{UAH} Allan/Frank/Pojim/WBK: Mutebi arrives in Luweero to drum up support for NRA fighters - Daily Monitor

http://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines/PeoplePower/Mutebi-arrives-in-Luweero-to-drum-up-support-for-NRA-fighters/689844-3368456-rcaswn/index.html

Mutebi arrives in Luweero to drum up support for NRA fighters

In late 1985, during the Nairobi Peace Talks between the Junta government of Lt Gen Tito Okello Lutwa and the National Resistance Army (NRA) rebels led by Yoweri Museveni, Buganda Prince Ronald Muwenda Mutebi was secretly flown from London to Nairobi and Kigali and later driven to Luweero Triangle to witness how the war was advancing towards Kampala.

According to Hajj Abdul Nadduli, the minister without Portfolio and a veteran of the NRA Bush War, Mr Museveni in 1985 invited then Prince Mutebi to the Luweero Triangle as proof that Museveni was keeping his word to restore Buganda Kingdom if they captured power. 
Nadduli engaged the rebel leader on the restoration of Buganda Kingdom as early as 1981.

Establishing contact with Baganda
Speaking to Sunday Monitor last week, Nadduli said on his first ever encounter with Museveni, he asked the NRA leader whether he would restore Buganda Kingdom that had been abolished by the Milton Obote government in 1967.

Nadduli recalls that a meeting between him and Museveni was held under a tree in Kikandwa village in Luweero District on February 20, 1981, only two weeks after Museveni launched the five-year guerrilla war.

The meeting was between Museveni and Nadduli only. "Anti Museveni ye yali ampise nga ayagaala kundaba." (It was Museveni who had invited me).

The others could only watch Nadduli and Museveni meet from a distance, including Museveni's escorts. Nadduli then was the Democratic Party chairman for Makulubita Sub-county in Luweero District.

"When Museveni came to Luweero, I knew him as a Munyankole from Mbarara. So when he invited me through his contact, I knew I needed to meet with the Munyankole," Nadduli recalls.

"But those who had led him to the village were people from Lutta [Edidian Luttamaguzi]. They had moved with Museveni from Ssingo to Kikandwa [village]. From there they arrived at Makulubita village because that was where their grandfather Katera was. And that is how I got the opportunity to see him."

Nadduli says since Museveni had been in the intelligence services before, the rebel leader gathered more information about Nadduli than he did about him.

"I asked him why he moved all the way from Ankole to come and wage a war here in Buganda. 'Aren't there any bushes in Ankole?' I asked, to which Museveni answered: 'For a war like this one, if you decide to wage it in Mbarara the enemy can decide to besiege you and you stay there without ever reaching the capital city. You may even lack communication with you contact in Kampala yet you need them for publicity'," Nadduli recalls.

"I also wanted to be sure that he was not working for Obote."
Once Nadduli was convinced that Museveni was honest and that his cause was genuine, he posed the fundamental question in as far as Buganda was concerned: "Munyumba mwoyagaala okugenda mulimu emigugu gyaffe. Onogituwa?" (Inside the house you want to occupy is our property. Will you deliver it to us?)

To which Museveni agreed that after the war he would restore Buganda Kingdom. And that way a deal between Nadduli "on behalf of Baganda" and Museveni was reached.

"I used that as a keyword that Museveni had accepted the restoration of Buganda Kingdom. So I became a chief recruiter," Nadduli narrates.
"And that is why I don't like the way those boys based in Mengo demean us that 'if you belong to the Movement you don't like the Kabakaship', which is wrong."

Museveni meets Mutebi in London
In June 1981, Museveni went to Kenya from where he proceeded to London where he met Prince Mutebi in Prof Yusuf Lule's home.

According to Nadduli, when Museveni reached London, he met Prince Mutebi, Lule, Balaki Kirya, Abu Mayanja and Grace Ibingira.

"It was during the Nairobi Peace Talks that Mutebi was invited to Luweero Triangle to see for himself the progress of the war," Nadduli says.

Mutebi's arrival in Luweero was a surprise to all, except the NRA High Command members.

"We were told to build three huts and also identify spots that had many human skulls and skeletons, as well as villages and towns that had been bombed by the government forces because visitors were coming," Nadduli says.

Mutebi arrived at night. At around 10am the next morning, the fighters were taken to greet Mutebi. He was in the company of Amanya Mushega and John Nagenda. After breakfast, Mutebi embarked on the journey to visit the different rebel camps as well as see where human skulls and skeletons that had been mounted.

