The Kampala Metropolitan District and Land Amendment Bills that government plans to table before parliament must be backed by objective, scientific and empirical studies, with specified terms of reference that set out the problem(s) to be addressed by the new Act, root causes of the problems, the complainants, nature of complaints, intended beneficiaries of the solution, benefits, impact on the current social, cultural and financial set up of society, weaknesses in the current laws, budget implications, a look at other fast growing towns such as Mbarara etc.
Such controversial legislation cannot arise out of rumours the President casually heard from people who go complaining to him that they are being evicted. The study would establish who these people are, did they complain through memoranda, their elected leaders or are they just people who have easy access to State House? Are they bona fide occupants?
Are they not “Balaalo” who are known to roam the country looking for free grazing land? Who are they? How do the evictions take place? When did it begin? why do they get evicted when other bibanja holders don’t? Where have the evictions taken place? Who evicts them? I need all these questions answered because in Kooki, we have no problems of evictions, so I don’t understand the President’s need for intervention.
The Bills, threatening harmony in the country, pitting the Kabaka against the President in such unprecedented manner, cannot just be brought to Parliament without adequate researched backing.
The Busuulu and Envujjo Ordinance of 1928 was the result of a three-year (1924-7) study commissioned by colonial governor Phillip Mitchell, in response to discontent by tenants against the exorbitant rent on land charged by landlords.
Mind you, at the time, the ordinance was intended for just Buganda, which was fairly homogeneous, the population smaller and the issues fairly straight forward, but in his wisdom, Governor Mitchell commissioned the three-year study. Thanks to his able leadership, the Busuulu and Envujjo law are still good today, for both the landlord and tenant.
In contrast, present-day-Uganda, for whom the Land Amendment Act is proposed is a complex place, with enormous diversity of people, culture, history and needs. President Museveni must learn from Mitchell and help us all understand the complex dynamics that form our society today and for whom he considers a new law on land imperative. Besides, at a casual glance, the people of Uganda are opposed to the proposed Land Amendment Act - so who’s been complaining to the President about being evicted?
Might they be people who forcibly occupied “absentee” landlords’ property? But they were formalised as bona fide occupants, so all that is required is to enforce the law that protects them. Might they be lawful occupants? But they are also protected under the 1998 Land Act and the Busuulu and Envujjo law, so who’s been complaining to the President? The study will be able to identify the different interests that stand to be affected by the proposed Bills.
The reason that significant NRM policies like barter trade, abolition of graduated tax, Entandikwa, the Shs1,000 land rent, abolition of co operative unions, Regional Tier and now Bonna Bagaggawale have failed is because they are neither demand driven nor backed by objective and scientific studies. Surely, the age of dream-and-do should have ended with Idi Amin!
If such a study were done, the President would inevitably know the reality that “the peasant” whose interests he professes to champion through the Land Amendment Act has no problem with the traditional landowner, with whom he/she has lived in harmony since the 1928 Busuulu and Envujjo Ordinance.
But rather that his/ her worry is the new, armed, moneyed and ruthless landlord, who shows respect to neither the old, now nearly cultural, Ordinance, nor to the bones of the departed dear ones when ruthlessly evicting lawful and bona fide occupants.
No wonder President Museveni is standing small and lonely on one side, with none applauding or echoing his “heroic” crusade “to save peasants from land evictions”, except, perhaps, good-old-Prof. Nsibambi and Daniel Omara Atubo, while the would-be-beneficiaries are on radio talk shows telling him to leave their land alone.
President Museveni should begin to seriously worry that none of his policies and constitutional amendments such as lifting the presidential term limits, regional tier, the imminent Land Amendment and Kampala Administration Bills will stand the test of time, but rather that they will all be revisited the moment he steps out of office, rendering his 25 years as President of Uganda worthless and his legacy to Uganda naught - what a waste!
“You have awakened a sleeping giant” - Buganda warns Museveni
London, UK
2007-12-03
“You have awakened a sleeping giant”. That was the clear and unambiguous message sent to President Museveni by Buganda from the UK at the conclusion of an evening with Lubaga North MP Beti Kamya.
This message was voiced during a meeting organised by Buganda clans in the UK as part of Buganda Kingdom’s efforts to enlighten people about land issues in Buganda and to ensure that Buganda is not strangled on its own land.
