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Katikkiro says NRM should not accuse but address issues in Buganda
Kampala, Uganda | URN & THE INDEPENDENT | Katikkiro Charles Peter Mayiga has dismissed the talk of sectarian voting in Buganda during the presidential and parliamentary elections.
He has instead put the spotlight on the voting in other parts of the country, saying it is actually testimony that those with the notion that Baganda are the ones that are tribalistic, are reading it all wrong.
“I don’t think the blame game is useful…saying that people are sectarian and were not voting NRM is totally wrong. In any case there is no area in Uganda where people are voted when they are not ethnically in that area like it is in Buganda. We have had many MPs who are not Baganda who have been elected in Buganda through the years, which is not very common in other areas,” he said.
Speaking about last week’s voting pattern in Central Uganda where the electorate voted highly against the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party in the presidential and parliamentary election, Mayiga said that it is actually a political sign that there are areas that NRM needs to address.
According to Mayiga, many issues need to be addressed in Buganda including the broken health system, poverty, unemployment and the unsatisfactory education system.
“Roads are all broken. We have also witnessed very many murders, all of them happening in Buganda. These cause gray areas for the NRM and should simply be courageous and address them, ” Mayiga said.
“I find the tribal talk extremely misplaced. Most of the government programmes do not benefit the ordinary people. Poverty in the countryside is so much, and corruption is on rampage….those are all issues the NRM leaders should address with courage and humility, instead of picking on Bagada. It is not good for national unity.”
Ministers kicked out in Central Uganda
President Yoweri Museveni and a number of his Ministers contesting for different parliamentary seats lost in Buganda region to the National Unity Platform (NUP) party led by Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu during the Thursday 14th January election and some voices have pointed to sectarianism as one of the reason why people voted the way they did.
But Mayiga says that whoever is fronting the tribal views should first question why Kyagulanyi was voted for in Kamuli and other parts in Busoga and Museveni voted for highly in Western Uganda.
“But Kyagulanyi was voted in Busoga as well, was voted in the East, even in the constituency of the Speaker Rebecca Kadaga. Kyagulanyi is not a Musoga. Museveni was voted in Ankole… and Buganda has voted for the president before, how do they explain that. That is cheap talk, and I think as a country we should abandon it,” Mayiga charged.
The Electoral Commission (EC) on Saturday declared Yoweri Kaguta Museveni as the winner of the January 14 presidential election securing him his sixth elected term as President of Uganda.
Museveni was contesting with 10 other candidates in the race for the country’s top office. According to declared results by EC Chairperson Justice Simon Byabakama, Museveni won with 5,851,037 votes (58.64 per cent). Museveni’s closest competitor, National Unity Platform’s -NUP Robert Kyagulanyi garnered 3,475,298 votes (34.83 per cent), followed by Forum for Democratic Change’s -FDC Patrick Oboi Amuriat with 323,536 votes (3.24 per cent), Alliance for National Transformation-ANT candidate Gen. Mugisha Muntu 65,334 votes (0.65 per cent), Democratic Party candidate Norbert Mao with 55,665 votes (0.56 per cent) and others.
But Data from the Electoral Commission-EC shows Kyagulanyi and his NUP’s won highly in majority of the districts in Buganda region in both the presidential and parliamentary election. Some of the districts that NUP won are Luwero, Kayunga, Mukono, Mityana, Gonna, Mpigi, Kalungu, Masaka, Kyotera, Kalangala, Wakiso, Buvuma, Buikwe, Kassanda and others.
The party also was successful in some districts in Eastern Uganda including Kamuli, Luuka, Iganga, Bugiri, Jinja, Mayuge and others.
Ssekandi not spared
Among the NRM Ministers who have lost in the election are Vice President Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi who was defeated in Bukoto Central, Government Chief Whip Ruth Nankabirwa in the Kiboga district Woman MP race, State Minister for Higher Education John Muyingo in Bamunanika County, Minister for Information, Communication and Technology Judith Nabakooba in Mityana district Woman MP race.
