Prime
The media wasn’t the best option for Mumbere’s issues
Author: Asuman Bisiika. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- Knowing our people, their next stage is going to be who did what to occasion the release of the Omusinga.
In mid 2021, three NRM Members of Parliament from Kasese addressed a news conference at Parliamentary Building. They subtly protested the delayed court trial of Omusinga Charles Wesley Mumbere (king of Rwenzururu).
With dismal contribution in the August House, the three Members of Parliament attracted the tag of “seeking cheap popularity” or “populism” or “attention seeking”. The three tags are held in contempt by the party leadership (which always advise members to pass their grievances through the right channels and address their issues in the right forum). And the media, as the Kasese’s NRM MPs may have known, has never been the right forum for internal policy debates or demands in the NRM.
I remember writing then: “The three NRM MPs may have wanted to score quick wins with public perceptions back home, but if they had bothered to ask, they would have been advised that the Omusinga Mumbere’s situation (I deliberately avoid to refer to it as a court case) needed more brain than brawn. It needs more tact than act.
In April 2021 (during the retreat of new NRM MPs), Kasese NRM MPs are said to have issued a memorandum (I am not sure about this) to the President about the Omusinga’s issue. And to the best of my knowledge, there is no record of a follow up on the memorandum. Why the rush to the media?
More disturbing is the revelation that all the Kasese MPs are said to have agreed that issues concerning “the situation” of Omusinga should never be discussed in the media. Plus: there was a recent NRM Parliamentary Caucus in which the Kasese MPs could have raised the issue. But then…, the honourable MPs chose the camera lights.
My fear is that Mr Museveni’s handlers may (erroneously or otherwise) view the action of the Kasese NRM MPs as an open challenge to the President in a public space (on a matter he is said to be keen).”
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Now, I have had news that the state has lost interest in the Omusinga ’s situation. To be precise, the State has withdrawn all charges against Mumbere and over 200 co-accused.
Knowing our people, their next stage is going to be who did what to occasion the release of the Omusinga. And in that euphoria, we will forget the biggest question obtaining now: what next? How do we manage the issues of Obusinga Bwa Rwezururu in a manner that reflects peaceful co-existance within the community and the central government? How do we develop our cherished Obusinga?
As keen observers of national politics, some of us had come to the hard conclusion that the Omusinga ’s issues would be resolved outside court; and it was our prayer that the issues are resolved in a manner that reflects mutual respect and understanding on both sides. Others wanted to act clever and called for a quick court case. But some of us were humble enough to know that the Omusinga “situation” was not a smart one.
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I have always drawn parallels of the Mumbere “situation” with the exiling of Ssekabaka Edward Mutesa from Buganda in 1952. There were the protests and demands. And there was a court case running in London. But as it were to be; with all the expectations to the contrary, Kabaka Mutesa lost the case. And then what?
Even the crown that won the case soon realised that victory was not enough. It was the dialogue dabbed the Namirembe Conferences that resolved the impasse (not the crown’s victory in a London Court or the protests in Buganda).
Mr Bisiika is the executive editor of the East African Flagpost. [email protected]
