By Halima Abdallah
April 7 - 13, 2004
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Do you know of any Mukenyi in your office or neighbourhood? If you don’t, do not blame yourself. They are rare specie. The Bakenyi are the displaced people of the Ganda origin. They are found around Lake Victoria, Lake Kyoga and the Busoga province. They are fishermen and live mainly around the water bodies. There is not much literature about the Bakenyi. However, they are believed to have escaped from Buganda in the 16 century following the death of Kabaka Kayemba. Their history is disappearing, but one Mukenyi, Ms Grace Nakasi 48, told the story as narrated to her by her parents. Nakasi operates a small hotel at Kagwara Port, Lake Kyoga in Soroti. “ Our fore fathers escaped after Kabaka Kayemba drowned in Lake Victoria. The Bakenyi were accused of murder and many fled eastwards for fear,” she said. Nakasi said at that time the Bakenyi had political differences with the main stream Baganda because they too, wanted to take over Kingship. The Baganda were opposed to their wish and were defeated. When Kabaka drowned, the Bakenyi were the immediate suspects. Most of them took refuge in the Islands around the country and have since then lived around landing sites. Nakasi said the Kabaka was on a tour from the Ssese Island in Kalangala district. Most of the Bakenyi took refuge in Soroti around Lake Kyoga, Some are in Majanji in Busia around Lake Victoria and several live in Busoga. The majority have been assimilated into the dominant tribes in the areas where they settled and prefer to be known as such. For example, those who took refuge in Soroti have made themselves Iteso, bare Iteso names and speak Ateso. Nakasi explained that many Bakenyi shy away from their true identity because of marginalisation and discrimination of all forms. “ We can never be elected to a political post even at LCI level because we are ‘emoit’. Emoit is an Iteso word for somebody from a Bantu tribe. When we go to hospitals and say that we are Bakenyi, we are told to wait until the Iteso are served. We must buy a doctor to get treatment,” Nakasi said. It becomes increasingly difficult everyday to trace a true Mukenyi because very few want to be called Bakenyi. According to the Minority Rights Group International report released last year they are about 1.2million. They are fishermen and mainly live around the water bodies. Nakasi operates a small eating-place at Kagwara Port, Lake Kyoga in Soroti. She traces her origin from Buganda in Kyadondo. According to Nakasi, Bakenyi became the suspects of the Kabaka’s death because they were the only people who had the knowledge of fishing and dealing with movements in the waters. Initially, the Bakenyi hid their identity because of fear of arrest and execution by the Baganda. Today they hide their identity for fear of discrimination and marginalisation. Their only advantage is that they have some money from fishing. Even then, the fishing gear they use today is very primitive. They cannot afford the fishing facilities that government recommends. They said they couldn’t easily access small loan facilities to improve their fishing business because of discrimination by the bigger tribes. “ We are denied village loans which could help buy some of the fishing gears,” Mr Asuman Egwalu said. According to them, the Iteso despise them and regard them as the people who eat fish while the bones come out from the all corners of the mouth. If we call a radio station to contribute to live debates and request to talk in Lukenyi, the line is cut off immediately, we are segregated even on air,” Mr Paulo Kasubi a fisherman said. According to Uganda Human Rights Commission, racial/tribal discrimination does not rank as one of the notorious violations of peoples’ rights in Uganda, but has played a devastated role in most post independence governments. Being fishermen, they live mainly around ports and on Islands. They claim State Minister for Health, Mr Mike Mukula bought the Island and pushed them out of it.This was the time they did some cultivation freely. Now they have to hire small pieces of land from the forestry department at fee of Shs 35,000 to 50,000 per acre for five years. Unlike the Batwa or Ik, the Bakenyi are a little advantaged because they can easily access government services like education and roads. Language Because they settled in different places in the country, they have learnt the various languages, which have in turn affected their own Kenyi language. It is a lexical similarity. It is very difficult to draw a line whether the person is speaking Luganda, Iteso, Lusoga Lugwere or Samia. Despite their ability to speak many languages, the Itesot can identify them. They commonly refer to them as Imakenyeit. The Bakenyi are not the only people headed for extinction. The MRGI report lists the Nubians, Ugandans of Sudanese origin, Kakwa, also origins from Sudan, Uganda Asians and the tabliqs. According to the report all these groups of people face marginalisation in one form or another. soc2: Mr Burhen Museno and his collegue Kasubi Paulo setting off shore at Kagwara port in Lake Kyoga in Soroti (Photo by Halima Abdallah). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The ADF are back in the news After a lull in activities, the Allied Democratic Front are back in the news, raising fear of a resumption of their Kony-style terror. First was the report over Women's Day this year. In Bwera sub-county, Kasese, the day came with the crackle of gunfire. On March 20, a prominent Muslim leader was questioned by the Joint Anti-Terrorism Taskforce (JAT) over alleged links with rebels. A few days later, six men and a woman are charged with treason in Kampala. These developments have brought back chilling memories of this particular insurgency's brutality that claimed innocent lives in western Uganda and maimed many. On November 12, 1996 an armed gang raided Mpondwe border town in Kasese from eastern DR Congo, then Zaire. Well armed and apparently well trained, the gang killed some people and injured and abducted a few others before withdrawing. The army later identified ADF as an alliance between the rebel National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (Nalu), led by