The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kasese, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Eighty seven Rwenzururu royal guards have returned home following a protracted peace campaign in Kasese district. The royal guards went into hiding in 2016 following a raid by the military and police on the palace of Rwenzururu King, Charles Wesley Mumbere.
More than 100 royal guards were killed and several others arrested together with King Mumbere during the raid. Mumbere and the royal guards have since been charged with terrorism, attempted murder and murder.
However, in a bid to lure the royal guards at large to return home, government through the office of Kasese Resident District Commissioner pledged not to prosecute or arrest those who will surrender the local authorities. The government message didn’t yield much.
This compelled a section of people in Kasese especially in Busongora County North to form a peace building initiative under the auspices of Busongora Development Forum (BDF), a community based organisation.
The organisation engaged the communities of Busongora County and emphasized the need for the royal guards to return as a key step in pacifying Rwenzori sub region. Statistics at Busongora Development Forum indicate that at least 87 royal guards have already returned and settled in their homes.
Didas Baluku, the Chairperson BDF, says most of the royal guards that have returned are in Bwesumbu, Kyabarungira and Buhuhira Sub counties.
He however, notes many royal guards that have declined to return home and continue posing a threat to the security of the country. The same fears were echoed recently by Col. Keith Katungi, the 309 Brigade Commander during a meeting with Kasese Elites Forum, a WhatsApp group of educated youths from Kasese at the army premises in Hima.
Katungi told the members to continue engaging their kinsmen that are still in hiding to return home. Katungi said there are close to eighty royal guards that are wandering in the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
“We know that there are some royal guards who are yet to come back. They are in the DRC, we urge them to come back home and be sure that we shall not arrest them provided they voluntarily return,” he said. Baluku says some of the royal guards could be refusing to return home because of political propaganda.
Baluku also appeals to the central government to engage the royal guards that have returned home in productive activities.
Samson Bagenda, the LC III Chairperson Bwesumbu Sub county, says Rwenzori region is still grappling with so many challenges and thus needs special attention or else the cycle of violence in the area may never be broken.
Bagenda says there are many widows and orphans who continue to lead vulnerable lives and require special support from government. Statistics at Bwesumbu Sub County show that there are at least 33 widows and more than 285 orphans as a result of the military raid on the King’s palace in 2016. Bagenda says this is a time bomb.
“Can you imagine all these people who are surviving by the grace of God without even meeting the basics of life? We need some kind of psycho-social support and skilling of these vulnerable people so that they support themselves,” he said. Rwenzori region has been witnesses a series of conflicts dating to pre-colonial Uganda.
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