The others are Minister of Trade Amelia Kyambadde who lost in Mawokota North, Minister for Agriculture Vincent Ssempijja in Kalungu East, Minister of State for Microfinance Haruna Kasolo in Kyotera County, Minister of State for Water Ronald Kibuule in Mukono North, Minister for Kampala Beti Kamya in Rubaga North, Minister of State for Youth and Children Affairs Florence Nakiwala Kigingi in Bukomansimbi Woman MP race and others.
The NRM party Secretary General Justine Kasule Lumumba has since said that the defeat in these areas by a young NUP opposition party is a sign of democracy ushered in by the NRM that people are free to choose who they want.
She however said that they would go back to the drawing board as a political party to ascertain why they lost in the Buganda region.
“We have to go back to the drawing board and get to know exactly what happened, why it happened and what is the way forward. It is a responsibility for us as leaders…not only here at the Center but working with leaders at the lower levels,” she said.
Asked what could have informed the bad performance in Buganda, Lumumba said that it could be gaps in service delivery.
Low turn out
The Katikkiro has also questioned the low voter turnout in today’s Local Government election compared to last week’s enthusiasm exhibited by the electorate.
“The turnout today is low…of course the turnout for the presidential and parliamentary election was very high. I think it shows the importance the voters attach to the different levels of leadership for representation,” said Mayiga after he and his wife cast their vote in Lweza.
Nze ne mukyala wange tukedde kwetaba mu kulonda abakulembeze ku mitendera gya gavumenti ez’ebitundu. Tulondedde Lweza. Kirungi mwetebe mu kulonda kuno. pic.twitter.com/ZwB8eAaAQf
— Charles Peter Mayiga (@cpmayiga) January 20, 2021
On Thursday last week, long queues were witnessed at different polling stations throughout the day as voters participated in the presidential and parliamentary election but the picture today is different with only a handful of people seen carrying out this civic duty.
The Electoral Commission –EC appointed today 20th January for voters in the different 11 cities across the country to choose Chairpersons, Directly Elected Councilors and Women Councilors for District Local Government Councils (LC V).
Here in Kampala, where the electorate is voting the Lord Mayor, Directly Elected Councilors and Women Councilors for Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), many people are seen buried in their private business as voting barely goes on.
He said that leaders at the district level are equally important as those at the president and parliamentary level and therefore a need for people to pay the process attention.
“Matters at the district level may need solutions by leaders at the district level. Councillors and women leaders are are important representative who can voice concerns from that level,” Mayiga said.
Mayiga said that it is very important that people come out and vote even in the remaining elections because leadership matters at every stage.
“If you got a poor leader at the village level, you may fail to solve the simplest of problems and it goes on all the way up to the highest level. So we need representatives who are focused and understand challenges faced by the people, so people should vote at every stage,” he explained.
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congs m7
The secretarianists voted for their own. It seems they met somewhere and talked and plotted how to vote for their own.
“We have also witnessed very many murders, all of them happening in Buganda. These cause gray areas for the NRM and should simply be courageous and address them, ” Mayiga said.”
Mr. Mayiga should ask himself or his people why there are so many murders in Buganda. Who murders these people? Certainly, not people from other areas. Some of these people are murdered for sacrifices because of the belief system prevalent in Mayiga’s culture. Your people don’t need to sacrifice one another for political reasons or in order to acquire more wealth or power. The land system that has rendered people as tenants or squatters in their ancestral land has dehumanized and impoverished the people of this particular populous area. In Busoga too there is too much witchcraft and that has impeded development or any kind of progress.
When the banyankole vote Museveni its not secterianism but when Bagada vote Kyagulanyi its sectarianisn. Think about it. Its better to address reasons why NRM losr in Buganda rather than advancing cheap tribal setiments. Besides the MPs voted out were Baganda and replaced by Baganda. So the issue of yribe should not be raised surely.
