[UAH] How to use a dying language to humiliate an ex-sovereign monarch - Comment - www.theeastafrican.co.ke

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While Mwanga's successor, Kabaka Daudi Chwa, did not give the British much trouble, having taken the throne as an infant, his son Edward Mutesa II who reigned from 1939 was different.

At the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the British humiliated Mutesa by seating him among some paramount chiefs instead of where monarchs like the Queen of Tonga who reigned over only a few thousand people were seated.

Returning to Kampala in a fury, Mutesa tried to assert himself but only ended up exiled to Britain.

When colonialism ended in 1962, the Ugandan central government inherited the task of reminding Buganda's kings that they are not sovereign and sometimes this has been done rather too creatively.

In 1966, the government sent the army to arrest or kill Kabaka Mutesa for allegedly hiding a cache of arms in his palace but he fled successfully.

When President Yoweri Museveni took power in 1986, he did not immediately restore the kingdom but the Crown Prince, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi, got busy exercising his duties as head of Baganda elders and receiving open reverence from his millions subjects, who make up a fifth of the country's population.

In 1993, Museveni's transitional government was about to exhaust its extension period in power and could only continue through an election, scheduled for 1996.

It restored the Buganda kingdom and secured the Baganda block vote, but then had to keep reminding Kabaka Mutebi that he is a cultural leader who must keep away from politics.

In 2009, Kabaka Mutebi was scheduled to tour one of his counties Buruuli, also called Kayunga district, where a local chief had declared himself "king" with covert state backing.

But Museveni's government said no to the Kabaka's visit and the worst riots in recent history ensued in Kampala on September 11 of all days, leaving dozens shot dead by government security forces.

Then, last month, the Kabaka toured another county called Kooki where the traditional chief, the Kamuswaga, surrendered his sovereignty to the Buganda king way back in 1896 to become a county chief.

The current Kamuswaga has, however, been getting rather cosy with the central government and is suspected by Buganda to be plotting a breakaway.

Now President Museveni is expected in Kooki at the invitation of the Kamuswaga to launch the million dollar Olukooki dialect project.

Buganda kingdom officials are understandably incensed. They are accusing the president of dividing the kingdom to weaken it. You haven't heard the last of the Buganda kingdom story.