The violence in western Uganda caught everybody flatfooted
and while it is being dismissed as tribal clashes, there are disturbing
undertones to the whole incident that require that we all seat up and take
notice.
At the
beginning of the month dozens of people were killed during coordinated attacks
in the districts of Bundibugyo,
Kasese and Ntoroko in western Uganda.
The attackers, some armed with guns, pangas,
spears, bows and arrows attacked police stations, army barracks and private
homes in an operation that was quickly snuffed out but, which has left the
region in a decided state of disquiet.
This week 125 people rounded up by security
agents have faced the court martial for their alleged involvement in the
fracas.
As part of the process of getting to the
bottom of the problem at least eight Rwenzuru Kingdom ministers remain in
custody in connection with attacks. An event which has set tongues wagging and
fuelled rumours that more arrests even of the Rwenzururu king maybe in the
pipeline.
It has been suggested that the Rwenzururu
kingdom may not have looked too kindly on the installation of the Bamba king,
in effect giving them autonomy from the Rwenzururu kingdom.
The Rwenzururu Kingdom too came out of a
settlement with rebels who had fought to breakway from the Tooro kingdom.
That is a broad outline of the background to
the story. It is obviously more complex than that.
In the 1990s government restored the traditional
Kingdoms, which were abolished in 1967, as cultural institutions with no
political or territorial authority as compromise. As a result several other
traditional institutions have asserted their right to exist, often breaking
away from the larger kingdoms and rubbing the bigger cultural institutions the
wrong way.
The bigger institutions allege a ploy by
government to control them through some divide and rule policy.
"The cultural institutions have been careful not to antagonise government too much in the last 20 years. Not only because a precedent has been set for their abolition but more crucially because they rely on government as guarantor of their existence and largely depend on Kampala for handouts to stay afloat...
Every so often tempers flair as these cultural
institutions seek to leverage their perceived influence to sue for more
concessions from government.
The existence of our cultural institutions,
essentially feudal set ups, are an oxymoron in a country trying to build a
democracy. They are a political compromise to appease the elite of the
respective tribes who in moments of misguided tribalism, it is feared, could
cause problems for the center.
Clearly the attacks were not a spontaneous
outburst and even if the organisers knew they did not have a hope in hell in
overrunning the security installations, they probably hoped they would shake up
the establishment enough that they would strengthen their bargaining power.
What they – whoever they are, would be
bargaining for is not publicly known.
The Rwenzururu king Charles Mumbere has denied
that he nor his establishment has been involved in organising the attacks. We
all hope this is true, because if it isn’t
this would be the height of political brinkmanship that risks the
existence of the kingdom, peace in the area and would put the brakes on progress in the area. Whichever way you look at it there can be no happy
ending.
