Towards our independence in 1962, Uganda was still stuck with two divergent contradictions. On one hand, there was what was being lauded as Buganda nationalism vis- a- vis ‘federo’ and the dreams of the ‘nationalists’ who wanted a strong republic on the other hand.
In 1961 there was an election (kind of mock election) and DP’s Benedicto Kiwanuka emerged the victor therefore forming a temporary government and himself named Chief Minister.
Another election was organized prior to independence on 25 April, 1962, and a couple of parties participated.
However, elections were not held in all parts of the country especially Buganda, with the Parliament of Buganda nominating 21 members (all of whom belonged to the Kabaka Yekka party- KY) to the national parliament instead.
The results or victory went for the ‘nationalists’ headed by Apollo Milton Obote and Uganda People’s Congress, which won 37 of the 82 seats. But these seats were not enough for UPC to form a government alone. Therefore it needed “Muungano- a coalition” to form a government.
Benedicto Kiwanuka and his Democratic Party (DP) had also scored a respectable 24 seats. Therefore whoever wanted to form a government between Milton Obote (UPC) and Benedicto Kiwanuka (DP) had to go and “kuvunama- kneel or prostrate” before the Buganda Kabaka- King, Sir Edward Frederick Luwangula Mutesa.
With 24 seats, Benedicto Kiwanuka, was advised to quickly go and meet the Kabaka and seek for his 21 seats.
Ben Kiwanuka answered: “Let the Kabaka come to me if he wants to join my government. I can’t go to prostrate before him!”
A Muganda lawyer named Abubaker Kakyama Mayanja was invited by Milton Obote team and asked to quickly go and ask the Kabaka that UPC leader, Milton Obote, wanted to come and meet him. Daudi Ocheng, a personal friend of the Kabaka, was also instrumental in ‘selling’ Milton Obote to the Kabaka.
Milton Obote before the Kabaka: In front of Sir Edward Mutesa (Obote and his team were ‘on-all-four’) literally begging the Kabaka to surrender his 21 seats.
Milton Obote told the Kabaka: “Sir, I will serve at your whim. In fact after independence, I will resign to give you a chance to choose own Prime Minister!”
According to the Kabaka (read Desecration of my Kingdom by Sir. Edward Mutesa) “Obote was a charming man who was ready to give anything for the unity of Uganda.”
Therefore the KY seats were surrendered to UPC and Milton Obote to form a government which took our country to independence on 9 October, 1962. It should be noted that a certain Yoweri Museveni had not appeared (he was 18 years at independence) therefore everything moved smoothly and often as planned.
But Obote was a canning politician and Benedicto Kiwanuka a ‘real’ Muganda. The Baganda, we often think, erroneously though, that we got everything figured out!
This is where the FIRST LESSON for Bobi Wine and NUP should be drawn from.
Now transpose the situation of 1962 to today and put Bobi Wine and Mathias Mpuuga in that picture. You will definitely see Bobi Wine as Benedicto Kiwanuka and Mathias Mpuuga as Sir Edward Mutesa. And Milton Obote? Will perhaps be Yoweri Museveni.
Ben Kiwanuka had seen the Baganda as ‘his’ subjects to use to the extent of disrespecting and often attacking the person of the Kabaka openly. It is even weird because the Kabaka and Benedicto Kiwanuka had been good friends and often went on holiday together during their school days in Europe!
Where we’re today, Bobi Wine started his ‘People Power’ with a group of none political actors and was advised to include political actors in his movement. One of the actors who came was Mathias Mpuuga a die-hard DP adherent who soon convinced other Baganda politicians to join People Power.
Mpuuga is credited for having a hand in the more than 30 MPs who deserted their old political affiliations and instead embraced People Power which soon metamorphosed into NUP (National Unity Platform).
He is a Buganda royalist and former minister at Mengo (Buganda seat) and a staunch Catholic. He is also a born of Masaka area where most of revered Ugandan opposition politicians come from.
We know now, as I write this, that Mathias Mpuuga has been found guilty, as expected anyway, by a hastily assembled NUP executive committee (NEC?). What it means is that he will be recalled/ has been recalled from his Parliamentary Commissioner position coming a few months after he lost yet another prestigious position of LoP (Leader of Opposition) in Parliament.
We can only speculate what his options are.
It’s true Bobi Wine has won, if it was indeed a contest, in the process losing the soul of the party. That unseen ‘thing’ which keeps great organizations or empires surviving, has been plucked from NUP forever. Now serious politicians may not risk their all for the party.
You don’t wish such a thing for your family and you don’t wish it to any endeavor you’re struggling to put together. I have heard many happy detractors commenting indeed jubilating that “Bobi has shown who is the ‘boss'” and put Mathias Mpuuga Nsamba in his real place.
Folks, politics is not a popularity contest but a battle of wills where even those you think are fools, you work with them for that future goal or objective.
Look at how President Museveni keeps all the people many of us see as rotten. They steal; disgrace themselves even before their own children but he keeps them. He mastered the art of ‘numbers’ and respects experience. He will never fire or retire anyone without a perfect replacement.
If indeed Gen. Kahinda Otafiire was serving under Bobi, he would have been fired several times over. But the man has stayed put with his big mouth, both literally and figuratively, which gives other members in the Museveni organization confidence for the tenure of occupancy.
My people have a saying: “amaziga gente lye’ sanyu lyamalembo- one’s misfortune is another’s happiness!”