"We started off from Kapeeka and then drove through Bulemeezi, Kalege, Semutto, Kanyanda, Masuulita, Nakaseke, Kitebele, Kamuli, Kiwoko and back to Kapeeka," Nadduli says.

Nadduli says he does not remember who drove the Prince, but "I recall that Mutebi was driven in a Land Rover which had a drum full of fuel". Mutebi stayed in Luweero for about a week or so.

When asked to clarify on the talk that Prince Mutebi was invited to Luweero during the Nairobi Peace Talks due to fear that Paulo Muwanga could use his influence as a Muganda to persuade him and other Baganda to join the Junta government led by Gen Okello Lutwa, Nadduli responds: "How could someone who had been with us for five years abandon the struggle to join Muwanga and the northerners?"

There was a mutual understanding between Museveni and Mutebi in 1981 and that was why Museveni invited Mutebi to Luweero.

And because there was fear that things could turn out like 1979 when Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere played tricks as Muwanga prepared for the return of Obote, Museveni wanted to gain the Baganda's trust.

Nagenda invites Mutebi to visit fighters

John Nagenda, President Museveni's senior adviser on media, invited Prince Ronal Muwenda Mutebi to Luweero during the National Resistance Army (NRA) Bush War.

During the war that eventually brought Museveni to power in 1986, propaganda and lies were often used against the fighters.

One such lie was that the Banyankole commanders were oppressing Baganda fighters. A concerned Nagenda, then living in the United Kingdom, decided to do something about it.

"You know exiles manufacture stories then tell each other and then feel very happy. It is the best they can do," Nagenda told Sunday Monitor from his home in Muyenga, a Kampala suburb. At the time he was not a member of any Ugandan exile groups.

‎"So I said to my good friend [the late] Eriya Kategaya, 'Is this true?' And Kategaya said: 'Are we mad? Could we go and mishandle people we are working with within their own country? That is rubbish!' In that case, I said 'can I come and see for myself?' And he [Kategaya] said, 'I could even take you tomorrow.' Then an idea came to me just like that. I don't know where it came from. Maybe it came from God. I said what about going with Prince Mutebi?' 

"So I said to Kategaya, 'can I bring the young Prince?' Kategaya said, 'It's off my back. For the Prince its better I consult first.' Later he phoned me and said, 'he can come.'

"By then, I had said to Mutebi, 'would you like to come?' And I had thought that he would say, 'No. You know what if I am killed?' But he had said without any hesitation, 'Yes, I would like to come.' So arrangements were made. We started off. We went through Nairobi. People heard about it of course, they were excited."

From Nairobi, Nagenda and Mutebi were received by Kategaya.
"Many of them said Nagenda had been paid by the Banyankole to take the Prince and have him killed in Uganda," Nagenda says.

"We went through Rwanda. We took a plane to Kigali, from Kigali we came by car to Kabale." The trio was received in Kabale by Museveni himself. From there, they drove in a convoy of about 15 vehicles. 
"From Kabale, we went to Fort Portal where we met Kigongo [Moses who was in charge of the entire western region]. From Fort Portal, we went to Kilembe mines [Kasese District] and got into one of the meetings which had just started," he says.

"Mzee late Samson Kisekka was also present when we arrived. And we thought Eriya Kategaya would be the one to take us around. But the President [Museveni] decided Amanya Mushega, whom I had never met before, would take us around. 
"The trip was for Mutebi to meet the fighters. And what was very good was that they [Baganda fighters] were there. They were very free and they were not being mistreated. So that one, we solved right at the beginning."

Journey back to London
On the return journey, Nagenda and Mutebi went through Masaka. 
"We did go through Kitovu [Catholic Mission] and saw the bishop there. They killed a bull and there was a general meeting at which Mutebi was introduced and I was introduced. And after Masaka, we went to Mbarara. Of course, we went through Katonga bridge which had been taken after some fighting," Nagenda says.

"And after we went through Kabale again and crossed into Rwanda, flew to Nairobi and then back to Britain."

Because of the rumour circulated earlier that Nagenda had taken Mutebi to be killed by the Banyankole, Nagenda says, "When we got onto the plane, I was so excited. Although anything could have happened on the plane, to myself I said, 'I have done my job – taking the prince back.' Nobody has harmed him. He has had a good reception. Thank God."

Mutebi arrives in Luweero to drum up support for NRA fighters - Daily Monitor

http://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines/PeoplePower/Mutebi-arrives-in-Luweero-to-drum-up-support-for-NRA-fighters/689844-3368456-rcaswn/index.html

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