Emmanuel Gyezaho
11 July 2009
Kampala — A special cabinet sitting on Tuesday was the scene of heated and bitter exchanges between ministers over renewed ethnic tension in the Bunyoro sub-region, Saturday Monitor can reveal.
Battle lines were drawn between ministers who are backing immigrant Balaalo herdsmen against indigenous Bagungu cultivators as debate went tribal and native. According to a source who attended the eight- hour cabinet sitting but preferred anonymity because cabinet proceedings are held in camera, ministers who hail from Bunyoro sub-region attempted to push the Cabinet to pass a resolution to expel all immigrants from the districts of Hoima, Masindi, Bullisa and Kibaale.
Information Minister Kabakumba Matsiko who represents Masindi District's Bujenje County in Parliament, reportedly led the crusade for the expulsion of immigrants but the proposal met stiff resistance from President Museveni and a section of the cabinet led by Security Minister Amama Mbabazi.
But what seemed to draw a sharper wedge in the cabinet, according to the source, was Ms Kabakumba's proposal to have all non-Banyoro banned from running for public office to represent the region either at Parliament or at the local government for 50 years.
"She [Kabakumba] made a passionate case for banning all immigrants for contesting for parliamentary seats or districts' chairmanship and complained that her people had been turned into squatters on their own land," said the source.
President Museveni is said to have laboured to reconcile his troops for several hours, making little headway in the effort and chose to create a cabinet sub-committee chaired by Minister for the Presidency Beatrice Wabudeya to go and study reports of the fresh ethnic tensions in the region. Other members of the committee include Ms Kabakumba, State Minister for Local Government Pereza Ahabwe, Local Government Minister Adolf Mwesige and Lands Minister Daniel Omara Atubo.
The committee has been tasked to visit the volatile districts and report back to the cabinet in two months.
Mr Museveni summoned his cabinet to discuss reports of renewed tension in oil-rich Bunyoro after intelligence reports indicated unrest and insecurity was rife in the region.
Last month, the government deployed heavy police patrol units in the region to counter what it said was escalating crime rate, two weeks after Banyoro natives staged a peaceful demonstration to protest the government's failure to resolve long-standing land wrangles in the region.
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