During proceedings, Ms Beti Kamya delivered the most detailed and analytical chronology of land issues in Buganda as you have never heard. To be truthful, the last time I heard this kind of lecture on land issues was when I was at Makerere University 20 years ago and the Lecturer was Professor Mahmood Mamdam.
Ms Kamya wasted no time reminding Baganda and Uganda that all land in Buganda belongs to the Kabaka. But that time had changed since those days. She recognised that there are genuine land owners in Buganda, that the British did much to change the traditional system of land ownership and pointed out the 1900 Buganda agreement as one of the most historical arrangement to land ownership in Buganda. She then detailed that land disputes were further settled by colonial laws of the 1920’s known as Busulu, and Envujo.
Baganda were informed that the 1920’s laws stayed until independence when the British returned all land to Buganda on 8th October 1962, the day Buganda gained independence and a day before she joined a Federation with the rest of British Protectorate Uganda on 9th October 1962.
This land thing stayed calm until 1966 when then Prime Minister Milton Obote abolished Buganda and confiscated all her properties including land. Buganda paid a heavy price in the Luwero Triangle to correct this anomaly. Hope was restored in 1994 when the National Resistance Council passed a law to return all properties confiscated in 1966 and 1972. “To date, all Indians have got all their properties. In fact the Custodian Board is now closed for Business. Sadly, for Buganda, we have not got back our land.”
A visibly agitated audience was nodding with some people in tears. “We fought for Indians”. “Yes it looks like that” replied another. Beti reminded Baganda of how recently an Asian came back and was aided by State House operatives to get his land based on a claim of generations of ancestors dating before the 1900.
All operatives carrying out this land return were Baganda evicting Baganda from a piece of land in Buganda. “Yet President Museveni’s proposed law does not cover these evictions”, Beti Continued. “The people working against Buganda are within Buganda” she continued. At this moment, she showed the audience a copy of letter written by Museveni’s Prime Minister Apollo Nsibambi to the Kindom of Buganda. “The language, arrogance and disrespect shown to the institution of Buganda are unbelievable”.
The Vice President Gilbert Bukenya is a Muganda, Prime Minister Apollo Nsibambi is a Muganda, House Speaker Edward Sekandi is a Muganda and so is Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa. But these are the people that have presided over a regime that has marginalised Baganda to beggars. “Four top most positions in government are Baganda” Beti reminded.
“In Bunyoro, Baganda have been forced to sell their land at a throw away price because the regime in Kampala facilitated Banyoro with Tax payer’s money to buy out Baganda” “But as Baganda return from wherever they’ve been, they find no land for them in Buganda …. There’s a systematic campaign to make Baganda landless and Buganda irrelevant. Without land, what would Buganda be?” Beti asked the audience. “Buganda paid a heavy price in Luwero, it is sad that we’re continuing to pay” At this moment some people were visibly wailing in the audience. The sorrow and gloom in people’s faces was a scene I cannot describe.
“We have enough laws on land already, including the 1998 Land Act. We don’t need more laws and certainly not ones drafted without any consultations as is happening with this bill”
To rub salt in the wounds, Beti informed Baganda how they work hard to look after their loved ones at home, sending back their hard earned money. In return, the government of Uganda and President Museveni in particular has used, for the last 20 years, a scholarship scheme to finance the education of his kinsmen up to masters degree level abroad. They in turn come back home and take over all government jobs on merit. No list of beneficiaries has ever been published. “We believe that there is a class of privileged people with intention to rule us”, Beti continued. “Without land we cannot even start a revival”.
In conclusion, this proposed land bill is intended to benefit not Baganda but bonafide tenants including herdsmen. Buganda is a cosmopolitan region where everyone comes to make their money. No one is chasing them away. But none of anyone ever dreamed of owning Buganda. Yet this is what President Museveni wants to do. People who have just come to Buganda cannot suddenly become our landlords! Those who make it and manage to buy their titles are fine. But the proposed laws are seeking to distort the land market in Buganda by favouring a certain category of people.
When Beti was done, it was time for the audience to voice their anger. “Is there anyone in this audience who does not believe that President Museveni and Prof. Apollo Nsibambi are enemies of Buganda, raise your arm?”, asked Dr. Rashid Kasaato. Not an eyelid was raised by anyone, never mind an arm.
Museveni’s representatives in parliament who come from Buganda were warned that they have a fight on their hands come 2011. “We will fight you”, vowed the audience. “Representatives in Parliament who do not stand up for the wishes of Buganda will be rooted out”.
