35 years of President Museveni

Working with Baganda

Now this is extremely important and I want all the people to know it fully. In 1980/81 he secretly worked with Baganda elders, the late Paul Kavuma, former Katikkiro of Buganda, the late Prince Badru Kakungulu and the late Bishop Yokana Mukasa formerly of Mityana to train young Baganda to fight Obote.

He trained 40 Baganda at Kabamba Training Barracks who were recruited by the late Sam Njuba and they were part of the group he started with the 1981/1986 Liberation War as well as the 27 Banyankole, Banyarwanda and Bakiga. That means he started the war in February 1981 with a total of 67 fighters who included the 40 young Baganda.

In July 1981 he successfully negotiated with Prof. Lule’s UFF in Nairobi and they formed the National Resistance Movement (NRM) and the National Resistance Army (NRA), which fought a bitter five-year war in Luwero and achieved victory on January 26, 1986 and he became President of Uganda.

I was a member of the “Prof. Y.K Lule’s Original Think Tank” and the other members were; Dr. Andrew Lutakome Kayira, Bernard Kibuka Musoke and Balaki Kirya. Museveni himself was the top Field Commander of the bush war assisted by Moses Kigongo who is now the Vice-Chairman of NRM.

He has since then been winning Presidential General Elections in a “one-man one vote” democratic system: in 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016 and now 2021.

How he has succeeded where others failed is clearly by analysis of his biggest achievements as a leader.

The first biggest achievement was the restoration of the Buganda Kingdom on July 31, 1993 after winning the war. This earned him solid support from all Baganda and this, plus other things, has enabled him to stay in power all these years. Everybody can see that the Baganda are now happy with their Kabaka and their Kingdom.

Museveni succeeded where others failed because those who ruled before him between 1971 and 1986 did not restore the Buganda Kingdom. I have excluded Prof. Lule who ruled for only 68 days.

The second biggest achievement has been the bringing and maintenance of political stability throughout the country. This is extremely important because political instability breeds social chaos, political darkness and death as we have seen what has happened and now happening in many countries in Africa and the world.

The third big achievement has been the building and maintaining a well disciplined and professional national army which has protected our country and also done a good job of restoring peace in some African countries, in particular Somalia.

The fourth achievement has been to industrialise the country. I remember before we started to industrialise, we were paying Kenya, KShs3 billion annually for the different goods we were importing from there.

The fifth big achievement was to allow the People of Uganda to make their own Constitution in 1995 and the Restoration of the Multi-Party System which is the most viable and highly civilised system of maintaining Democracy.

Ugandans; especially those in my area of Kyaggwe County in Mukono District thank President Museveni for building the roads. Right now, you drive from Mukono town to the Lake at Katosi port without any problems and it takes 30 minutes to Katosi.

The road from Kisoga town all the way to Jinja through Nkonkonjeru, Ngogwe, Kawuna Hills (The source of Sezzibwa River), Najja, Nyenga up to River Nile is now tarmacked and quite wide.

The road from Njeru to Kayunga in Bugerere up to Mukono is all tarmac.  The road from Seeta to Namugongo, Kyaliwajala, Naalya and then to the Northern Bypass up to Busega, joining Masaka road is all tarmac.

The roads in other areas of Buganda and Western Uganda linking to thebBorder with Rwanda are all tarmacked. This is the same situation in Eastern Uganda, Northern Uganda and North Eastern Uganda.

The people of Uganda have built schools, universities (right now there are 48 universities in Uganda), hospitals, hotels and lodges, small and big factories and industries, big and small commercial buildings in all towns in Uganda. People organise social gatherings, weddings, kwanjula (introduction ceremonies), graduation parties in an extremely fabulous way and they spend a lot of money without any problems.

When you go to Mengo, the seat of the Kabaka’s Government, you see the wonderful development which has being done there which include the Buganda Broadcasting Services TV (which the Baganda call BBS Telefayina).

One other remarkable factor is that People all over Uganda have built very good permanent living houses, which was not so, long ago and many people in Uganda can afford to buy vehicles.

Ugandans have built many beautiful places of worship and Ugandans have developed music in the most wonderful way. All this has been achieved because of the 35 years of political stability. We pray the Almighty God to keep us united.

What I am requesting President Museveni to do right now, is to stop people who have now resorted to buying and selling land in Buganda and have now started a terribly bad habit of chasing away Baganda from their Bibanjas.

You the land lord in Buganda, when you have land where many people have inhabited it, do not sell it, because if you sell it, you will create a big problem which you will not be able to manage. The Baganda who have made it a habit to sell their land should stop it or else Baganda will find themselves landless.

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Kavuma – Kaggwa is an elder from Kyaggwe