By far the largest number of Baganda today live in the Buganda region of Uganda. A significant portion of Baganda however now live outside Uganda. Because of the great love for the culture and traditions of their ancestors, as well as a desire to contribute to the development of Uganda their motherland, many Baganda around the world have organized themselves in various groupings to pursue goals that will benefit the motherland.

Ttabamiruka ’07, New York, 2007. Baganda from across the globe, joined by relatives and friends, will meet to review the state of our motherland, get to know each other, discuss Buganda’s future, and celebrate our culture and achievements.
                              
Resolutions Of BUGANDA 2000
The Convention Of The Baganda Diaspora
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PREAMBLE

Whereas the main body of the Baganda live in Uganda and whereas a large number of Baganda live in the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Sweden, Germany, Canada, South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Kenya and other parts of the World.

And whereas our leaders are presently participating in the Buganda 2000 Convention and whereas delegates, representatives and participants have gathered here at Bloomsbury Theatre, 15 Gordon Street, London, UK from the 27th August to 29th August 1998; we resolve as follows:
We pledge and re-affirm our allegiance and commitment to our Kabaka, the sovereign Lord; His Majesty Ssaabasajja Kabaka Muwenda Mutebi II of Buganda.

Having heard deliveries, reports and presentations from the various speakers and delegates from Uganda, the United Kingdom, U.S.A, Sweden, Lesotho, Swaziland, Canada, Germany, and other parts of the world concerning the health, wealth and fate of Buganda and Baganda in the new millennium; we resolve and declare our unabating support for a united Uganda.

And whereas the said support is unabated and uncompromised in anyway at all, we note with deep concern the deteriorating economical and political situation in Buganda and Uganda, and the increasingly autocratic and repressive laws being enacted in the country such as the recent LAND ACT 1998 which is unconstitutional, corrupt and completely unacceptable in Buganda and to Baganda at large.

We further note with great alarm that Uganda is in real danger of disintegration due to the incessant, endless civil wars and wars on its borders, in particular there is deep concern and resentment at Uganda’s participation in the current war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There is also increasing Human Rights violations and disappearance of Moslem Baganda in the country.

Aware of the administration of Uganda and her national assets; the hopeless inept and corrupt administration in the current political system which is NOT working for Buganda and the majority of other ethnic groupings;

Further more we note with concern the proposed referendum on the Uganda political system and note that the terms and conditions in the constitution for this referendum are so absurd, that there is no way the NRM can lose, and therefore Baganda will end up in an NRM dictatorial yoke;
And concerned at the mad “Pan-African” plan to create a Federal Eastern African State made up of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi and dominated by the Tutsi ethnic group which is now involved in serious disturbances, and war in the Democratic Republic of Congo;

We are amazed at the double standards that require Uganda to spearhead the Eastern African federal union when Federal status is not allowed at country level in Uganda.

THEREFORE, WE, THE BAGANDA SEATED AT THE BUGANDA 2000 CONVENTION AND REFERRED TO AS THE BAGANDA DIASPORA RESOLVE AS FOLLOWS:

Federo and ‘Ebyaffe’

1. To work tirelessly to ensure that Uganda becomes a Federation of States in which Buganda will be a Federal State headed by His Majesty Ssaabasajja Kabaka and to this end we will pool our resources in the Diaspora to ensure that we achieve this goal.
 
2. To use every opportunity to lawfully reverse the Land Act which has been used to rob Ssaabasajja Kabaka and Baganda of their land. Therefore we appeal to all Baganda to use our energy including votes during elections to get this unfair Land Law repealed and replaced by a fair one.

3. To state categorically, that while we appreciate the return of some of Buganda’s assets, we demand the return of the remaining assets seized by the Government of Uganda. To this end we salute all Baganda who have used their resources to restore these assets to their former glory and to appeal to all in the Diaspora to contribute financially and materially to restore our heritage sites such as the Mmengo palace to their former glory.

4. To promote structures and a culture which will help nurture new, strong and incorruptible leaders for Buganda in the new millennium. To this end we appeal to all Baganda to ensure that they encourage and elect leaders who have Buganda’s interests at heart and to reject completely those who are ready to betray their motherland.

5. Never to allow the events that took place in Buganda in 1966 to occur again. To this end, we will use our collective efforts in the Diaspora to achieve this desired and stated goal.

Kabaka’s Government

6. To channel financial and material help to Kabaka’s Government most of which is run by volunteers. To this end we kindly ask the Government at Mmengo to put in place structures that will enable every Muganda in the Diaspora to make a voluntary community contribution on an annual basis. We also request Kabaka’s Government to appoint an official to co-ordinate organisations and the affairs of the Diaspora.

