Executive Summary: This post has 10 ‘bullets’ on 4XA4 page equivalents inline after the ‘summary’.
(a). I must admit that since some of my ‘macabre predictions’ made a few years back came to pass [e.g. future closure of CBS] and after the actualisation of “state terrorism” in the wake of the Bugerere debacle, I imposed a 40-day mourning period and a ‘network’ embargo on my self but when it comes to another ‘mushroom’ coming up on Buganda soil, I have broken the self-imposed ban to shed light on the ‘chief-advocate’ of the so-called “Abamoori” movement, who now claim the “cattle corridor {savanna grassland}” from Northern Burundi via Karagwe in northern Tanzania/Mutala plains in northen Rwanda, to Nyabushozi in Ankole, Sembabule in Buganda to Bululi in Buganda/Bunyoro to Kyoga in Apach, on to Kaberamaido then to north Teso and Southern Karamoja – hoping they won’t claim Masai-Mara in Tanzania or other grazing plains in E. Africa. Masisi area in Eastern Zaire is already theirs.
(b) This post, besides shedding light on who Mr. Baingana Emmanuel is/could be and while he may actually be a man with the “master’s voice”, should/will provoke the mind of the ‘forumist’ into realizing what, in his mind, Mr. Museveni is actually up-to. It helps people understand that M7 is not just a “nostalgist” [a term Pro. Mazrui uses in his Monitor of Saturday 26th] but in fact a man with a grand plan to resurrect and spread what he believes [wrongly, in my view] to be a ‘dynasty’ threading from the Pharaoh’s of Egypt to the Chwezi…to “Kaguta lineage” just established. The Kagame’s and the Banyamulenge are just links in a long chain. Ugandans may justifiably be awed. Uganda today may just be a ‘fertile womb’ that “God put in place” to fulfill a certain agenda, at least a la Museveni, in which case, Buganda is a nuisance on this long ‘missionary-journey’, a nuisance that must either conform or disappear.
(c) Emmanuel Baingana could not have talked thus, unless, like Kimeze of Bunyala in north Bugerere, he was given a nod. So, who is this Baingana that has become a ‘pawn’ in this grand design? Why does he address his claims to Mmengo, not to Hoima?
1. Emmanuel Baingana first appears as a ‘noisy’ student in the early 1960’s at St. Andrew’s SSS Bukuumi [in Kakumiro town], at the south-eastern edge of current Kibaale district, near the border with Mubende district. He school is of the “Brothers of Christian Instruction” foundation and management, like SMACK (St. Mary’s College, Kisubi) St. Henry’s, Kitovu in Masaka, St. Paul’s SSS Mutolere in Kisoro, etc]
2. Though he was good at history and was good at English debate, he did not make the grade(s) for an HSC scholarship as was the norm then.
3. After engagements here and there, he gravitated to “trade unionism” and was a self-declared socialist, like the activists of his age in the late 60’s/early 70’s. He really hated kingdoms and any semblance of “order/governance”.
4. Since he was not in formal employment and could therefore not be unionized [belong to a union], he ended up being appointed the “Education Secretary” of the then POSTAL Union [That catered for the workers of the then East African Posts and telecommunications Corporation in Uganda Region] (This, together with the Railway union, were once Uganda’s most feared workers bodies. During the Obote-Lutwa transition in 1985, Mr. Baingana is among those union leaders that were incase rated for disrupting vital communication, during the ‘Nairobi peace’ talks).
5. And mobelise, he could man. He wrote many articles and published magazines for now so called “Communication Union” and soon became the “god father” during Worker-MP elections [he is, up to now, no a union member per say, since he has never ‘worked’ and so cannot become a Workers’ MP]. He got labour education from, at first, Trade Union/labour centres in Eastern Europe before the collapse of European communism] and later, up to today, from the Scandinavia labour centres. He never misses any ILO [International labour Organization – in Geneva] seminar in Uganda and in the region. He is a formidable mobeliser, therefore.
