SUUBI IS NOT KY AND WILL NOT LEAD TO THE 1966 CRISIS
Dear editor,
Some of the Mao supporters have written and said a lot of stuff about the 1966 crisis and Kabaka Yeka( KY) in relation to IPC and Suubi, but they are again scaring Ugandans on matters they seem not to know very well. Yes, they resolved in their latest meeting to de-campaign Suubi and IPC but I think they are going about it wrongly.
DP-Mao and its supporters are replicating what DP did in 1961 when they refused to take the same position as Mengo which was calling for a boycott of national elections because neither the British administration nor the African political parties would guarantee Buganda's future position within Uganda, and all but three per cent of the electorate stayed away from the polls. DP eventually won 20 of the 21 seats in Buganda but Ben kiwanuka's aim at that point was to isolate the kingdom from its subjects, and this is exactly what Mao is also doing but we shall see if he will succeed. That is why Mengo have got to do everything in their powers to support Suubi and IPC in Buganda and ensure that they achieve some success at the end of 2011 elections.
KY was formed mainly by Kabaka Mutesa's friends under the Kakamega club in 1961. These were guys he was with in Buddo but they later became his political advisers in almost everything when he became a king. There were the ones that championed the KY cause. So it's wrong for some people to say that all of KY was assimilated into UPC by 1964 apart from Daudi Ochieng.
The fact is that If Suubi and IPC can achieve what KY did in 1961 then the opposition will be back in business in 2011. If the opposition can win all the 82 constituencies in Buganda, then that will be a big achievement without any doubt. The Suubi critics are scaring people for no good reasons apart from the fact that it is a threat to parties such as DP-Mao who are selfishly looking at Buganda at their stronghold, and therefore don't want any other bull in the kraal. FDC is supporting ''Suubi'' and IPC like all other parties in the opposition. Yes, FDC is also a threat to old parties like DP but this is not the time for concentrating on individual parties, and this is where Mr. Mao and his DP got it wrong.
The 1966 crisis and the fall of KY was a result of several things that happened mainly in 1964: there was a no confidence motion of March 1964 demanding the resignation of Katikiro Kintu; low coffee prices that weakened the finances of the kingdom coupled by the fact that Obote was also starving the kingdom of funds; losing the referendum over lost counties;e.t.c. The issues in 1964 automatically created the show down in 1966. Some of these issues were caused by Baganda ourselves, i.e. they were internal rather than external, but the Suubi critics seem to concentrate only on the external factors as a cause of the 1966 crisis and later the fall of KY.
So basically, there was nothing wrong with the KY/UPC alliance in 1961 because it achieved its initial objective of keeping away Ben Kiwanuka from power. By 1962, Katikiro Kintu was elected chairman of KY and Buganda kingdom was protected by the federal status, as seen in the 1962 constitution. So the alliance had achieved its initial objective despite what happened in 1966 when Obote abolished kingdoms.
Branding Suubi a new version of KY is not a decisive blow of any sort to this project as some people think. The architects of Suubi must have anticipated it and that is why they included non-Baganda at its launch. I saw Anne Mugisha, Salaam Musumba, Wafula Ogutu, and others in the YouTube video when Suubi was being launched.
I think the critics of Suubi are losing the argument everyday because, for God's sake, Suubi is not KY, and even if it's a little bit of KY, what was so bad that KY did that was detrimental to the lives of Ugandans? You see, I can honestly tell you that I was not even born during Obote 1 and I was a toddler during Obote 2 but from what I read and heard about UPC, it's enough to put off any kid that is yet to be born several years to come. But this is not the same case with KY.
There is a hypothesis that If Suubi does not achieve its objectives in 2011, Buganda kingdom is likely to become weaker politically and I'm surprised that some Kabaka subjects cannot see this. They are instead concentrating on bashing FDC & Besigye and praising Mao, both of whom may become irrelevant after next year's election.
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Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
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