7. To declare a Buganda Heroes Day to commemorate all Baganda who died in the struggle for Buganda since 1966.

Culture

8. To enhance our Kiganda culture and instil it among our children to ensure that they grow up into confident and well behaved adults ready to uphold Buganda and her values. We will from now on also call on our ancient gods in accordance with our traditional Baganda religion to ensure a healthy, wealthy and progressive Buganda.

Education and Health

9. To mobilise our resources through the various Baganda organisations in the Diaspora to assist the education of our children. In particular we shall endeavour to work through Kabaka’s Government to assist schools in Buganda by contributing to Kabaka’s Education Fund; provide teachers to needy schools and provide bursaries to poor pupils especially in the rural areas.

10. To mobilise the Diaspora particularly the many highly qualified medical personnel who work abroad to assist in working out programmes to improve the health of our people and mobilising resources from hospital and other health institutions abroad for the benefit of our people. We shall also endeavour to provide financial and material help for health centres established by Kabaka’s Government.

Development and Business

11. To use our business acumen and link our economic resources to start and promote Baganda businesses in the Diaspora and in Buganda. To this end we appeal to all Baganda in the Diaspora to start group saving schemes such as Credit Unions from which funds to start such businesses can be obtained.
 
12. To encourage Baganda in the Diaspora to help either individually or working within their existing organisations to assist in the modernisation of the rural areas of Buganda including assisting with construction of simple houses, provision of piped water, and solar energy etc.

Baganda Unity

13. To work hard towards the unity of all Baganda and to overcome divisive issues among us. To this end we shall endeavour to overcome religious divisiveness by changing our attitudes towards people of different religious beliefs; start at home to teach our children to respect religions other than their own, organise more functions which bring together Baganda of different religious beliefs;

form organisations open to Baganda of all denominations; and encourage politicians and businessmen to employ Baganda of all denominations.

Baganda Diaspora

14. Appeal to all Baganda in the Diaspora to work towards unity and where possible join Baganda organisation and where there is none to start chapters of ‘Ggwanga Mujje’. To this end we shall reject negative rumours and criticisms which are solely aimed at preventing the emergence of new Baganda leaders and destroying existing ones.
 
15. Appeal to all Baganda organisations in the Diaspora to consult and work together for the betterment of our people and encourage the exchange of information regarding employment and business opportunities overseas.

Baganda Youth

16. Encourage young Baganda to form youth organisations led by the youth themselves through which they can meet, exchange ideas and get to know one another and get to know our motherland. We apeal to parents to form themselves in networks across continents to enable Baganda children take holidays in homes of other Baganda in other countries. We also request Kabaka’s Government to consider awarding certificates to children born abroad who learn our culture including learning to read and write Luganda, traditional dancing, drumming etc. 
 

“/”Buganda Society Norway 

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By Henry Mukasa

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has named an inter-sectoral committee to find ways of lowering the cost of transporting goods from Mombasa port.

The President noted that it was not good for economic growth when goods take 21 days or more to be transported from Mombasa port to Kampala.

He said a cost-effective solution needs to be found to solve the problem, State House said in a statement.

The statement said the President criticised the finance, planning and economic development for failing to work out a plan to reduce the costs of doing business.

“It (ministry) should change the name from planning to sitting ministry because it has failed to help our people,” Museveni said.

He was meeting the representatives of the private sector at State House, Nakasero on Thursday.

The President convened the meeting to diffuse complaints among traders and manufacturers that the Government had awarded a firm; Great Lakes CFS Limited, a tender and monopoly to build and manage an inland port in Tororo.

The President said the committee to be chaired by the finance state minister, Jachan Omach, would include representatives from the ministries of trade, transport, the Office of the Attorney General and the private sector. It was given one month to submit its report.

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By Conan Businge and Ronald Humura

Makerere University on Thursday elected a female guild president after a decade of waiting.

Susan Abbo of the Democratic Party swept the polls with 3,570 votes (44.4%) ahead of Remi Muggaga, 2,761 votes (34.41%) and Andrew Tayebwa, 1,235 votes (15.3%). Violet Acumo of the NRM polled 149 votes (1.84%) in a race of 17 candidates.

Abbo, a third-year law student and resident of Africa Hall, becomes the third female guild president in the over 80-year-old university. The others being Norah Njuba (1987/88) and Sarah Kigongo (1998/99).

The results did come with a share of violence. After the electoral commission announced the results last night, lumumba Hall students, where muggaga resides, went on rampage and attacked the neighbouring Mary Stuart Hall, accusing them of betraying Lumumba. Abbo won in Mary Stuart.