We saw; we met and we heard who benefited from this Bobi- Mpuuga fracas. His name is Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba (MK), President Museveni’s most misunderstood first son.
Unless to the an uninitiated, but to a sharp brain, the reaction of Masaka people and the massive turnout to receive MK, told one story: someone had planned to burry Mathias Mpuuga and instead replace him with MK. You may not see logic now, but NUP without Masaka, remains a headless snake.
HOW MK IS SWIMMING IN BOBI AND MPUUGA’S WATERS:
If you saw Gen. MK’s successful visit to Masaka this week, you will definitely feel sorry for NUP and Bobi Wine. Uganda’s designated presidential ‘heir apparent’ was unveiled to Baganda people.
I love Bobi Wine and commend him for ‘offering’ himself to see a better Uganda. I know as you should however that reality is different from fiction.
If you saw MK’s convoy on its way to Masaka (Hon. Haruna Kasolo is a magician; Balaam is a wizard and Tamale Mirundi is a philosopher) you would think twice how you want to be remembered. Power is power and the rest are nothing my friend!
President Museveni worked all his life to get this POWER and now it’s his son MK to wield it. No amount of legislation or citing this law or that law that will stop MK to do whatever it is he wants to do with Uganda.
I was there, nearly 40 years ago, in 1985, and I saw this power. It was MK’s father who brought Masaka to a standstill as he put the final touches on the journey of trepidation and sacrifice that removed forces of hate and reaction from Uganda.
In case you don’t know this: Masaka has a long history of bringing indeed failing Ugandan governments. Said differently, Masaka is the heart of Uganda in many political aspects.
MK’s arrival and speech in Masaka town gave some of us memories of 1985 when rebel leader Yoweri Museveni came and addressed a mammoth gathering having brought a long Prince Ronald Muwenda Mutebi now our Kabaka. It was after this Masaka gathering that rebel leader Yoweri Museveni started getting congratulations from other foreign dignitaries.
So MK simply replicated what his father did.
Those who are even older, recall how Paulo Muwanga and Samuel Mugisha rallied Masaka people into joining the final liberation push in 1979. It was after this speech in the midst of Masaka ruins that Amin’s men who were refusing to leave Lukaya broke up and run away.
Idi Amin’s last announcement on TV before his regime fell was this:
“Banauganda abewangangusa, ne banauganda abaalya munsiyabwe olukwe. Mwe banamasaka ajakubakuba- those Ugandans in exile and those who betrayed their country including particularly Masaka people, I will deal with you!”
That is why in 1985, Gen. Tito Okello Lutwa and Gen. Bazillio Olara Okello including Col. Gud Wilson Toko, did everything in their powers to try and reopen Katonga Bridge. They failed and they were in exile, in a few months, when they heard that Kampala had fallen to the NRA rebels.
So when you hear people like Hon. Abed Bwanika roaring, don’t think he is an old lion with no teeth. He is a Masaka politician therefore with an admired pedigree. Anyone remembers Paulo Semwogerere and Hussein Kyanjo? Those are some of the old boys of Masaka including of course Ben Kiwanuka, Ponsiano Mulema, Maria Mutagamba, among many others.
I have just been reminded that Hon. Mukasa Mbidde (obiter dictum and Chi-Chi) is a born of Masaka and a former headboy of Kabwoko Secondary School.
Ever since he came to power in 1986, President Museveni has always been worried about politicians from Masaka. He knows them very well that is why he kept the quietest of them, Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi, very close to him. He was deputy Speaker; Speaker and then Vice President. No other Ugandan has attained such levels and no other will.
Therefore, whoever advised Bobi to assemble a team to embarrass Mpuuga had no good intentions for NUP as a party. I told you before and I repeat here: people like Mathias Mpuuga Nsamba are never antagonized because they invested a lot of time and money to reach such pinnacles and NOT through jokes!.
BY WAY OF CONCLUSION:
President Museveni will be 40 years in power on January 26, 2026 and getting ready to begin another term running up to 2031. It’s true there is all the talk of MK being on the ballot papers and all that. But a master strategist and tactician like Museveni cannot take that chance.
Hon. Kabanda, Joseph Tamale Mirundi and Frank Gashumba are telling us that their candidate will be on the 2026 ballot. I have talked to an NRM insider and PLU enthusiast and he tells me: “Just know that MK will be on the ballot papers come 2026!”
But when I saw NUP self-destruct, I said, whooo, wait a minute. Museveni is coming back in 2026 why? It is only him who plays such games and no one has found a way to defeat him at them.
40 years in power by Yoweri Museveni is a more interesting and intruding story than MK becoming president and Frank Gashumba named Prime Minister. It is better for me to take this to the grave comforted in the knowledge that I lived in Uganda with a man called Yoweri Museveni.
As Bobi and his Zaake Butebi will be busy fighting the ‘dictatorial’ regime in 2026, I will be busy with my children growing coffee and often looking at the sky to admire indeed laugh at the CLEVERNESS of God. I know He is always up there laughing at our smallness!
It appears that MK’s PLU might evolve into a political party and vie for Parliamentary seats come 2026. If this happens, considering it’s power and unlimited resources, NUP will not be the second party in Parliament. Friends, do the maths!
LAST WORD: “I see some of you here thinking for an ‘alternative arrangement’ for Uganda. Get it in your heads there will be NO ‘alternative arrangements’ for Uganda in a very long time”
– Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (1986)
Adam Kamulegeya
adamkam2003@gmail.com
0779 104 336
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