Members of Buganda Kingdom clans convention recently clashed with their speaker Omuttaka Augustine Kizito Mutumba, the Kkobe clan head over Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi’s life. In their meeting that was held on the last Thursday of the month of June 2022, 50 out of 56 furious members tasked their boss to explain to them why he and Mayiga continue to lie to them about Kabaka Mutebi’s health and use it as an excuse to stop them from physically meeting him yet he is their boss and immediate supervisor.
In Kiganda culture, every person who is a Muganda by tribe belongs to a clan. There are 56 clans and each has a head. The Kabaka (King) is culturally supposed to chair the Clan heads monthly meetings twice.
In the recent heated meeting, one clan head said, “If it is ok for the Kabaka to attend those money-making ceremonies which our premier organises like his birthday run, inter clans football competition and the inter-county football competition, why has he failed to attend our meetings yet we are more than his friends or family? We smell a rotten rat and we need an explanation from the Kabaka himself because we think something wrong is going on and we should rectify it culturally.”
Clan heads last met Kabaka in 2014 at his Banda palace where he met them one on one.
One clan head revealed that last Thursday’s meeting was almost sabotaged until they raised their voices and accused their boss Mutumba for running their convention as a department in Premier Mayiga’s office by acting on his instructions.
Another clan head told Mutumba that because of not meeting the Kabaka, he no longer practices his culture role in the kingdom. This clan head revealed that surprisingly, whenever they ask Mutumba, he claims that the Kabaka is not fine, but Mayiga tells them that he is very fine.
He equated what is happening in the kingdom now to what happened in 2014 before they finally met the Kabaka.
“I personally looked in his eyes (Kabaka) when he called my name in a one-on-one meeting in Banda and told him that he is the problem why Buganda is not developing. I informed him that he was not supervising us, visiting our clan cultural sites to advise us on development ideas, that is why the gods (Bajajja) were angry with him,” a clan head explained.
He added that when the Kabaka started visiting the clan cultural sites, a number of developments kicked off at a very high speed especially in agriculture but now, a number of these projects have suffered setbacks.
He further told theGrapevine that recently, he made a phone call to the offices of Buganda’s Mwanyi Terimba Company to get advice on how the management of the company can help their agricultural projects especially coffee projects for his grandchildren (bazukkulu) to benefit but to his surprise, he was blasted and his phone call cut short when he was still explaining.
He put the blame on the Kabaka for not taking them seriously yet clan heads are key decision makers in the kingdom.
He wondered what Mengo has done to guide the youths during these trying moments when Uganda is at a political crossroad and in the process of power transition yet other regions are already positioning themselves to take over power after President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s rule.
“This is not the Kabaka Mutebi I know. There must be something wrong going on in his life and I know he wants to reveal to us what is going on in his life but he is under control, we need an explanation from our speaker Mutumba,” a clan head insisted.
The clan heads further accused Mayiga of disrespecting them.
They cited a scenario when he donated to them one Toyota Hiace (Drone) car to transport them yet he had just given 18 brand new Toyota Harrier (Kawundo) cars to each of the 18 County Chiefs.
When contacted, Mutumba admitted that there was fire in the last meeting he chaired but insisted that it was normal because it always happens in a number of meetings especially when there is a serious issue being debated upon.
“But it is unacceptable and unbelievable for a clan head to run to the media to make such statements. We are not supposed to address our grievances in the media because we are respected people in Buganda,” Mutumba noted. He explained that he presides over the Buganda Clan Convention meetings on behalf of the Kabaka and he is answerable to him.
He added that the Kabaka knows whatever happens in these clan meetings because they give him the minutes that are taken for every sitting, he chairs on his behalf. Mutumba assured his fellow clans heads that on the issue of meeting the Kabaka, he will make sure that they meet him as soon as possible.
He rubbished allegations put against him that he runs the convention on Mayiga’s instructions insisting that he is independent. He rallied all Buganda clan heads to participate personally in all the ongoing kingdom development projects and guide their children and grandchildren.