The Police fired into the air for over 30 minutes before the violence stopped. According to the division Police commander, Reuben Mbamanya, two Police constables were injured in the scuffle.

Eve Kakumba of the electoral commission said they had anticipated the violence and had requested the Police to beef up security.

“They (Lumumba) could not beat us at this game. We had enough security to restore peace. We expected some people not to concede defeat.”

A former student of Kibibi Secondary School, Abbo has promised to voice concerns of females and rid the university of inefficiency.

Posted to APN by Ham Mukasa
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Theme:  Building Buganda: From Words to Action – New Jersey, USA, .

We, the People of Buganda,
• recognising the need for the moral and physical uplift of not only our own people but of all African peoples worldwide.
• recognising the many rifts that divide the Ugandan people, and the suffering that continues to result from such division, and the need for a durable and civic covenant under which we can live together in harmony
• recognising the duty we owe to our ancestors to preserve and build upon the legacy they left us.

Meeting in solemn discourse in the Presence of our Sovereign Lord, His Majesty King Muwenda Mutebi II of Buganda, we hereby resolve:

1. That the gift of unity, loyalty and brotherhood bestowed upon us by our ancestors, and the customs and language that sustain it, are a precious inheritance that we will keep, build upon and use as we go forward into the new era, even as we learn the skills of the outside world.

2. That the Kingdom of Buganda is one entity in custom and in fact, and that it’s leader and ruler is His Majesty the King, and that it’s on the foundation of this united entity that the Baganda will be proud and loyal partners in the union of many peoples who make up the nation of Uganda.

3. That a federal system of administration is the most suited to the harmonious unification and development of the peoples of Uganda.

4. That the rights and privileges anciently kept by the peoples of Uganda shall not be casually jettisoned, and that the Baganda will seek and defend an equal right of all the people of Uganda to such customs and traditions as they may wish to keep.

5. That the lands of Buganda entrusted to the Colonial Government as Public lands have never been ceded by the people of Buganda to any person or persons, and that they are and of right should be in the Royal Custody of His Majesty the King in trust for His People and their common welfare. We thus reject the proposed law that would alienate or subdivide this land.

6. That, as the Uganda constitution directs, privately held property and land may be only sold with the consent of the owner, save for the construction of Public Works, when fair compensation shall be paid. We thus reject the proposed law that would negate this lawful right.
7. That we will as individuals and as a group shoulder unflinchingly the task of rebuilding our land and all of Africa, and that at all times we will keep the public good to be our paramount goal, and that we will at all times make fairness and honesty our motto in private and public dealings.

8. That we will remain firmly united in our task of building Buganda, shunning and abandoning the bad habits of graft, envy and malice.

9. That the education of our children to the highest standards, in the home and in schools, shall be a paramount task of each and all of us.

10. That we will spare no effort or expense in putting into practice these ideas and beliefs.

Posted to APN by Ham Mukasa (Buganda Society Norway)
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By Henry Mukasa
THE Kabaka (king) of Buganda, Ronald Mutebi, is petitioning the Constitutional Court in a bid to block the Government from giving away part of Mabira Forest to the Sugar Corporation of Uganda (SCOUL).

“The Buganda kingdom cabinet has decided to take this matter to the Constitutional Court to fight for the protection of the environment and all forests in Buganda to save the Kabaka’s subjects and their descendants from the adverse effects resulting from the Mabira give-away,” Buganda’s deputy Information Minister, Medard Lubega Sseggona, announced in a statement.

It noted that the Kabaka’s offer of alternative land for sugarcane production, near Mabira, had been disregarded by the Government. It also regretted that the king’s emissaries to the sugar company had not reached any deal to save the ecologically and climatically critical forest.

On Wednesday, the Kabaka sent his ministers Lutaaya Mukomazi and Kabuuza Mukasa to the company but the owners were reportedly adamant.

According to the statement, the Kabaka’s decision is hinged on the need to save citizens from the “eminent dangers of drought, desertification, poverty and famine the cutting of Mabira would stimulate”.

The Buganda kingdom also decided to take a petition to Parliament, sensitise the public on the dangers of deforestation and stage a peaceful demonstration to save the forest.

“On the same day there will be a rally and a peaceful demonstration as we take the petition, outlining our dissatisfaction at the rampant rate at which forests are being cut,” Lubega said.

The nation has been plunged in an acrimonious debate ever since president Yoweri Museveni proposed to give 7,100 out of the 32,000 hectares of Mabira to SCOUL, owned by the Metha group.