Amon Bazira (RIP), which wanted to establish an independent kingdom in the region for the Bakonzo tribe, and disgruntled elements within the Islamist Tabliq sect who aimed to establish an Islamic state in Uganda. With funding reportedly from Zaire and certain Arab states through Sudan, the ADF staged numerous ambushes, abducted youths, raided towns and ransacked, several institutions. In one of their most brutal outings, they burnt to death 80 students of Kichwamba Technical Institute in June 1998. By 2000 the insurgency had displaced some175, 000 people. Although its leaders like Mukulu and Rogers Kabanda have remained at large, President Museveni and other government officials have since early 2001declared that the ADF has been "completely defeated". "I am sure of decisive results [against Kony rebels] just as we finished ADF," Museveni said in his 2003 New Year address. Regrouping Security now sources say that ADF leaders Mukulu and Kabanda have been "roaming around the world" - to UK, middle East and "a neighbouring country". According to JAT, small groups of ADF remnants, unable to cause insecurity in Uganda, are living in Congo. These remnants are said to be in touch with Mukulu. It is said that once in Congo, the ADF adopt Congolese names and mingle in with the locals. Since January The UN force in Congo (MONUC) and the Amnesty Commission have been trying to repatriate 600 of them. There is scepticism in western Uganda as to whether this initiative will end the ADF once and for all. "There are elements that committed very bad crimes and they can't even respond to the amnesty because of fear," says Kasese LCV Chairman Bihande Bwambale. Security sources now say that the rebels might have used their engagement with UN as a ploy to recruit. On March 8, the UPDF killed ADF commander Santana Bairinga alias Hamza in Bwera. Hamza had earlier picked up nine recruits and taken them across the border into Congo. The ADF, Mbabazi said, have been recruiting in the districts of Busia, Bugiri, Iganga, Kampala and Kasese. "Unfortunately it appears they are trying to use Muslims," said UPDF spokesman Maj. Shaban Bantariza. Seven of the eight people charged in court last week have Muslim names. One of them, Jamil Kakaire was reportedly in contact with a wife of Sheikh Obeid Kamulegeya, a former Mufti of Uganda, leading to Kamulegeya's interrogation by the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence. However, in an interview Kamulegeya repeated his fervent denial that he was in bed with the ADF. He said the call to his wife was misdirected and was promptly disconnected on realising that it was a wrong number. From questioning the detainees, JAT has reportedly got information about a number of people who are still active rebels but lying low and silently recruiting in the civilian community in Kasese and Kampala. According to JAT, among those leading the recruitment drive are Sheikhs Twaha Kakande and Buikwe Nakibinge. Kakande was released under the Amnesty Act in January this year; He had been arrested in 2001 for recruiting for the rebel group. "After being released, this Sheikh Twaha Kakande started recruiting people for ADF. He had so far recruited 28 people and was being paid Shs 30,000 per person," Mugenyi said. "He was actually taking the recruits to Kasese district." In Kasese, local authorities are reassuring the population that the latest ADF incidents do not in any way signal the return of the ADF. News of ADF in the area with terrible memories of the rebels, caused but a small scare, according to Bwambale. "Immediately after the killings at Bwera, I held a big rally with the Brigade Commander and we reassured the people," he said in an interview. "And they are really not bothered: life is going on very normally." Still, the authorities are not taking the prevailing calm for granted. In the three sub counties (Kitoro, Karambi and Bwera) bordering DR Congo, local militia (home guards) still carry out regular patrols. While he does no believe that the atrocious ADF insurgency of old is about to return, Bwambale admits says that in a rebellion like that, the insurgents can't be completely wiped out. Joseph Kasimbazi, a journalist in Fort Portal, says that the people are living with the spectre of the ADF returning. "Even now there is still tension in areas along the border areas," Kasimbazi said last week. Referring to a local saying, a top government official who declined to be named says that if you kill a snake, you do not necessarily start celebrating. "If you kill a female snake, it may have laid some eggs which may hatch," he said. "If it is male, it may have mated with some female snake so it may still have offspring lurking nearby." And for him it is critically important that the "parent snakes" like Mukulu and maverick spokesman Kabanda have never been killed. Like Bantariza, the official all but rules out the possibility of a full-scale resurgence of the ADF. Says Bantariza: "We are not worried: these are just small groups trying to beef up their numbers." According to Mr Christopher Kibazanga, the MP for Busongora South in Kasese, as long as there are some elements in the volatile Eastern Congo, there is a threat for the people in Uganda. "The ordinary person is concerned," said Kibazanga, also Defence Secretary of the Reform Agenda. "The current indicators suggest that the rebels are regrouping. It is very hard to completely flush them out from the Rwenzori area." But for Henry Mayiga of the Uganda People's Congress, the little tension in the border areas is good news for the government. Mayiga, the vice Chairman of UPC's Presidential Policy Commission, smells a rat in the "resurrection of ADF" by the government, having declared it gone a few years back. The new ADF, he says, are deliberate exaggerations and part of the "third term" Project. "Museveni has to create all sorts of reasons to remain in power," he says. "And one of these reasons is to create insecurity and instability so that he says he is the only one who can bring stability." Whatever the case, it appears that the people in western Uganda who suffered at the hands of the ADF, have no immediate cause to worry. |
© 2004 The Monitor Publications
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