{UAH} Muliika in new 'change' group

Muliika in new 'change' group

News

Friday, 20 June 2014 00:41

Written by Edward Ssekika

8 Comments

Dan Muliia of Evolution for Human Dignity

Former Buganda Katikkiro Dan Muliika and a group of elders have formed a pressure group to push for a change in regime and political system.

The group, Evolution for Human Dignity (EHD), describes the current unitary system of governance as a 'rogue' model.

Chaired by Muliika, EHD was unveiled at Sharing hall, Nsambya, on June 12. A fiery critic of President Museveni's government, Muliika has been unwavering in his push for federalism and the return of Buganda's ancestral properties.

EHD, which refers to itself as simply Dignity, wants a government based on the current kingdoms, chiefdoms and the traditional 10 districts as at 1962. The group comprises elders from the kingdoms and chiefdoms of Buganda, Bunyoro, Tooro, Ankole, Kigezi, Teso, Busoga, Acholi, Lango, Bugisu, Bukedi, Karamoja and West Nile, among others.

Launching the pressure group, Muliika said they would pursue their goals peacefully.

"I think this is the beginning of real patriotism; we didn't facilitate anybody, but people on their own money, travelled from all over the country to attend this launch," he said.

The idea of EHD came to Muliika when he was katikkiro (premier) of  Buganda. He says he realized, then, the need for a political system that empowers grassroots people to manage their own affairs.

"If Buganda writes a constitution on how it wants to be governed, other kingdoms and parts of the country would follow suit and then we should have a national consensus on how the country should be governed," he said.

Muliika claims he had successfully sold his idea to Prof Dani Nabudere and Prof Ssenteza Kajubi, both now deceased. Other eminent EHD members include Prof Frederick Juuko, a Makerere University law don. Muliika said Uganda's 1962 constitution was supposed to be temporary and provided that after four years, it would be reviewed by a national conference. But it was abrogated before being reviewed.

"It had been hoped that in that conference areas which had missed the federal arrangement would have demanded and got it," he said.

EHD's activities are expected to culminate into a national conference envisaged by the 1962 constitution.

"We shall travel the entire country to sow the seeds of a national conference on how Uganda should be managed," he said.

Muliika complained that Ugandans were no longer citizens in their own country, but subjects of those who want to create empires. Francis Akello, a group member from Teso, said: "We might be looking at one person as a problem, but we might be our own enemies. Why are we manipulated?"

Though the group is not openly advocating a federal system of governance, the group members' ideas on how the country should be governed are akin to federalism.

The group believes it was wrong to abolish federal kingdoms and districts. Uganda today has 112 districts. EHD claims that real power in the districts lies with police commanders, resident commissioners, internal security officers and chief administrative officers, all appointed from the central government.

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