“Museveni has awakened a sleeping giant” said a member in the audience. “We’ve been bullied enough and its time to start the fight back. “In Buganda we bring governments to power and then see them out. That has been the tradition since colonial times” said another member in the audience who also reminded that it was Buganda that brought the Colonial government and then fought it out.
At the end of this gathering, all Baganda had agreed that President Museveni is a hostile President to Buganda and the Baganda. The saddest thing is that he uses Baganda to do his anti-Buganda thing. “We might be down and on our knees now, but we’re not out”.
Ms. Betty Kamya, will be at Buganda Centre this Sunday. For details, find out from Buganda Centre UK in East Ham.
Sadly for Ugandans, this is the beginning of the end of independence and probably Uganda as we know it. The policy to bring it all has been approved by the cabinet and will most certainly become law.
The government of Uganda is proposing amendments to the land act of 1998 that will most certainly end Uganda as we know it. If you thought Kisanja was the big bang that started it all, this land bill, if it becomes law is the armageddon that will end it.
Any Ugandan wishing for a peaceful retirement on their land, take a second thought. You will come from abroad or wherever, and everyone will inform you that they’re entitled to live on your land because the Minister of Lands gave them authority to do so.
The land bill to be tabled in parliament has proposals to give Ministers, not Courts powers over land ownership disputes and places all land in the hands of the state.
If these land proposals go through, then gone is Buganda as we know it. What the President failed to do to Buganda by Regional Tier system of government is being done using a far much more aggressive system of domination and neo-colonialism. This land bill is Regional Tier government forced in by the back door. It is unlawful entry with the aim to dismantle Buganda as a people, culture and tradition. But if you think this is aimed at Buganda, then your thoughts are wishful. Ministers will have rights over your land wherever you are; be it in Terego, Tirinyi or Lyantonde.
Why this controversial policy? To answerer this question, you have to understand the politics and mind of the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. The President knows from the last 2 general elections that he no longer has the support of Buganda. The most blatant ballot rigging at the last general elections occurred in Buganda. The President knows that rigging will be even harder at the next general elections. Rather than suffer a humiliating defeat at the next general elections in Buganda, he has decided that there be no Buganda to lose in the first place. He has seen that he cannot retain power by relying on Buganda, but can do so by dividing it. The proposed land law is the blue print of domination and enslavement with the aim of achieving this goal. It’s divide and rule in the most cruel form; and they don’t come bigger than Landlord vs. Tenant disputes.
The philosophy behind the land grab project is rooted in the insatiable desire for power by the president, his Bahima clan and their plan to dominate Uganda for the next 300 years. This project was frustrated by Buganda’s Lukiiko rejecting to implement regional tier system of government. Buganda is one region, so why not isolate it by ensuring regional tier in other regions of Uganda? The President’s senior political advisor Moses Byaruhanga went on record advising Baganda that if they want their land back, they should implement regional tier system of government. Moses doesn’t say what other regions have to do to implement regional tier governments. The government has since learnt that Buganda will not be intimidated this time. Regional tier was targeting Buganda; without ‘Bu’, ‘Re’ is not a viable project.
This is why the President and his team went back to the drawing board. The frustration was exhibited by the President and his infamous statement on Balalo which was the most ferocious attack on Buganda since the 1966 crisis. In my opinion, it ranked highly up there with Hitler’s rants against the Jewish population. It exposed the President and his team as Baganda haters who refer to the government at Mengo as the ‘Mengo People’. What? …. The Kabaka is a ‘Mengo people’. These disrespectful statements about the culture and people of Buganda gave us an insight into the man’s thinking. With Omara Atubo, a Northerner and Baganda hater as the Lands Minister, the President has the perfect combination to finish off Buganda. And if he gets what he wants then he would have hit 2 birds with the same stone i.e. taken all Buganda land and killed off a politically threatening alliance emerging between the South and the North.
This law will enable the President to exchange ministerial land chits for power votes. The same objective Regional Tier government in Buganda would have been able to achieve had it been instituted.