6. Effect of privatization: With the disentanglement of the powerful post and telecom industry and the collapse of communism, the labour/Union movement in Uganda, like else where has either been weakened nr is non-existent. However, there is a catch here too. The Communication Workers union and NOTU [at national level] have lost membership but have in fact never been wound down legally. So, the secretariat that Mr. Baingana mans is still in existence and still enjoys the benefits of securing contributions from Social-democratic unions and parties from Europe, is able to benefit from ILO allocations for ‘worker education, etc, and most important, remains a “king maker” in Ugandan labour matters. Of late, he has been the vanguard of the “anti-Lyomoki” crusade [for those who may not be updated, NOTU, founded in the 1960’s under UPTC has been active mainly in the semi-skilled and ‘hard labour’ groups in the Tea/sugar industry, building industries, road works, etc]. With the opening of Unionism t the ‘educated classes [University lecturers, and teachers, doctors, engineers, etc], and with the possibility of one becoming an MP plus possibility of sitting ob the boards of bodies like the NSSF, some saw the NOTU leadership and ‘backward’ and formed their own trade-union centre, CFTU-The confederation of Free Trade Unions [which, by cold-war standards would be western-leaning].It is this liberalisation of the Workers movement in Uganda that has made Baingana, a sort of ‘socialist-turned-conservative” in these matters, very prominent, especially when he took an openly NRM stand, even when the workers’ interest became compromised.
7. Where this reduction in the levels of worker’s membership in the Communications union and therefore in NOTU [described above in (6), leave the union leaders of moribund/pseudo-labour organizations [call them paper unions) leaves the likes of Baingana. VERY interesting indeed but the following is obvious:
a. These unions have no members and therefore have reduced or no members contributions to depend on. The leaders therefore depend of ‘foreign solidarity’ donations.
b. Since membership is down this means these leaders have no one to give accountability to, as there are no elections held. They are now personal/elitist organizations.
c. That they have no members means that the PROPERTIES OF THESE [former] WORKERS’ BODIES are now possibly in the leaders’ own names. The Postal union is said to have lost its training complex in Mbarara and another building in Mbale. The cooperative wing lost property in Mityana. The title-deeds of their office blocks/houses in old Kampala’s “Delhi Gardens”, where Baingana sits cannot be traced.
d. Un-Employed? Finally, the weathering away of the UNION activities, at least in the case of Mr. Emmanuel Baingana, leads them to gravitate to other areas of activity, to earn a leaving OR, MAY BE, the ship has sank and these ‘activists’ are abandoning ship. [Watch this page – should the Ministry of labour interest itself in the audits if these unions].
8. FINALLY: Is Baingana domiciled in Buganda? Baingana, like any citizen of Uganda with activities in Kampala lives in Kampala. But, does he have a right to lodge claims for throne-recognition with Mmengo? Well, the answer is NO and the reason is given bellow.
a. While is not known as to where Mr. Baingana originates from, the fact is that he is domiciled in the KIGUMBA area of Masindi District, Bunyoro Kitara kingdom is an established fact. That is where he and his family have been known to live for the last 40-50 or so years. He has a home there and his herds are there. So, any claims for recognition this man has [as an individual] should really be addressed to the KAUZIIKA, at Hoima, not to the TWEKOBE a Mmengo.
b. May be, one should not personalize Baingana’s claims since he claims to represent the “cattle corridor “ people. Since this corridor meanders all over east and central Africa and they claim it is theirs’ [on whatever basis?], the claims for recognition should not only be lodged with Mmengo but also with the “Omukama” (King) of Bunyoro, with Papa Osuban {Emumur} of Teso, the Ankole District councils /Principality, (of John Barigye), with Kaberamaido district council and even, with Amulatar and Apach district councils.
9. Buganda target: unless the above [in 8(b) above happens], the thought on the back of the minds of many that this new creation is another tool in the anti-Gganda crusade will not go away. You heard the “master’s voice clearly the other day in Parliament, “..Those promoting chauvinism..Will be dealt with..” or something near that. So, fight against chauvinism should start with Capt. Kimeze and Emmanuel Baingana [plus his boss, the quite Museveni Muntu, mbu {one hears}].
