{UAH} Are westerners taking over Uganda?
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Are westerners taking over Uganda?
By Timothy Kalyegira
-- The question of tribalism, tribal tensions and one region dominating Uganda has once again resurfaced in the public domain.
In 2016 when Matthew Kanyamunyu is reported to have shot dead a community officer Kenneth Akena at Lugogo Mall in Kampala, the perceptions of westerners as arrogant and acting as though above the law, was at the heart of national discussion.
Last week, a security guard, Moses Ongoria, also from northern Uganda like Akena, shot dead a young Kampala businessman, Arnold Mugisha at a shopping mall at Naalya.
It was a strange coincidence -- two incidents in the parking area at shopping malls, involving a confrontation between westerner and a northerner, and resulting in a fatality caused by a gunshot.
The general mood on social media was that Mugisha had been as arrogant as Kanyamunyu in 2016 and so brought his shooting dead upon himself.
The ugly reality of deep ethnic tensions in Uganda has surfaced once again.
The question here is: Are westerners unfairly, greedily, illegally dominating national jobs, contracts and political power?
The answer is yes and no.
Let's start with the no.
Most people believe that, to take an example, Ankole first came to national prominence after 1986 when Yoweri Museveni's NRM seized state power.
When we put perception aside, the fact is Ankole has played a prominent part in national life since the 1960s.
Fort Portal in Toro was the main administrative centre of western Uganda in the 1950s but that position was taken over by Mbarara in Ankole in the early 1970s.
In the 1960s UPC government, Grace Ibingira from Ankole was named Uganda's Foreign Minister at the age of only 28.
A large number of 1960s officers and agents of the GSU, the 1960s version of today's ISO, came from Kigezi.
Three of the four largest and most dominant traditional kingdoms of the Uganda Protectorate and immediate post-independence era (Ankole, Bunyoro and Toro), were from western Uganda.
When the pro-Obote Kikosi Maluum and pro-Museveni FRONASA decided on an armed invasion of Uganda in Sept. 1972, Mbarara was selected as the main landing point.
Even the fact that FRONASA existed in the early 1970s, dominated by Ntare School and Mbarara High School alumni, itself shows that this did not start in 1986.
In 1980 when former president Milton Obote returned from nine years in exile in Tanzania, he landed in Mbarara and drove to Bushenyi to hold his first public rally in Uganda since he was ousted in a military coup in 1971.
Bushenyi during the first half of the 1980s was arguably the staunchest UPC stronghold in Uganda.
In 1980, Museveni founded the UPM, a political party dominated by westerners and the following year formed the NRA/NRM guerilla organisation, also dominated by westerners.
Since 1986, the prominence and dominance of Uganda by westerners has become much more pronounced and made more so by the 33-year rule by Museveni.
But, as explained above, 1986 was the culmination, not the start, of this westerner prominence in national life.
Even in the opposition, the FDC party, the TDA-Go Forward camp and now the Alliance for National Transformation also reflect a strong westerner dominance or presence.
In the 2016 general election, Museveni, Amama Mbabazi, Kiiza Besigye, Benon Biraro and Venansius Baryamureeba were presidential candidates.
So, are westerners unfairly dominating Uganda?
Yes and no.
No because they were always not very far from state power or national dominance, especially that place called Ankole.
But as Uganda under the NRM has descended to a new level of corruption, nepotism and the abuse of power, naturally this decadence has combined with the dominance of state power by westerners to give the generally accurate impression that westerners dominate national life and state power.
Baganda are the single-largest ethnic group in Uganda, but taken as a grouping from Kigezi to Bundibugyo, Ankole to Toro and Bunyoro to Kisoro, westerners are the largest ethnically-related section of Uganda's population.
However, there are some surprises.
The largest ethnic group in the army in the 1960s was the Acholi.
The largest ethnic group in the army from 1979 to 1986 was the Acholi.
And believe it or not, even with this western dominance of national life, about 60% of the total officer and rank-and-file of the army in 2019 is also Acholi.
Most of the top-ranking officers in the army, from Brigadier to General are westerners and most of the mid-level officers from Colonel down to about Captain are Baganda.
And, for all the westerners' dominance, about 80 percent of Uganda's economy is still geographically concentrated in Buganda led by Kampala, Entebbe, Mukono and Masaka.
So in a certain sense, Buganda is still the most dominant part of Uganda as it has been for the last 100 years.
One of these days I will analyse Uganda on social media.
Social media, as I've written many times, interests me most because it is the one area that is part of every country but is semi-detached from internal politics, nepotism and other vices.
On Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, there is no advantage for any Ugandan tribe.
Here, a westerner is just another face in cyberspace alongside an easterners or northerner.