The entire land policy is contradicting what the President has been preaching recently while addressing Commonwealth Conferences. On several occasions the President cried out for industrialization and social transformation. It is ironic that the same man is now advocating for land fragmentation! Therefore, instead of bringing industrialization to peasants and urging them to buy shares, insurance policies and pension plans, the president is instead lining them up for battle against their landlords. He’s urging them to settle on small subsistence pieces of land where they will never make it out of poverty. Instead of transforming people, the President is trading them in a powerful gambling game of political insanity. How else do you explain why a president who rightly pointed out that only 12% of Japan’s 200 million people live on land is the same man advocating for this policy in a country where 80% of the people live on land?
But the President is taking a big gamble. He has miscalculated on Buganda, its heritage and strength. A commoner in Buganda is happy to live on the land of the privileged. The only person in Buganda who owns all the land of the land is the Sabataka, the Kabaka. If anything, Buganda has plans to distribute her land to the landless. Trying to change that tradition and rob the kingdom of her property will backfire. It will be disastrous even for the most committed of the devils advocates.
That the entire NRMO caucus in parliament including 62 MP’s from Buganda agreed to this law should not surprise anyone. How many NRMO MP’s in parliament, including from Buganda have ever been seen fundraising to get elected. These are not people representatives in parliament but Museveni’s representatives to the people who conduct their business via a building called parliament. They therefore cannot go against the wishes of the executive given what is at stake: - Power.
Buganda has to stand up now and be counted or their days as a political force capable of shaping Uganda are numbered.
Michael Senyonjo
Political Analyst, Strategist London UK from UKVersion
Abaganda abali mu Amerika basabye Kabaka ku ttaka[/b]
Bya Robert Masengere
ABAGANDA ababeera mu Amerika bavuddeyo ku mbiranye eriwo ku ttaka lya Buganda. Mu kiwandiiko kye baawerezza Kabaka baagambye nti bali bumu ne gavumenti ye e Mmengo ku nsonga y’okulwanirira ettaka lya Buganda eby’okulinyaga bikome.
“Ayi Ssabasajja n’Obuganda bwonna awamu tukukakasa nti ffe abasajja n’abazaana bo ababeera mu Amerika tuwagira amakubo agakwatiddwa gavumenti yo e Mmengo okulaba nti ettaka lya Buganda terinyagwa,” bwe baagambye.
Abaganda bano abatuula mu masaza omuli York, New Jersey, Pennyslevania ne Delaware mu Amerika nga bakulemberwa Wycliff Lule, baagambye nti ekikoleddwa okulwanirira abantu be ku nsonga y’ettaka ssi kya byabufuzi kuba ennono n’obuwangwa bw’Abaganda kwebyesigamye.
Baamusabye enteseganya wakati we ne gavumenti asiime aleme kuzeetabamu kuba zandibaamu ebyobufuzi.
For purposes of clarity and education of the uninformed, the Uganda Constitution 1995 vests land in the citizens of Uganda. This means that land belongs to the people, and that being so, all Ugandans are free to settle and live wherever they wish in the country.
The reality is, however, very different. As Prof. Samwiri Lwanga Lunyiigo observes in his new book The Struggle for Land in Buganda 1888 - 2005 “where customary land tenure survives, and that is virtually the whole of the north, most of the east and parts of western Uganda, land belongs to clans and communities and it is in members of those clans and communities that it is vested.”
“It is therefore very difficult for just any Ugandan to move into these clan and community lands and settle and live happily simply because our Constitution so ordains,” Prof. Lunyiigo points out.
Because the book is well researched, and since its publication coincides with the ongoing row between Buganda and the central government over the latter’s proposed amendments to the 1998 Land Act, I believe that some of its contents will be helpful to our leaders and the public at large in finding a solution to the current land conflicts.
Prof. Lunyiigo says he is of ‘peasant stock’ and dedicates the book to “my fellow peasants who have been cheated of their inheritance in Adam’s Will.” He read History at Makerere University and Archaeology at the University of Ghana and presently serves as Special Assistant to the President of Uganda. He writes in his private and professional capacity and his views should not be confused with those of the President.
Contrasting Buganda with the other parts of Uganda, Lunyiigo points out that Buganda became the leading state in the East African region before even the advent of colonialism in 1884 largely because of her ability to assimilate people from her neighborhoods.
“This policy was so successful that even some leading figures in the kingdom, including the mighty Katikkiro (Prime Minister), Sir Apollo Kaggwa, are suspected of having been of plebeian origins,” he writes.