10. CONCLUSION: instead of the country’s efforts and resources being wasted on ‘revanchism and nostalgic machinations’, only based on hunger for revenge and revisionism, let everyone engage in what may propel the so called ‘nation’ forward for even he exploiter, needs a stable environment to secure his loot, unless this is already in Geneva. And, Baingana will not be the last. Yesterday it was Butamanya in Bululi, then Capt. Kimeze, today it is Baingana all the way from Kigumba, tomorrow it may be a ‘pure Muganda’, may be a Bukenya, wanting to tear Buganda apart because, as Mirundi put it on BEAT Fm radio on 17th Sept. 09, “what matters/will matter in Buganda.. ..is money”. And M7 and his tools are not short of this.
Christopher Muwanga,
Nakasero, Kampala.
Ekitibwa Kya Buganda 
The mood of fear has once again reasserted itself in Ugandan society.
When I wrote the long article last month explaining the fact — and it is a fact — that the 1994 Rwandan genocide was masterminded by the RPF, and not by the Habyarimana government, I got many SMS from frightened people either saying “We are praying for you” or “Thanks for your brave article, but these boys (the RPF, that is) are dangerous. They will come for you.”
Most of the feedback coming in this week in response to the articles on Maj. Gen. James Kazini’s murder bears that tone. It is either “Please don’t quote me”, “My prayers are with you” or “Are you safe?”
It is interesting that the public, both in Uganda and in Rwanda, view the “new breed” of African leaders like Paul Kagame and Yoweri Museveni in that light.
They don’t warn that Kagame or Museveni will out-reason or out-think a person who challenges them, but rather, they express their fears that these two democratically elected leaders will murder.
Where does this general impression of them come from, that to challenge these two men will or can lead to certain death? What does the public know about them that it is too afraid to say?
This, in itself, is a clue to the true history of the NRA and the RPF and their leaders.
Before I can reply to those questions, I would like to turn the question back to you in the general public: “Are you safe, yourselves?”
Why do people have this belief that, somehow, by keeping quiet and being afraid of the state, they are any more safe than the loud mouths who openly take Museveni on?
When the Kampala lawyer Robinah Kiyingi was murdered (not by her husband), how many of us had ever heard of her? She probably had never bothered to vote in her entire life and was very much the civil society type. That did not prevent her being cruelly gunned down by You-Know-Who.
This belief that one is safe by keeping one’s mouth shut, never challenging the state, never speaking out against the abuse of office and the murders, is one of the false beliefs that most people have.
Journalist Andrew Mwenda, earlier this year, published in his Independent magazine a cover story titled “First Family rule in Uganda.”
That Friday, a boiling hot and angry Museveni, in a meeting with his family at State House, vowed that he was going to arrest Mwenda. It has been several months now and Mwenda has still not been arrested.
On the occasion that Mwenda was arrested in 2005, he came out of jail after a week and life went on, and still goes on.
In Oct. 2006, Andrew Mwenda and I had a shoot-out with Museveni’s son-in-law Odrek Mugisha Rwabwogo, when Rwabwogo wrote an article in the Daily Monitor angrily hitting back at Mwenda for his Aug. 31, 2006 article in the Sunday Monitor titled “Is the First Family Fleecing Uganda?”
I joined in that exchange of fire and said I agreed with Mwenda that this family is, indeed, fleecing Uganda.
I got a phone call from the then Daily Monitor Managing Director Conrad Nkutu who told me that my rejoinder to Mwenda, after Rwabwogo had attacked us, had caused “upheaval” at State House and State House was threatening to sue the Daily Monitor.
We have never been sued and the Daily Monitor was not shut down. Nkutu told us at a meeting at the Daily Monitor of how he would get phone calls threatening to kidnap his children from their school, because of the courageous stand he was taking as the newspaper’s chief executive.
Those children were never kidnapped.
The day my rejoinder was published, a Daily Monitor journalist Simon Kasyate was coming from the Sheraton Kampala Hotel when he met Museveni’s son, Major Muhoozi Kainerugaba driving a pickup truck and coming from State House.