ENDS
--
-- By Timothy Kalyegira
-- The question of tribalism, tribal tensions and one region dominating Uganda has once again resurfaced in the public domain.
In 2016 when Matthew Kanyamunyu is reported to have shot dead a community officer Kenneth Akena at Lugogo Mall in Kampala, the perceptions of westerners as arrogant and acting as though above the law, was at the heart of national discussion.
Last week, a security guard, Moses Ongoria, also from northern Uganda like Akena, shot dead a young Kampala businessman, Arnold Mugisha at a shopping mall at Naalya.
It was a strange coincidence -- two incidents in the parking area at shopping malls, involving a confrontation between westerner and a northerner, and resulting in a fatality caused by a gunshot.
The general mood on social media was that Mugisha had been as arrogant as Kanyamunyu in 2016 and so brought his shooting dead upon himself.
The ugly reality of deep ethnic tensions in Uganda has surfaced once again.
The question here is: Are westerners unfairly, greedily, illegally dominating national jobs, contracts and political power?
The answer is yes and no.
Let's start with the no.
Most people believe that, to take an example, Ankole first came to national prominence after 1986 when Yoweri Museveni's NRM seized state power.
When we put perception aside, the fact is Ankole has played a prominent part in national life since the 1960s.
Fort Portal in Toro was the main administrative centre of western Uganda in the 1950s but that position was taken over by Mbarara in Ankole in the early 1970s.
In the 1960s UPC government, Grace Ibingira from Ankole was named Uganda's Foreign Minister at the age of only 28.
A large number of 1960s officers and agents of the GSU, the 1960s version of today's ISO, came from Kigezi.
Three of the four largest and most dominant traditional kingdoms of the Uganda Protectorate and immediate post-independence era (Ankole, Bunyoro and Toro), were from western Uganda.
When the pro-Obote Kikosi Maluum and pro-Museveni FRONASA decided on an armed invasion of Uganda in Sept. 1972, Mbarara was selected as the main landing point.
Even the fact that FRONASA existed in the early 1970s, dominated by Ntare School and Mbarara High School alumni, itself shows that this did not start in 1986.
In 1980 when former president Milton Obote returned from nine years in exile in Tanzania, he landed in Mbarara and drove to Bushenyi to hold his first public rally in Uganda since he was ousted in a military coup in 1971.
Bushenyi during the first half of the 1980s was arguably the staunchest UPC stronghold in Uganda.
In 1980, Museveni founded the UPM, a political party dominated by westerners and the following year formed the NRA/NRM guerilla organisation, also dominated by westerners.
Since 1986, the prominence and dominance of Uganda by westerners has become much more pronounced and made more so by the 33-year rule by Museveni.
But, as explained above, 1986 was the culmination, not the start, of this westerner prominence in national life.
Even in the opposition, the FDC party, the TDA-Go Forward camp and now the Alliance for National Transformation also reflect a strong westerner dominance or presence.
In the 2016 general election, Museveni, Amama Mbabazi, Kiiza Besigye, Benon Biraro and Venansius Baryamureeba were presidential candidates.
So, are westerners unfairly dominating Uganda?
Yes and no.
No because they were always not very far from state power or national dominance, especially that place called Ankole.
But as Uganda under the NRM has descended to a new level of corruption, nepotism and the abuse of power, naturally this decadence has combined with the dominance of state power by westerners to give the generally accurate impression that westerners dominate national life and state power.
Baganda are the single-largest ethnic group in Uganda, but taken as a grouping from Kigezi to Bundibugyo, Ankole to Toro and Bunyoro to Kisoro, westerners are the largest ethnically-related section of Uganda's population.
However, there are some surprises.
The largest ethnic group in the army in the 1960s was the Acholi.
The largest ethnic group in the army from 1979 to 1986 was the Acholi.
And believe it or not, even with this western dominance of national life, about 60% of the total officer and rank-and-file of the army in 2019 is also Acholi.
Most of the top-ranking officers in the army, from Brigadier to General are westerners and most of the mid-level officers from Colonel down to about Captain are Baganda.
And, for all the westerners' dominance, about 80 percent of Uganda's economy is still geographically concentrated in Buganda led by Kampala, Entebbe, Mukono and Masaka.
So in a certain sense, Buganda is still the most dominant part of Uganda as it has been for the last 100 years.
One of these days I will analyse Uganda on social media.
Social media, as I've written many times, interests me most because it is the one area that is part of every country but is semi-detached from internal politics, nepotism and other vices.
On Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, there is no advantage for any Ugandan tribe.
Here, a westerner is just another face in cyberspace alongside an easterners or northerner.
ENDS
--
Allaah gives the best to those who leave the choice to Him."And if Allah touches you with harm, none can remove it but He, and if He touches you with good, then He is Able to do all things." (6:17)
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