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...It appeared first and most obviously in disputes
between the Buganda government and the national government over the
interpretation of their respective powers. For example, considerable strain
occurred in February 1963, over the terms of a bill before the national assembly
which detailed the powers and responsibilities of each. At about the same time
the Baganda were disconcerted to find the national government's public
prosecutor intervening in a case being heard in a Buganda court, and in a few
months later, questions arose about the running of Police Posts with Buganda.
(By early 1966, the jurisdiction and autonomy of Buganda's parallel legal and
judicial system had been so reduced through a series of constitutional
rulings that it could safely operate only in the area of customary law, and even
here it was limited to laws not contrally to or pre-empted by national
government laws) In the same year, 1963, in conjunction with talks that were
held regarding the establishment of an East African federation, which at the
time was to include Uganda, Kenya, and Tanganyika, a minister of the Kabaka's
government resurrected the Buganda's claims to separate state-hood by demanding
that its entrance into any such federation should be as a federal unit by its
self rather than a part of Uganda.
The two matters that probably proved most divisive
of all were Buganda government finances and what are called the "lost" counties.
The former can be briefly summarized as pertaining to rights to taxes collected
in Buganda and to Buganda's degree of autonomy in determining expenditures. Even
as late as 1965 some issues in regard to taxation remained sufficiently in
dispute to the privy council to hear an appeal from the Uganda high court
regarding rights in the graduated income tax collected in Buganda.
The other issue, that of the "Lost" counties,
cannot be summarized as briefly. Certain areas that in the nineteenth century
were part of the Kingdom of Bunyoro, to the North West of Buganda, were ceded by
the British to the Baganda in return for their services in the period of
pacification.
The Banyoro, however, never accepted this action
and referred to the area as their "Lost" counties. The dispute between them was
serious, violence was frequent in the area, and the counties were in consequence
often declared "disturbed areas" by the central government, which there upon
imposed special regulations, curfews, etc, and sent in detachments of the Uganda
Police. However to dispose off the issue was one of the most difficult questions
which the negotiators at the pre-independence conference had to face. Eventually
it was agreed, on the basis of recommendations by a special commission of
inquiry, that in the two counties with particularly large numbers of
Banyoro a referendum would be held among the inhabitants to decide whether they
would remain with Buganda, revert to Bunyoro, or form a new district directly
under the Uganda Government's jurisdiction.
Following independence, the Kabaka's government
opened up large tracts of uninhabited land in these counties and settled on them
several thousand Baganda, mainly ex-service men, a tactic obviously not designed
to ease the situation. Moreover, Mutesa him self several times spent long
periods at his hunting lodge in Ndaiga, an area within the "Lost" counties,thus
making plain his personal interest in the scheme. The Uganda government was
technically not a part to the dispute, but as it provided another opening for
the Buganda question to appear, it was not suppressing that several non-Baganda
ministers openly sided with Bunyoro and that on at least one occasion the Uganda
Government, on learning on one of the Kabaka's visit there, promptly declared
the counties a "disturbed area" an action to which Baganda spokesmen just as
promptly objected strongly. Tension continued to build untill, in
accordance with the pre-independence agreement, a bill was introduced into
the national assembly in the summer of 1964,scheduling the referendum for that
November. Not only was this date about as early as the agreement permitted, but
also the bill contained a clause restricting the right to vote to people
resident in the counties prior to independence.
By this time, as is described below UPC had
acquired an absolute majority in the national assembly through a series of
defections from Kabaka Yekka and DP, and passage of the bill was virtually
assured. Its introduction, and in particular the earliness of the date and the
exclusion of the recent settlers from the voting list, so upset the Baganda that
in August 1964, the remaining KY members of the national assembly, including two
Buganda Ministers and a parliamentary secretary, crossed the floor and sat with
DP on the opposition benches. In the event, the voters chose to become again a
part of Bunyoro. Many Baganda did not accept this decision, and the situation
was exacerbated by the refusal of Mutesa, in his capacity as president of
Uganda, to sign the bills scheduling the referendum and implementing its
results. (The bills never the less became law by virtue of a special
clause, described below, that was introduced in the constitution prior to his
becoming President) With in Buganda the government fell, and a new katikiro
(Prime Minister) had to be elected. (In this election, it is worth noting, the
Baganda chose a moderate, national level politician, Mayanja-Nkangi, untill then
one of the Baganda ministers in Obote's government, to become Katikiro, rather
than a spokesman of the separist faction with in Buganda, an action that both
reflected and furthered that faction's declining influence.) Even a year later,
in 1965, feeling among baganda continued to run so high that when six
Bunyoro officials and a civilian attempted to enter the Kabaka's lodge at
Ndaiga, all seven were killed, and the Bunyoro government considered it
necessary to declare officially that the lodge was its property and to ban the
Buganda ex-service men's association from the area.
To be continued
In the next series of Buganda in Uganda we
will be looking at Buganda in Uganda and Political
parties
The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie" |
