It was in the middle of the function and the Kabaka had not yet given his speech. The heavy downpour was not going to make anyone move an inch. The subjects had started arriving at the wrought iron gates of the Mengo palace at dawn, queueing so that they are the first to enter to take their vantage positions to catch a glimpse of their beloved leader.
After all, for many people, a pearl anniversary comes once in a blue moon! This was also the first time since 2019 that the public was invited to participate in the annual coronation celebrations. The corona pandemic had changed everything, making coronation anniversaries ‘scientific.’
And for the big number of people queuing up, dancing and ululating, this was no ordinary event. They were not alive when the Kabaka was enthroned on July 31, 1993, at Naggalabi in Buddo. But they have grown up during his reign. They have come to appreciate his position in an ever-changing world.
Of course, those older enough to remember the events of 1966 when the Mengo palace was attacked on orders of Milton Obote plunging the country into turmoil from which it is still smarting itself, seeing their Kabaka celebrate 30 years on the throne must have come with nostalgia.
For those who lived through the 27 years when the kingdom was abolished, they couldn’t have imagined how momentous this occasion could be. How Kabaka Mutebi has been on the throne longer than when the kingdom was abolished. What a day in the Mengo sun!
Many were seen clad in gomesi and kanzus with barkcloth sashes, hats and fascinators for the sophisticated. Some had tears of joy flowing their hollowing faces.
“To see the Kabaka celebrating 30 years is not something I ever imagined,” an elderly man was heard telling a colleague as they slow-walked away at the end of the function, stopping every few steps to let what they had just witnessed sink in.
A surreal moment. Déjà vu!
But it hasn’t been plain sailing these last 30 years. In 2009, the kingdom came head-to-head with the central government, culminating in the security services blocking the Kabaka from touring Bugerere county. Apparently, an unknown individual had been installed in the region as a cultural leader and Mutebi needed permission to visit.
Mutebi refused to succumb to such commands. It resulted into a bloody protest and CBS FM, — one of the kingdom’s political, social and perhaps economic symbols, closed for more than a year.
One thing Mutebi knows so well is galvanizing his people and working in the background to make things work. He had done so to ensure the restoration of his kingdom. He was not going to fold his arms as the kingdom was being decimated. Behind the walls of his several palaces, he worked on having CBS reopened and the relationship with the central government restored.
That work resulted in the return of several properties in 2013 from which people were able to secure leasehold titles in what is famously known as Ekyapa mu Ngalo. Bulange, the administrative headquarters of the Kingdom of Buganda, also ceased being the unofficial headquarters of opposition politicians in the country.
This didn’t go down well with many self-seeking politicians. To them, Mengo had sold itself to their nemesis—the central government. It is hard for anyone to believe that a kingdom as central to the politics of Uganda as Buganda is can survive without some form of a working relationship with the government in power.
It would also not make sense if it slept in the same bed with the opposition. Mengo must tow a middle line. This is what makes Mengo loved and hated by both opposition and ruling politicians. However, many are starting to realize that Mengo is neither for nor against them. What matters is service to its people.
What is important is that the rights of its people are not being trampled upon. That is why the Kabaka in his speech called upon the government to streamline fishing activities around Lake Victoria. He has been steadfast in calling out the government to ensure human rights prevail.
Protecting the environment, if not already done, should be added to his many endearing titles. Service is central to institutions like Mengo, which wield enormous influence yet without resources and power to deliver. Perhaps frustrated by poor service delivery by their elected leaders, many people expect Mengo to do the work outside its mandate.
Buganda has had to survive through the ingenuity of its leaders. Admittedly, people understand Mengo’s position and trust it to deliver so they contribute the little they can and support its commercial arms so it can be able to deliver some of this “mandate.”
It is what perhaps frustrated the Kabaka to use his 30th anniversary celebration to make it known that although the kingdom was restored, the restoration didn’t come with enough power to make the changes that he would like to see. Federalism has for long been the preferred system of governance that Mengo advocates for enabling each region to solve its challenges as it sees fit.
However, federalism has been deliberately misunderstood to mean favour to Buganda. Even though the public has asked for it across the country in commissions such as that of Justice Benjamin Odoki, at the center, it hasn’t been considered in favour of another form of governance.
What Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II may lack in political power to do what he thinks is necessary for his subjects, it is compensated for in the soft power he yields. There is no leader in Uganda as revered as him.
That enables the kingdom to work on some areas such as mobilizing people to grow coffee, fighting diseases such as fistula, sickle cell anemia and now HIV/Aids. Education scholarships and bursaries are issued annually to deserving students.
Successful vaccinations for polio and even Covid-19 are a direct result of the influence the Kabaka enjoys over his subjects. At the end of his speech at Mengo, Kabaka Mutebi urged the youth not to sell their land to become loiterers in the city and think through efforts to ship them off as modern-day slaves doing odd jobs outside the country.
He promised that even though the kingdom is celebrating 30 years of his reign, the best is yet to come. As those words reverberated over a powerful public address system, cameras turned to his main enforcer, Katikkiro Charles Peter Mayiga, who was seen nodding in an apparent gesture of acknowledgement of the enormous task that lies ahead.
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