I would like to react to Eric Kashambuzi's article in The Weekly Observer of December 4-10, 2008 titled 'How Rujumbura's Bairu got impoverished'.

The article was filled with hatred and sectarian bias as well as historical misinformation which should be corrected.

At the beginning of his article, Kashambuzi portrays a chaotic and restless situation in Rujumbura which has made it a troubled county. There is character assassination and intimidation and these have led to lack of social and economic development, he claims. There is unemployment, poverty and its associated social and environmental deprivations, he goes on. Crime, alcoholism and violence are persistent. The environment has been affected. The rivers and spring wells have dried up.

This presumes that the chaotic situation in Rujumbura is completely isolated and detached from the other districts which surround it; like Kanungu, Kabale, Ntungamo and Bushenyi, and indeed Uganda as a whole.

He portrays it as a stand alone calamity which Rujumbura has suffered for a long time and continues to do so to this day. He attributes the suffering which he calls "the impoverishment of the Bairu in Rujumbura" to the bad leadership of the Bashambo ruling clan, which migrated from Rwanda and their Bahororo supporters who settled in Rujumbura after 1800 AD. While the Bashambo rule in the Kingdom of Mpororo collapsed around 1750 AD, the settlement of the people Kashambuzi calls Bahororo in Rujumbura took place as far back as 1000 AD.

Mr. Kashambuzi states that because of the misrule by the Bashambo supported by the Bahororo and the Bakiga, the Bairu emigrated from Rukungiri and settled in other parts of Uganda. He concludes that the Bairu who are left in Rujumbura will, like the peasants in France in 1358 and those in England in 1381, revolt against their long time oppressors in self-defence.

This is a case of misinformation based on political sectarianism on the part of some of our brothers and sisters who strive to seek sympathy and support from members of their uninformed world where they live.

A brief history of Rujumbura will suffice to correct Kashambuzi's misinformation.

Rujumbura is a territory in South-western Uganda settled by a Bantu speaking people whose socio-economic set up divided them into the Bahima pastoralists and the Bairu agriculturalists.

However, this dichotomy no longer obtains as the Bahima and the Bairu have become mixed farmers, keeping cattle and cultivating crops both for domestic consumption and commerce. The other important thing which can be stated to correct Kashambuzi's misinformation is that the people of Rujumbura have practised intermarriages between the two social groups for a longer time than the other surrounding societies in South-western Uganda to the extent that the Bairu revolt which Kashambuzi would wish to take place may lack support because most people are related to each other. The social divisions are no longer relevant there except in the minds of a few people like Kashambuzi.

Rujumbura formed one of the successor states of the Kingdom of Mpororo in present day South-western Uganda and Northern Rwanda which had collapsed around 175O AD. The last king of the short lived Kingdom of Mpororo, Kahaya Rutindangyezi, belonged to the Bashambo dynasty. Some historians say that the Kingdom of Mpororo disintegrated after his death. This is wrong because his sons continued to rule as hereditary rulers of the former kingdom. In other words, Mpororo's successor principalities continued to be ruled by the Bashambo ruling clan.

One of Kahaya Rutindangyezi's sons, Kirenzi, who was the territorial governor of part of Rujumbura became the new ruler and one of his immediate duties was to extend his rule over the whole of Rujumbura, which was consolidated by Bene Kirenzi (sons of Kirenzi). The other Mpororo successor state which became strong and had a royal drum was Igara which was ruled by the Bene Mafundo (sons of Mafundo).

Rujumbura, for example, under the rule of Muhozi, became one of the powerful states in the region. Muhozi introduced social, economic and political reforms in Rujumbura which have made him to stand out as the most revolutionary ruler the state has ever had. It was due to these reforms that its inhabitants are to date one people devoid of Kashambuzi's social divisions of Bairu and Bahororo (Bahima?).

Karegyesa who succeeded Makobore is remembered for having compelled the people to grow cash crops. Those Bahima who refused to comply left Rujumbura and migrated to other parts of Mpororo and Ankole. Hence it was not the Bairu who emigrated from Rujumbura as Kashambuzi has tried to claim.

It seems that lack of space for settlement was one of the reasons which led to the people's emigration from Rujumbura.

Geographically Rujumbura is a bowl shaped structure which is separated from its neighbours by the natural features of Lake Edward to the west and surrounded by rivers Nchwera, Kahengye, Minera and Rubabo and high ridges of between 4,000 and 6,500 feet to the south.

Inevitably, over time and with modern medical facilities and the absence of military and political catastrophes, the area witnessed population growth which led to the emigration of the people, both the Bahima and the Bairu, to other parts of Uganda and not due to the misrule of the Bashambo rulers as Kashambuzi would have us believe.

Dr. Ephraim R Kamuhangire, The writer is a historian.