IS THE RELATION BETWEEN KABAKA AND PRESIDENT WORSENING?

THE NEW VISION
KAMPALA, UGANDA
10th September, 2009
By Cyprian Musoke

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has set conditions under which the youth celebrations in Kayunga, presided over by the Kabaka, can go ahead tomorrow.

Museveni, in a recorded statement last night, said he had instructed the internal affairs minister to arrange a meeting of the Katikkiro and the Banyala and Kayunga leaders to agree on the way forward.

“This meeting had been ready but the Katikkiro did not turn up. He phoned and said he did not need it,” Museveni said.

The other condition, he said, was that the CBS radio stations, partly owned by the Buganda kingdom, should stop negative campaign against the NRM and inciting Baganda against the Police.

He quoted CBS recordings as telling listeners to go to Kayunga “where Besigye will give you fuel to storm the Police stations”.

If the two conditions had been fulfilled, the visit would have been allowed, the President added.

He said he was looking forward to meeting the Kabaka soon to resolve all the issues, and that they talked on phone on Wednesday night and agreed to meet.

“My reaction to these issues is to ring the king and we sort them out as mature people. But he could not pick or return my calls for the last two years.”

He said he told his private secretary to keep calling him, but to no avail.

“His Highness could not pick calls from the President of Uganda who led the struggle for democracy and restore traditional leaders,” he noted, citing a Luganda proverb: ‘The one whose leg you treat uses it to kick you.’

He said after failing to reach the Kabaka, he referred the matter to the National Security Council. The council, he said, advised the Katikkiro to discuss with the Banyala leaders “but he treated it with contempt”.

Museveni said he had intelligence reports of the kingdom receiving foreign funding to carry out a hate campaign against the NRM and undermine the Constitution.

“We are following these reports very closely and we shall treat all people involved accordingly. I encourage Kabaka Mutebi to distance himself from these Judases. We have fought many wars and we shall win this one.”

There are concerns in security circles that Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi could be using the Ugandan traditional leaders to undermine Museveni.

Prince Kassim Nakibinge Kakungulu, an influential Buganda prince, attended the 40th anniversary of the rise to power of Gadaffi last week.

Another group of royals, including the Bunyoro king and the Queen Mother of Toro, accompanied Gadaffi to the AU summit where he was installed as the chairman earlier this year.

Sources said security is investigating reports that a large sum of money was channelled through a Kampala bank to some royals for anti-government activities.

Museveni and former South African President Thabo Mbeki resisted Gadaffi’s bid to become the first president of a united Africa during the 2007 AU summit in Accra.