Kainerugaba looked at Kasyate and in exasperation exclaimed: “Simon!” Kasyate, who is sympathetic to the First Family and who sensed that Kainerugaba wanted action taken against me, explained that these were the views of nut cases like me at the Daily Monitor.
Later, Museveni was airborne and flying to China when he got a call from his daughter Patience Rwabwogo, upset at the way I had humiliated her husband Odrek by telling Daily Monitor readers that for all his corporate and privileged image, shame on him for he does not pay his employees at his media agency TERP.
Patience Rwabwogo, accustomed to the First Family having their way in everything, must still be wondering why her father was unable to respond to her demand for the Daily Monitor to be closed because of my article.
Answer to Patience Rwabwogo: your father may be great, but he is not God and the fact that he is not God makes all the difference in the world.
Incidentally, when I visited the Independent magazine in June, Andrew Mwenda told us of how Museveni now spends much of his time surrounded by fortune tellers, soothsayers, and medicine men.
These people, Mwenda said, are taking Museveni through rituals, chantings, and other activities. Mwenda said that while in the past, these rituals were done secretly, today they are done in full view of Museveni’s PGB bodyguards. He is made to crawl on the ground, a soothsayer sits on his lap, and so on.
It sounds like a scene from a Nigerian movie, but this is happening right here, right now, at State House. You can imagine the amount of fear that Museveni lives with. He knows. He knows what is coming.
The Seer I often write and talk about says that Kagame also asks his aides to consult for information on the future and the unknown. So, just as we are all afraid of our leaders, they too are terrified of the unknown.
Meanwhile, as our civic society continues to believe that silence will secure their lives, thousands of innocent civilians, most of whom had never voted in their lives and had nothing whatsoever to do with politics, perished in gruesome massacres masterminded by Yoweri Museveni in Luwero, Teso, and Acholi in Uganda, and by Paul Kagame in Rwanda between 1990 and 1994 in Congo from 1996 to 1999.
If the argument that one is safe or safer by keeping quiet, how come these innocent and helpless civilians died and yet I have never been arrested?
I notice that nobody writes to contest the facts or claims in these reports. Most readers seem to know that we are dealing with mass murderers for heads of state. That they generally do not contest. All they do is urge caution, express their fears for my life, or say their prayers are with me.
So, to reply to this Frequently Asked Question “Are you safe?”, yes I am safe.
As I wrote on Wednesday and as I wrote many times in my former Saturday column in the Daily Monitor, the people we are most afraid of, mainly Yoweri Museveni, his brother Caleb Akandwanaho, and Museveni’s wife Janet Museveni actually live in incredible fear.
They live haunted, nightmarish lives. Fear stalks them daily, in whatever they do and wherever they go. This you should know, completely, as Idi Amin used to say.
If you watched the wedding on live TV in Aug. 1999 of Buganda’s Kabaka Ronald Mutebi and Sylvia Nagginda, you might have noticed something unusual.
The bride delayed in her arrival at St. Paul’s Cathedral Namirembe and so hundreds of dignitaries and other invited guests waited, among whom were President Museveni and the First Lady Janet Museveni.
At some point, as they sat, waiting, a soldier of the Presidential Guard Brigade (PGB) walked over to Museveni with a message which he delivered in a whisper to his ear.
As soon as the soldier got near Museveni, the president almost fell off his chair and onto the ground, before he glanced behind him and realized it was one of his own guards. That is how much fear stalks Uganda’s head of state, that even when he is seated in the quiet pews of a church, next to his wife, his instincts are always to fear.
During last month’s 47th Independence Day anniversary celebrations at Kololo Airstrip in Kampala, as Museveni was inspecting the military guard of honour, at one point, at 11:40a.m., the ceremonial police Landrover came to a stop.
Museveni seemed uncertain about why it had stopped and clearly visible and written all over his face, at that moment at 11:40a.m., live on national television, was the look of great fear. Museveni lives in extreme fear, this you should know, completely.
