Understanding Mayiga’s message as he marks 12 years as Buganda Katikkiro

On May 12, about 200 guests turned up at Butikkiro, the official residence of the Katikkiro of Buganda on Mengo hill, and sat in the well-manicured lawns in front of the nearly 100-year-old residence with imposing architecture.

They were largely Kingdom of Buganda officials and members of the royal family. Soon after midday, Katikkiro Charles Peter Mayiga and his wife walked out of the residence to the marquee tent. This time, Mayiga wore his official robes along with a red kufi-like cap.

The traditional dancers sounded the drums. One would wonder if they returned home without blisters on their hands. The occasion? The kingdom had invited a few people for lunch to mark Mayiga’s 12th anniversary since Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi appointed him his katikkiro.

There were only two speeches—a keynote address on the impact of his 12 years in office ably delivered by Ronald Mulondo, the youthful Kangaawo (title for Bulemeezi Ssaza chief), and of course a reflective and sometimes grateful Mayiga. A few days later, people from his beloved Buddu county turned up at Bulange to deliver millions of shillings to support the kingdom’s activities in an event dubbed Luwalo Lwaffe (our duty).

Every week, people from the counties turn up at Bulange with funds to support his work. Annually, Bulange collects millions. When Mayiga stood up to give his speech, he asked the DJ to play Juliana Kanyomozi’s hit song, Kibaluma. He put his notes down and started dancing to thunderous applause.

As is often the case in Uganda, people began gifting him money for his performance. It was a joy to watch. It was as clear as day that his speech wasn’t an encrypted message to his detractors.

He was reminding them that after 12 years and given his performances, not on the Kibaluma song, but as katikkiro, was a thorn to the hearts of some people among them must have been a certain central government minister who had taken out a centre spread in a national newspaper, like he usually does every few days, to water down the kingdom’s efforts.

The minister claimed that Buganda, particularly Mayiga and his lieutenants, were only helping the people as a pathway to “capture state power.” But how does galvanising people to grow coffee become an issue that is intended to capture state power?

One would always wonder. Coffee is grown by ordinary people and is exported by different central government licensed companies who must be paying taxes to the central government. The farmers buy inputs and pay for goods and services that grow the economy.

There is no direct financial benefit the kingdom accrues from asking people to grow coffee. None of the millions of dollars from coffee is directly collected by Buganda, except when they give, like during Luwalo Lwaffe, or when some government agencies decide out of their volition to support some of these activities.

In fact, last year, the government contributed Shs 400m to these efforts. If Buganda wanted to capture power, why would the State House Comptroller seek an appointment to deliver money to help mobilise people or buy seedlings?

No government wants to overthrow itself. During these grow coffee campaigns, people are asked to grow food for the household and encouraged to build better houses, take their children to school and health centres when they are sick, immunise them and look after them in the best way possible.

Many parents today send their children to school while wearing shoes, not as a way of showing off but to protect them from diseases. Parents take their children to health facilities when sick, and household incomes have increased because of coffee and other economic activities.

If anyone calls them bad for the country, he is being delusional. He was also accused of encouraging entrepreneurship and education, of all things. Mengo officials owning schools was perceived as an attempt to capture state power.

Across the country, many individuals, including members of the church, the kingdom, and central government ministers, own schools. The real reason private schools are flourishing is because the government has not built or funded enough of them.

If public schools existed, there would be no entrepreneur breaking their back building primary and secondary schools or even universities. And this ‘Buganda nationalism’ can easily be stopped by the government investing in decent public schools.

Mayiga recently launched hospitals in Ssingo and Busiro, and others are being built in Buddu and Kyaggwe. The plan is to build at least one decent hospital in each of the 18 counties. These hospitals are not being built as an attempt to capture state power.

They are demanded by the people. If decent government hospitals existed, no body would be asking Buganda to help. As Kabaka Mutebi marked his 70th anniversary last month, counties got tractors.

Farmers can access the tractors to assist in cultivating their farmlands. Expect more coffee. But one should note that it isn’t about state power when the Ministry of Health, like they usually do, turn up at Bulange to ask the kingdom for support to mobilise people for blood donations, polio campaigns or malaria rollouts.

They understand that people trust the kingdom to deliver. More than 120,000 people turned up last month to participate in the Kabaka Birthday Run, an event which is not a political rally but rather where the message is to deliver messages that would lead to the elimination of HIV/Aids by 2030.

They have been doing this for more than a decade; only those previous campaigns targeted fistula and sickle cell disease. As Mayiga embarks on yet another year as the kingdom’s prime minister, he will continue to work on issues that affect people in Buganda.

He will continue to unite people like he is doing this week in the United States of America, encouraging those in the diaspora to invest some of their money in Uganda.