“Besides the MPs voted out were Baganda and replaced by Baganda.” You have only proved that they voted as an ethnic bloc for themselves to get out of the mainstream. They plotted it as an ethnic group.
NUP is mainly a Buganda thing. It should not be welcomed in other parts of the country. The Basoga who accepted it are accepting to be colonized.
NRM is mainly an Ankole thing. It should not be welcomed in other parts of the country. The Batooro(my tribe),the Acholi,the Langi and other tribes who accepted it are accepting to be colonized.
Think critically for yourself instead of copying my theory.
So isn’t NRM an Ankole thing??…..we know it well but we remain quite please victor don’t make a shallow analysis as if u never sat in a class
Once upon a time, everybody was in NRM as a movement, even Buganda. Buganda has now formed its own party and that is out there in the open. It doesn’t mean that everybody should now follow Buganda under their king.
Victor u are ignorant. You mean there is no witchcrart in ankole. Yet so.many big people there have confessed being customers of witch doctors. Remind me, whats the role of bachwezi shrines u have in ankole?
Victor must be very naive and dense. Ankole is the most tribalistic and sectarian region in.uganda.
How come all of them vote nrm? Look at the distribution of positions in govt, army, ura etc.
They even name themselves kiganda names to disguise as though they are baganda to show regional distribution yet they are not.
The pipo who were killed, kidnapped, beaten in.kla, wakiso and mpigi all mostly baganda.
May be bullets are meant for one tribe.
Check.in.all prisons baganda are rotting away just bse of difference in opinion.
There is virtually no curfew in.mbarara/ankole but in.buganda we are more like in a war zone. Guns every where and u think we are hapi.
Buganda is the least tribalistic tribe in.uganda. Almost every home of baganda has a non muganda in it contrary to other tribes.
There is a long history of non baganda mps in.buganda than any where else in.uganda.
In ankole a resident ngomangime who hailed from.busoga was told by pipo in.mbarara to go to busoga that mbarara was for mbarara. Imagine.
Victor u are shallow and empty.
Talk about ghee which u know best. Make your brain more serious.
“There is a long history of non baganda mps in.buganda than any where else in.uganda” Exactly. But now they have formed their own tribal party NUP.
Secondly, not everybody who criticizes Buganda chauvinism is from Ankole.
“Victor u are shallow and empty.”
This is what I was talking about. That if other Ugandans disagree with Buganda chauvinism and their beef with M7, then one deserves to be disparaged. However, all that means you have no idea of the history of domination of Buganda over other regions as modeled by the British “conquerers” and colonization itself.
“Buganda is the least tribalistic tribe in.uganda. Almost every home of baganda has a non muganda in it contrary to other tribes.” What are those non-Baganda doing in the Baganda homes? Are they houseboys or housegirls?
You have no idea that there are also Baganda houseboys or housegirls in other households. There are also Baganda businessmen/women in other regions, even in the markets, or small businesses which they could not start in their own area.
“Talk about ghee which u know best. Make your brain more serious.” This is what you direct to the Banyankole because in your perception they have taken power from the Baganda chauvinists.
Not everybody who does not support Bobi Wine is a Munyankole. That is your beef with them. For some of us who try to cherish the country and are not from the dominant ethnicities, we have nothing to do with the new beef or traditional beef between the Baganda and Banyankole. We will only say “Shauri Yako” and concentrate on being just Ugandans seeking stability and sanity. The majority has spoken and they do not want a drug addict/devil worshipper, a.k.a Bobi Wine, entirely propped up by ethnic chauvinists/sectarianists to lead the country.
Open your spiritual eyes and also look outside of the box and you will see that other Ugandans too have issues and have spoken through the vote. In fact, one can wonder how you guys thought you were going to win state power with an ethnic vote. The Western world that was allegedly promoting Bobi Wine did not know the real social and political issues on the ground. They concentrated on the social media promoted by Bobi Wine’s political novices. These people only wanted to go to parliament where there are hefty allowances for themselves.