{UAH} Mengo Should Explain to Baganda Why Mbabazi can be Trusted

Mengo Should Explain to Baganda Why Mbabazi can be Trusted
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"I want to promise you that our government will open discussions with Buganda on the return of Federo and all other Buganda property when it comes to power,"

Amama Mbabazi said on November 9, 2015. He was addressing a rally at the Masaka Golf Course, at the official kickoff of his 2016 presidential election campaign.

As Museveni's key legal advisor, Mbabazi was one of the architects of the plan that denied Baganda Federo in the 1995 constitution.

Therefore, I believe it is fair to charge that Mbabazi has discovered Baganda and their causes only because he needs Baganda to get into the highest office in Uganda. He is not the first one to treat Baganda like a candle—only used when it is dark.

One of the readers of TheBugandaWatch, Ssemwanga spoke about some at Mmengo who told Baganda to follow Obote in the early 1960's. Some got positions as ministers in his government but that did not stop Obote from destroying Mengo and exiling
Ssekabaka Muteesa II. It had all started with the UPC/KY alliance (similar to the current GoForward/DP alliance) Obote urged with the help of those at Mengo who knew that he hated Baganda but looked the other way, telling Baganda to follow him because he had visited Muteesa II, at Mmengo, clad in a kanzu.

Mbabazi donned a kanzu at the Buganda Masaza Football finals game, at Mandela Stadium. He tried, but failed, to place himself near Kabaka Mutebi for a photo opportunity (standing toe-to-toe with His Majesty and shaking his hand like friends). But, alas, this was not to be. Mbabazi arrived too late to be seated where he could get to Kabaka Mutebi as planned.

At the Thanksgiving prayer service for Apollo Nelson Makubuya's appointment as 3rd Deputy Katikkiro of Buganda, Mr. Mbabazi was in attendance and, yes, in some sort of a kanzu.

But what if I am wrong to think that Mbabazi is simply using Baganda to assure his political fortunes? Many people are shaken awake by a sacking—they realize that a former master is unethical as they search their souls over what they did for that master. Maybe Mbabazi discovered after Museveni sacked him in September 2014 that Museveni was mistreating Baganda. It got me asking myself about the evidence.

So, I conducted a quick, unscientific survey of internet news outlets. I searched for reports that quoted Mr. Mbabazi commenting on various topics. I was trying to see whether he had mentioned the words "Buganda," "Baganda," or "Kabaka," to see whether he began paying attention to Baganda causes immediately after leaving the NRM government.

I stopped at 30 reports, because the story kept repeating itself: None of Mbabazi's quotes in the 30 internet reports I reviewed said anything about Buganda, Baganda, or the Kabaka. His present name for Buganda is "Central Region." But now he has gone to the Baganda stronghold of Buddu to say he will return Federo and Ebyaffe to Buganda. Mr. Mbabazi's approach to Buganda seems flat-footed—not clever or imaginative, and uninspired.

To add salt to the wound, I discovered that after living in Buganda for over 40 years, Mbabazi refused to learn speaking Luganda until now (he now has Luganda tutors). He is the only presidential candidate who uses an interpreter during his campaign rallies.

One would have expected Mbabazi to go, first, where it begins for him as a politician: His constituency of Kinkiizi West, in Kanungu District. Imagine how the people of Kinkiizi West, the ones who have sent him to parliament, feel about his choice of places to begin his presidential election campaign. Obviously, Mbabazi does not care about what his people think or feel. He takes the Kinkiizi West vote for granted.

He is also taking the Baganda's vote for granted, believing that the magic words "Federo" and "Ebyaffe" will deliver Baganda's votes. He did nothing for Baganda while in the NRM government and said nothing about them and their causes after leaving the NRM
government. Then he got in the kanzu habit. And then he went to his rally in Masaka.

In my opinion, before Mengo considers guiding the ordinary Muganda to treat Amama Mbabazi as someone who could be a worthy presidential candidate in the 2016 elections, Mengo should do an even more detailed analysis than the one I did and take a stand on this issue based on reasoning and not personal interest,
emotion or desperation.

Mengo owes Baganda a clear explanation why today's Mbabazi is better for Baganda than the Mbabazi who spent 30 years in the NRM government, ignoring Buganda and its causes while, in numerous instances, playing a central role in the planning and implementation of laws and policies that damaged Buganda.

Opinion by; Godfrey Y. Muwonge via Buganda Watch

Link:

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H.OGWAPITI
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"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that  we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic  and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
---Theodore Roosevelt

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