills to work. Last month, the Jinja district council passed a resolution thanking Museveni for the decision.
Others say whichever way you clothe up Gabula’s new assignment, the fact remains that he will be “directed” by the president. Charles Oweyegha Afunaduula, a former don at Makerere University and a respected opinion leader in Busoga, said the appointment was a humiliation for Kyabazinga to work under the president.
He said: “Clearly the act by the president reduces the stature of the Kyabazinga and makes him one of the workers in his office just as he himself [Museveni] says he is not a worker or servant of Ugandans. Will the Basoga agree that their Kyabazinga becomes a worker in Museveni’s office, which is a landmine of political activity? Is Museveni’s act of appointing Gabula an ambassador a message to Ugandans that it is he who makes and unmakes kings; some kind of king of kings?”
ekiggundu@observer.ug