The cosmopolitan character of the Buganda nation is summed up by the dictum: Nyoko abanga Omunyoro nakuzaala ku kika (It does not matter if one’s mother is a foreigner, what matters is that she mothers one into a Kiganda clan). Once one becomes a member of a Kiganda clan, gets a name, imbibes the culture and language, one is a Muganda.
According to Prof. Lunyiigo, this was clearly demonstrated by the ‘Baganda’ who fought for the Rwanda Patriotic Front with Kiganda names such as Wasswa, but who were actually ethnic Banyarwanda.
When the RPF took power in Rwanda in 1994, these ‘Baganda’ became bigwigs in the Rwanda government. “This process of assimilation has been going on in Buganda for the last 300 years,” Prof. Lunyiigo emphasises.
He goes on to explain that since the 1960s, non-Baganda have settled in droves in Buganda. They are not interested in assimilation, in becoming Baganda. Their main interest is to acquire land and to create enclaves of their ethnic groups in Buganda. They have also gone to the extent of renaming their acquired land after their places of origin or after their ancestors such as Garuga, replacing the Kiganda name Mbiru.
“Such practices are very humiliating to the Baganda,” the professor states and goes on to observe that “once immigrants establish themselves and acquire wealth, the next step is to acquire political power.”
He cited the immigrant Indian population in Fiji which, over time, came to dominate the indigenous Fijians, and Kibaale in Uganda where the migrant Bakiga are dominating the Banyoro and are taking political power.
“In Buganda, it is already happening. Since the control of land was decentralized to the districts, and since numerous districts are being created overnight, some of those will undoubtedly be dominated by immigrants who will then be in a position to allocate even more land to their kith and kin.”
“This is already the case in Kiboga District (where public land has mainly been acquired by Rwandese nationals who get it through their Ugandan relatives there).” the book says.
Unless the control of land is re centralized to the region and the Buganda Land Board regains control of public land in Buganda, the Baganda will, in the goodness of time, become a rudderless people, vagabonds and the laughing stock of their fellow Ugandans,” Prof. Lunyiigo concludes.
The writer is a journalist and retired Foreign Service Officer
Naye bannange kuno sikwetuyita obubbi obwobujoozi oyinza otya okugamba nti mu Uganda buli omu waddembe okusenga nokubeera wonna wayagala, naye ekyokuba nti ngo jeeko Buganda amawanga amalala gonna gakola amateeka agaabwe agagoberelwa nge ddiini nti ettaka elyaffe lya ba clan bo nebasaako kkufulu kubyaabwe nebakwaata engugu ne bakkirira e Buganda okwetwalira erye jjenjeero.
Ate nga bakimanyi nti bwebanabeera mu mirembe kijja kuba kizibu okubabbako ebyaabwe nokubenyigirizaamu ,naye bwobakumira mu ntalo ono anaaba addukirira ono nooli nze ngansiba byenjagala ewuwe nga ntuusa nekyaalo kyewaffe kyonna ngatusenga awatali atukuba kumukono.
Gwe ate gwetubba oba wetwesenza anawabira waani nga baffe yonna gyeyandifunye obuddukiro ffe tuliyo .Nebatakoma awo wokka nokayana nebakayana nti bayinza batya okutugobaganya gyetwesenza nga tutuno tuluddewo mu kifo, kyokka gwe nomala wesaanya nti ogende ewaabwe osanga kunnsalosalo kuliko abakutte amajambiya namafumu.
Mwagala kutubulira Baganda bameka abali ewammwe nammwe gwe muwendo oguba gusigala mu Buganda? twandikoze bwetutyo naye effujjo nokuttibwa okututusibwaako kungi kati kijja kuba kizibu okumatiza abantu abattibwaako abantu baabwe okubagamba nti oyo teyatta naye kitaawe yeyatemula nebakuleka notuula nteende .
Kasokedde bwa Kabaka bwaffe buggibwaawo, Buganda teddangamu kulaba ku mirembe bwebatabatta mukimugunyu nokubabuzaawo, babatta ngensi eraba nga Magala kyeyakola e Bulange nebamala batutegeeza nti AMASASI GAMUSIMATTUKAKO MU MUNDU GYEYALEEGA MUBANTU NANASULA era kati alya butataala naye bamanyi abaana ne namwandu abalekebwa ettayo kyebalya kati? ebyo byebimu ku bibuuzo ebijja okuddibwaamu mukasaawa kali akavannyuma ffenna ketumanyi nti mu Uganda kamanyiddwa bulungi era kalindibwa................
