“Jesus Christ my Lord….how can we explain this? This is what happened in Buganda in 1966 when [President Milton] Obote invaded the Kabaka’s palace…how can it happen in our time…how?” Betty Nambooze, the MP for Mukono municipality, posted on her Facebook page on November 27 hours after the bloody army raid on the palace of Charles Wesley Mumbere, the Rwenzururu king.
Nambooze’s sentiments have been shared by a number of people, including political analysts eager to draw parallels between Dr Milton Obote’s attack on Kabaka Edward Mutesa II’s palace on May 24, 1966 and the 2016 raid in Kasese.
Among them is Dr Sabiti Makara, a lecturer of political science at Makerere University. Makara told The Observer last week that the Kasese attacks had proved that over time Museveni has become a good student of Dr Obote.
“If you are to write a book about politics in this country, what you would say about Obote including his mistakes is the same you would say of Museveni,” Makara said in response to what the president perceived as threats from the monarchs. He said both Museveni and Obote had been egoistic and had used excessive force to resolve something that could have been settled through dialogue.
Until recently when he made up with the Obote family, Museveni had never hidden his dislike for former presidents. Once, Museveni referred to past leaders, including Obote, as swine, blaming them for the political and economic woes that bedeviled the country.
Yet in the wake of the Kasese killings, Museveni’s stinging criticism of the way Obote handled state affairs, including the 1966 Buganda crisis, now looks hollow.
On March 12, 1986, while addressing elders from Acholi sub-region at Acholi Inn, Museveni told them that Obote was foolish to attack the Kabaka’s palace in 1966.
“During the 1966 crisis when Obote was quarreling with Mutesa, Obote’s army massacred many people. If Mutesa is having a political quarrel with Obote, what does the population have to do with it and why kill them? I do not agree with the proverb that when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. If the people are rioting, you can arrest them and put them in prison,” Museveni said then.
In the attack on Omusinga Charles Mumbere’s palace, the grass too has suffered with at least 62 people (the death toll could be much higher), including civilians, confirmed dead.
Conspicuously, more than a week after the attacks, President Museveni is yet to comment about the charging of Mumbere with murder he allegedly committed in March.
THE 1966 CRISIS VS KASESE KILLINGS
In many ways, the Buganda crisis of 1966 and Kasese killings have glaring similarities. Both were sparked off by the intransigence of both sets of leaders, the political and cultural.
Like Omusinga Charles Mumbere and Museveni, Mutesa and Obote could not reach an agreement because of a clash of egos. Having forged an alliance to defeat DP in the 1962 elections, Kabaka Yekka led by Kabaka Edward Mutesa II and Obote’s UPC started developing differences.
First, while Mutesa was the president of the country, it is Obote who effectively ran it because as prime minister; he had executive powers. The Kabaka remained just ceremonial and a figurehead to the chagrin of some of his loyalists. It is these loyalists that started plotting how to dislodge Obote’s government.
In the end, the Lukiiko passed a resolution giving the central government 10 days to vacate Buganda’s land.
“Unless we pass the motion of no confidence in Dr Obote today, he will not understand that we have rejected him and his constitution,” the Uganda Argus of May 21, 1966 quotes a Lukiiko member, Sheik Ali Kulumba, as saying during the fiery debate. Later there was talk that Mengo had stockpiled weapons, which they would use against the national army.
Three days later on May 24, Obote ordered the army led by Idi Amin to invade the Lubiri, leading the Kabaka to flee into exile. Shortly after, Obote abolished kingdoms and declared Uganda a republic.
In the same vein, the latest Kasese killings have been caused by the impasse between Mumbere and President Museveni. For months, Mumbere, who is supposed to be non-political as per the constitution has declined to surrender his royal guards as requested by Museveni to the central government.
With the matter deadlocked, security forces attacked the palace, leading to the death of dozens and the arrest of Mumbere, who, unlike Mutesa, did not have the chance to flee.
Yet long before the Kasese debacle, Museveni appeared to have laid down a marker on how he intended to deal with “stubborn” cultural leaders.
It appeared as if Mumbere had not read the script of the 2009 Buganda riots, where an impasse between Mengo and Museveni led to the death of more than 30 people and the shutdown of CBS, the kingdom-owned radio station.
The riots were sparked off by government’s decision to block Kabaka Ronald Mutebi from travelling to Kayunga, a region under Buganda. In the run-up to the riots, a stubborn Mengo had insisted that the Kabaka would travel to Kayunga while a belligerent Museveni maintained that the Kabaka would not make such a trip.
In the end, the state used its coercive force to put Mengo in line. Don Wanyama, the senior presidential press secretary, said last week that there is nothing to compare between the Buganda crisis of 1966 and the Kasese killings of last month.
He said: “The 1966 crisis was basically a crisis over control of power between Obote and Mutesa II, who was a ceremonial president. It was a constitutional matter. I don’t think Mumbere threatened President Museveni’s hold onto power.
What is just happening in Kasese is banditry that is being promoted by the monarchy. He [Mumbere] is encouraging his militias to attack security installations, police posts. The president made it clear to the king that he had to disband his royal guards because they were militias. A line had to be drawn. This had to come to an end one way or the other. But there is nothing to draw comparisons between the 1966 crisis and Kasese.”
ekiggundu@observer.ug