Environment minister Maria Mutagamba prepared a cabinet paper defending the degazetting of the centuries-old nature reserve.

The paper still needs to be discussed by cabinet and approved by Parliament. The NRM, which constitutes a majority in Parliament, is deeply divided over the issue.

Last week, civil society organisations, led by the Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment, already filed a case with the Constitutional Court, arguing that the proposed degazettement violates the constitution.

On Thursday environmental activists, united under the Uganda Forest Working Group to Save Mabira Forest Reserve, handed over a petition against the planned give-away to the speaker, Edward Sekandi.

Posted to APN by Ham Mukasa
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THE Constitutional Court ruled last week that adultery was no longer a crime. The decision was met with incomprehension and disapproval from the general public, and especially the male half.

Some people wondered whether judges had the right to order changes to the Penal Code. Was it, after all, not MPs to make and amend the laws of this country?

Others wondered whether the judges had taken into account the country’s traditional and cultural values. After all, a man is entitled to more wives under customary law, whereas a woman is supposed to be faithful to one man.

For one thing, the judges were right to dismiss the adultery law as discriminatory. It was legal for a married man to have an affair with an unmarried woman. But it was illegal for a married woman to have an affair with an unmarried man.

Women found guilty of the offence faced a fine or up to a year in jail. Moreover, adultery was enough reason for a man to divorce his wife. A woman had to additionally prove that she had been mistreated or deserted.

Will the court ruling lead to a more permissive and immoral society? Probably not. Adultery remains a ground for divorce for both men and women.

And in this HIV/AIDS era, having multiple partners has become risky anyway, not only for the adulterer but also for his/her partners.

Will it lead to more women seeking divorce? Even that is not so sure. Most women are economically dependent on their husbands. The fact that in some cultures, a woman has to refund the bride price in case she seeks a divorce is an additional obstacle.

More important than removing the adultery law was the decision of the court to scrap sections of the Succession Act, which gave widows almost no control over the family property and offspring.

Apart from the grief of losing a husband, a woman faced the additional, inhuman fate of losing her land, house and guardianship over her children. Removing that cross was the best Easter present the judges could have given the women of this country.

Posted by to APN by Ham Mukasa
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One person died and two others were seriously injured when their trailer plunged into River Nile at Karuma Bridge on Friday.

The dead was identified as Adam Hammed-Abeille, a Kenyan national. The injured, Ssinna Muhamed and Muhad Adbu, were rushed to Gulu Independent Hospital.

By a Good Muganda

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Former Minister of State for Immigration, Mrs. Lina Chebii Kilimo, on a stopover in London, addressed a gathering of Kalenjins in the UK on Saturday.

Mrs. Chebii, the first Kalenjin woman to be a Minister, praised the Kalenjin organisation under the stewardship of Kokwet.

Kokwet is a support organisation that consists of ethnic groups of the wider Kalenjin community which includes Keiyo, Marakwet, Pokot, Nandi, Sabot and Tugen, as well as the Kipsigis and Terik (Nyang’ori). Kokwet caters for the interest of the Kalenjins in UK and Europe.

Mrs. Chebii said that London was “city of inspiration” and expressed her appreciation to Kokwet to invite her to speak to them.

Mrs. Chebii, who voted against the government during the Constitutional Referendum debate and lost her cabinet position in the ensuing reshuffle. She went further to say that

she valued the Kalenjin and the land aspect of the debate was not to their benefit. On corruption, She stressed that “corruption is life in Kenya and KACA has no teeth”.They keep asking for money for your file to disappear.

 In her speech, Mrs. Chebii addressed many issues including Passports issuance – now streamline to 14days, schools quarter system and the Mt. Elgon clashes. She laid on the

Kenyan media for misrepresenting her views and said “even the grandmother lives in that area”. A report in Standard newspaper mentioned a number of parliamentarians as being ‘behind’ the atrocities, and Mrs. Chebii was among those named. Other named were William Ruto, Franklin Bett, and Musa Sirma.

Mrs. Chebii thanked Tabitha Seii for the foundation of Civic education in Rift Valley, and informed the gathering of the Marakwet girls and women project she ha formed to offer sanitary towels and to pay their school fees.

London has become a very popular city. Other events expected to take place includes a Super charged Kenyan Delegation to meet the Tesco Executives about  Carbon Emission Debate on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

.Hon Mutahi Kagwe is expected next week on Thursday to talk about ICT. While in May NARC Kenya is expected to meet Kenyans in London. Venue and date has not been confirmed.

A word is going round that ODM Hon Kalonzo is also making a tour of Europe and will pass London as well subject to confirmation

Posted to APN by Karuga wa Njuguna

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