That is why he has one of the largest personal bodyguards of any leader in the world.
I wrote in a news story on Nov. 11 in the Uganda Record that after the murder of Lt. Col. Jet Mwebaze, the hand behind the murder, Salim Saleh, was haunted almost to the point of mental breakdown by nightmares and what he said was the spirit of Mwebaze tormenting him.
He tried to get a soothsayer or medium to perform some rituals at the graveside of Mwebaze in Nakaseke, to appease this spirit that was tormenting him. A man who visited Saleh’s home near Entebbe in 2008 said he saw Saleh seated all alone, by the lakeside, deep in thought, appearing to be troubled.
These are tormented, haunted, deeply frightened people, bordering on insanity.
I would like to ask my own Frequently Asked Question to the tens of thousands of Ugandans and other people who read this website: “Why are you so afraid of your leaders?”
Official statistics show that the vast majority of people in Uganda are Christians, both traditional Anglican and Roman Catholic as well as the new Evangelical or “born again” churches, and Muslims.
If then we are a nation full of people who follow the great historic faiths of Christianity and Islam, the faiths, along with Judaism, that Islam refers to as the “people of the book”, the people of the faiths that descended from the patriarch Abraham, if we claim to be followers of the one true and eternal God, why do we live in such fear?
The Evangelical Christians take it one step further and insist that theirs is not simply ritualistic, church-going religion like that of the Anglicans and Catholics, but a powerful experience of a personal relationship with the Messiah Christ Jesus in which they are infused with the Holy Spirit.
These Evangelical churches have sprung up all over Uganda since 1984 when Kampala Pentecostal Church was founded. “Born again” Christians are to be found in almost every segment of Ugandan society, from the media to the civil service, the armed forces, the diplomatic services, education, the corporate world, entertainment, and business.
Many, including Janet Museveni and her daughter Patience Rwabwogo, Gen. Elly Tumwine, and others are prominent at the national political level.
So, with all these “balokole” in high and low places, why do we not feel their impact as the nation sinks deeper into a spiral of corruption, abuse of public office and public funds, and these political murders such as that of Maj. Gen. James Kazini on Tuesday Nov. 10?
Why are the “born again” Christians so afraid to speak out as all these dark events are taking place?
Why is Uganda’s effective head of state a military officer called “General Fear”? And why is the superstitious person, an irrational person, one who visited a Seer rather than tune in to the BBC for news analysis, the one that seems to be unafraid of Museveni?
While many Ugandans went about their daily business, chasing after money, “further studies”, shopping, watching English Premiership football matches, and going to church religiously, I decided that I had to investigate the evil that has cast a shadow of death over the Great Lakes region.
The fact that so many people, with MBAs from prestigious business schools in the western world, with PhDs, with military cadet training, with a good family upbringing, regular churchgoers, members of civil society and academia, despite all their academic qualifications, secure financial balance sheets, respectable social status, frequent-flier privilege, and solid property can still live their lives in daily fear of the Museveni types, means then that money, elite education, connections, financial security and all the other trappings of a modern, successful, middle class life are not sufficient.
We need something more. Something deeper. A deeper, much, much deeper understanding of God, life, time, and truth that your standard KPC, All Saints Cathedral, Miracle Centre Cathedral, or Christ the King Church seem unable to provide.
If there is any investment we must all make or try to make, it is not in our RAV 4s or plots of land, or the so-called “further studies” that leave us as ignorant upon our return from London or New York as we went there, or in electronic consumer goods, if there is any investment worth our time and money, it surely must be in information.
We must get to know. We must find out what is going on, both in the area of political developments, but also in the high spiritual realm. That higher understanding of the spiritual basis of life is the true Universal Primary Education that will start us along the path to freedom.
We need to get back to the Garden of Eden and to the Tree of the knowledge of good an evil. We must understand the nature of evil, its power, its limitations, and where it will all end.
I had to investigate the nature of this evil itself, where it comes from, the spiritual forces behind it, is any, and what countermeasures can be taken against it.
So, do I fear?
Yes I fear…for Museveni.