Dear Ugandans,
Ugandan leaders have all been the same with minor differences. If you trace carefully and critically, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni( YKM) is no different from Iddil Amin Dada and all the other past leaders he always despises. I expect the usual suspects to argue that YKM is miles ahead of the ruling class. Wapi. They have been a bunch of mediocre who failed to create long lasting stability in Uganda. Uganda today is no more stable than it was at the time of independence. Kingdoms were abolished but what did it achieve? Some could argue that it gave Uganda YKM.
Idil Amin was president of Uanda( 1971-79)
See how his admirers measure transformation; YKM is supposed to be better because UPDF is more people friendly. Or he has allowed this or that or that people can at least sleep.
But if Ugandans were to be honest there is no social, political, economic transformation in Uganda. The people are again worried about the future. As The late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga famously wrote” it is not yet Uhuru” in Uganda. I dare anyone in Ugandans At HEART (UAH) to come forward and make the case that Uganda has undergone positive transformation since independence.
The national education system ended with Amin. Up to 1979, it did not matter much where one went to school. They had a fare shot at success. Things went downhill since then.
All past leaders and YKM shine from time to time in the eyes of their admirers because those who came after/before them set the bar so low. Look at YKM on corruption; it would be a real idiot who would not be better on his record. YKM is also the most tribalistic leader EVER in the history of Uganda and has no shame about it. He has screwed that country like never before, but because in some areas he is yet to reach the lows set by his predecessors, Ugandans still give him the benefit of the doubt, and YKM also goes chest thumping about it. The sad part is that Ugandans tolerate and even worship mediocrity in all spheres.
Yes, the Kingdoms can play a positive role in society. Why is it that the golden days in Buganda when Ugandans from all over the country could settle in Buganda without any problems was before or shortly after independence? Look at Ghana where cultural institutions are accepted and actually respected. No Ghanaian president can talk such nonsense you hear from YKM about kingdoms or traditional chiefs. A Ghanaian friend told me last week that his brother’s funeral is on hold in Accra because under the Gaa-the original ethnic groups around Accra-traditions, funerals cannot place there for some time. They are celebrating their traditions. There are Ugandans here in UAH forum that live in Ghana and can testify to that.
Now to the question some people wanted to ask: suppose Uganda was to embrace federalism how would Kingdoms fit in? Actually the question was settled in 1955 by what is famously known as the Namirembe Agreement of October 1955, which made it clear that Kingdom rulers would be Constitutional Monarchs like the Queen of England is today. I will not abuse the intelligence of UAH folks by explaining what a constitutional monarch is. So when you read Monday’s editorial in the New vision, you begin to understand what we are talking about: mediocrity all over. And by the way, the Namirembe agreement of 1955 applied to all kingdoms not just Buganda. The media in Uganda seems to be ignorant of this famous Agreement based on what they continue to spew out in their pages or editorials whenever YKM speaks out.
So people, ask yourself this question: why is it the case that in Uganda you see people-will not call them leaders-pretending to have what it takes to lead DP, UPC and other opposition parties. Some of the people in those political parties who offered to lead them should never have been in the race in the first place, but because mediocrity is now more or less the norm in Uganda, they offered themselves, and managed to cause chaos in opposition parties.
I am not going to get into the business of naming names here but take a critical look at the pretenders who threaten the identities of their respective parties? Are those the calibre of leaders to take down their traditional parties or to fight and die for? Put differently is the current NEC line up in political parties, particularly DP, in Uganda ,are they there on merit and have something to offer the country in terms of leadership.
W.B.Kyijomanyi
UAH forumist in NewYork
Ekitibwa Kya Buganda 
Mr Kyijomanyi:
Most of what you state are true.However on the Ugandan Education system
it started going haywire well after 1988/1989 not the 1979 you state.
This was because of the effects of the so called currency reforms that had no
plans for the repercussions it would have on some institutions especially educational
and health ones.It was about this time when PTAs took over the control of the school
administration and started setting up what they thought was meaningful tuition and
associated fees.The same applied to health institutions were so called arbitrary user
fees not based on any precedence was introduced.With the user fee,public outcry led
to its’ withdrawal but was later to return purportedly after the public were educated on
the benefits of the same.
With the educational institutions,many head teachers became real estate developers because
on the admissions letters to students,each student was to take a bag of cement to school as part
of the school development program and others even asked for roofing materials.
If you were unlucky and had 4 students in the same school,you would really feel the burden
because the letter applied to each student not family.
It was also around this time that the now prospering private schools at all levels started flouring.
So,we are where we are today because of having mediocres as our leaders.
That unfortunately,to use Gores`words is the Inconvenient truth.
To rebuild the educational standards to what it was before will definitely remain a dream for most
of the present generation and may be even the ones that will follow.This is because behavioural
change takes time and unless there is a serious catastrophe,we should not be so expectant of many
changes.
Kipenji
Mr Kyijomanyi,
You make many interesting claims below about the many things. It is sad no one seems to have picked them up for further debate….By the way, what would you define/characterise/describe as “positive transformation”?
Anyhow, what did the 1955 Agreement really have to do with everybody else apart from Buganda? I see you state that: “Agreement of October 1955, which made it clear that Kingdom rulers would be Constitutional Monarchs…applied to all kingdoms not just Buganda….” Are you really sure about such claims? The only reference that that agreement makes to the rest of the protectorate are in regard to consultation over federation with the rest of East Africa…not so?
Even then, your accusations against the Ugandan media not withstanding, is it not also a problem that you refer us to the 1955 Agreement without telling us that it became null in 1961? For you, it seems to still be an authority (albeit a false one)! Heard about the 1961 Agreement?
I wonder whether also, it does not matter so much that you talk about the Queen of England, when what we know of is the Queen of the UK?….and everything to do with how English Royals, all the way from the Plantagenets to the Stuarts, sought to broaden their authority over the whole of the rainy archipelago, while the Buganda Royals have consistently squandered every opportunity to broaden their appeal beyond their ethnic homeland….as evidenced by the manner in which Kabaka Mutesa handled himself after he signed that very 1955 agreement….in 1953, even the other kingdoms supported him as he was being deported, in 1955 he retracted into his role as a tribal chief…to the dismay of every other area of nascent Uganda.
You say: “No Ghanaian president can talk such nonsense you hear from YKM about kingdoms or traditional chiefs.”
Now, now, now: Have you ever heard the Asantehene telling Accra State House to remove itself from from the city, or withdraw its instruments from Kumasi? Ah!
Lance Corporal (Rtd) Patrick Otto
Lance corporal Otto:
Yes Iam sure about that. Not long ago, Bunyoro actually invoked the Namirembe agreement in their demands regarding oil revenue sharing. I wonder why the Ugandan media have never bothered to find out more about the Namirembe Agreement of October 1955. If they did they would not be writing such sensational stories surely out of ignorance. But since when did ignorance become an excuse?