The Banyankore have a saying: Ekibingire embwa nkuru aha koome ekibwana tikibwanabwanaho. The import of this tale is that when an old dog flees a fireplace the puppy should know it cannot be safe there either.
When President Milton Obote and the Buganda establishment fell out, resulting in the attack on the Lubiri in 1966, many people condemned and demonised him for forcing the Kabaka into exile.
I used to belong to that school of thought that demonised Obote. Not any more. After reading and hearing about the events that led to the 1966 Kabaka crisis, I am now in a better position to gauge culpability. I am under no illusion that those condemning Obote for the Kabaka crisis would behave more ruthlessly, if they were confronted by the same situation today, than he did in 1966.
Because of the increasingly icy relations between Obote and the Kabaka administration, the Buganda Lukiiko sitting at Mengo in May 1966 resolved that Obote should take his government away from the capital Kampala, which they said belongs to Buganda. Two, they asked Obote to establish the capital city outside Buganda. The Lukiiko called on all able-bodied Baganda for military training in preparation for resistance against the Obote government. Within one week of the Lukiiko resolutions there were attacks on some police stations by Baganda militants. The Kabaka had arms in Lubiri (his palace). This is confirmed by Kabaka Mutesa himself in his book The Desecration of My Kingdom where he tells of a fierce battle between the army and his royal guards at the Lubiri before he escaped. The first batch of policemen who had been sent to Lubiri to check whether there were guns as had been alleged, were mauled down by the royal guards. In such circumstances, what should Obote have done? Flee Kampala with his government as the Lukiiko had demanded? Which Head of State would in his normal state of mind succumb to such demands?
Obote deserted the “marriage” with Mengo because of the latter’s unrealistic demands. But Museveni and his NRM revived the marriage thinking they would be a better spouse. Now it appears the marriage is again on the rocks.
Like the Runyankore proverb, when an old dog has deserted a fireplace, the puppy should keep a safe distance. Museveni failed to learn from the Obote-Kabaka scenario. He instead used it to demonise Obote, hoping that would endear him to the Mengo establishment.
Just last year when Mengo had upped mass campaigns in Buganda against the Land Bill, which was seeking to turn squatters into land owners, the central government kidnapped three kingdom officials who were accused of perpetrating the Anti-Land Bill campaign and undermining the central government. They were freed a few days later after having been separately detained in secret places.
If the central government could be so enraged by a mere verbal campaign against a Bill, what would it have done if the Kabaka had had guns in his palace and the Lukiiko had ordered President Museveni to take his government or the capital out of Buganda? My intuition tells me that the reaction of the state would have been ten times worse than what happened in 1966.
Like in May 1966, just last week the Lukiiko at Mengo made similar resolutions this time against President Museveni’s government, accusing him of refusing to grant Buganda a federal system of governance. It’s this same demand that culminated in the confrontation between Mengo and Obote in 1966, which the latter has been condemned for. Is history about to repeat itself?