‘Federo’ is a fantasy
CABINET HAS decided to push for the lifting of term limits for the presidency and a return to federo.
However, a representative of the Buganda kingdom has responded that the two issues should be delinked.
He is right. The two issues are both too complex to consider together.
In particular the restoration of federo, or a federal kingdom, is risky.
Firstly, the dominance of the Buganda kingdom at independence created a political imbalance that destabilised the country.
Secondly, a federal kingdom is not the most progressive form of government. As head of state, the Kabaka will appoint chiefs, ministers and officials. What will happen to the authority of democratically elected LC5 and LC3 officials?
Thirdly, is an additional layer of administration in Buganda even necessary?
Fourthly, this administration will have to be funded either by local taxation or by increased taxation by the central government. If the central government pays, a peasant in West Nile might ask why his tax payments go to the Kabaka of Buganda.
Fifthly, how many Baganda truly want federo? Many elected LC officials favour loose cooperation under a charter, as Busoga is attempting, but oppose the idea of an administrative federal kingdom.
Federo has become a fantasy, a dream for a return to the 1950s and 1960s when people were more prosperous and society more orderly. But it is impossible to turn the clock back. If the kingdom returns, Baganda will still find themselves in today’s Uganda where the world coffee price is lower than the 1960s and KCC cannot fix the roads.
It is not worth changing the Constitution for the sake of an illusion.
Published on: Tuesday, 26th August, 2003
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Mitayo Potosi
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