They came, chatted, had photo opportunity and dispersed. They called it the 29th Buganda Lukiiko session. Constitutionally Uganda has no institution called kingdom rather institutions of traditional or cultural leaders.
Lukiiko proceedings slapped in the face of Ugandans need scrutiny as to the role of that institution lost relevance at the demise of Kingdom days after independence.
The Lukiiko’s membership was by appointment, and since 1900 agreement fused in the Mengo Establishment to complete the indirect rule structure. Thus the Katikkiro of the day Kaggwa who doubled as de facto Kabaka, was the President of the Lukiiko.
Ssaza Chiefs who also held judicial powers in their counties and all other executives of the Mengo Establishment- were members of the Lukiiko.
It was this colonial dictatorial set up combining the executive, the Judiciary and legislature which made up the Lukiiko.
It was a colonial instrument totally unaccountable to the people, totalitarian and fascist.
It was this instrument of repression which the British projected as the voice of Buganda and which the British used as a divide and rule tool.
Whatever other provinces of Uganda wanted for the country, the British through their Lukiiko structure of Mengo Establishment would oppose it.
The British would then parade it as the position of Baganda and in that way Buganda was effectively always at log heads with the rest of Ugandans in this carefully structured policy of divide and rule.
It is a truism that, some people can be deceived, some of the time, and others, all the time, but no one can deceive all the people all the time. By 1949 Baganda had had enough of this deceit.
Violent riots erupted all over Buganda. The entire Buganda was designated a disturbed area. Huge crowds defined Kabaka Muteesa and gathered near the palace threatening to storm the Lubiri itself.
Buganda Kingdom installations were set on fire. Ugandans from other parts of the country joined the struggle.
Peoples demands were, among others, the right to choose their own chiefs, elect their own Lukiiko representatives, posts of Katikkiro and Omuwanika to be held for a specified period with the elected Lukiiko submitting names to the Kabaka from which to select.
It was also the demand of the rioters that the principal of the independent judicial officers be applied in all courts.
Eventually the people won and by the 1955 Buganda agreement, Kabaka was stripped of all powers and he became a constitutional monarch.
The Kabakaship position became an electable one through an elected Lukiiko. The Katikkiro position would be an electable by Lukiiko. Power had shifted from the Kabaka and Mengo Establishment to the people.
Even physically the Lukiiko shifted from inside the Lubiri to the present location-outside the palace to the people. Lukiiko became a center of Uganda nationalism.
All the Baganda leaders looking to join their Ugandan brothers in the struggle for one united Uganda initially became Lukiiko members.
By the 1962 independence Lukiiko’s membership was that of people’s choice as members of the political parties of the day including the Democratic Party and Kabaka Yekka (KY).
The Democratic Party produced Uganda’s first Prime Minister in the names of Ben Kiwaunka.
Just before Uganda’s independence on October 9th 1962 the KY allied with the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) to form the first Government of independent Uganda under the leadership of Dr. Milton Obote.
In 1963 this political alliance elected through the National Assembly (Parliament), Sir Edward Muteesa as the first President of Uganda.
By October 1963, the Lukiiko as a tool of indirect rule had outlived its usefulness on the political scene of Uganda.
The independent Government of Uganda did not need any indirect rule structure for the governance of an independent Country.
Lukiiko and the Mengo Establishment became obsolete. Amos Sempa the Secretary General of the Lukiiko was in 1962 the first to jump ship abandoning the Lukiiko he became the Finance Minister in the Government of Independent Uganda.
Edward Muteesa the undisputed head of the Mengo Establishment and owner of KY followed in 1963 becoming the President of Uganda.
The Katikkiro as Chairperson of KY could not hold on the Lukiiko and Mengo Establishment and after 1964 was pre-occupied with opening KY branches outside Buganda and had obviously jumped ship.
So by 1966 when the President of Uganda fought it out with the Prime Minister for the executive control of the Country, there was no Lukiiko, no Buganda Kingdom, and no Mengo Establishment. Only an empty shell remained to be blown into oblivion forever through the actions of its senior most actors.
The spectacle at Mengo of an entirely appointed courtiers, presenting themselves to the world as a Lukiiko in session, was a contradiction of the sweep of history, an affront to the nation’s constitutional development, and a lie to the world.
The author is minister of State for Lands
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