Robert Mwanje
6 November 2009
Mengo — Explaining the basics of federalism and marketing it to other stakeholders will be the central focus of the second annual Buganda Conference, the kingdom has announced.
According to the kingdom's attorney general, Mr Apollo Makubuya, who is also chairing the organising committee, the December 17 event will seek to draw the distinction among federalism, decentralisation and regional tier systems.
To drive this point home, Mengo will rely on federalists from the USA, UK and Nigeria, Mr Makubuya said at a press briefing in Kampala yesterday.
"We want to show the public that with federalism, we can develop Uganda faster and more efficiently than decentralisation and regional tier. It will be an eye opener to several regions," Makubuya said, adding that about 1,000 guests have been invited for the conference.
Besides the foreign guests, participants are also expected from Busoga, Bunyoro, Toro kingdoms, Ugandans in Diaspora and the academia. The theme will be "Federalism, the Best Governance for Uganda".
"We also intend to scrap political isolation that we are demanding federalism for Buganda alone. We want every part of Uganda to manage her concerns, its federalism that empowers regions unlike regional tier or decentralisation," said Mr Makubuya.
Many analysts will view Mengo's decision to rally other stakeholders as a reaction to the long-held notion that the kingdom's quest for federalism has been hampered mainly because it was seen as a lone region's battle, with little or no dividends for other regions.
The government has been at loggerheads with Buganda after the former rejected the calls for a federal system, opting instead for the regional tier system. In the aftermath of the September riots, President Museveni asked Parliament to operationalise the law on the regional tier system.
The inaugural Buganda Conference last year was addressed by renowned scholar Prof. Mahmood Mamdani, who wondered why Baganda, the country's largest ethnic group, had failed to attain national political power and advised the officials at Mengo to make alliances with other regions if the kingdom is to achieve its political ends such as a federal status.
On the same day three kingdom officials including Ms Betty Nambooze, Buganda Information Minister Peter Mayiga and his deputy Medard Lubega Segoona were arrested on allegations that they were promoting sectarianism and a hate campaign against non-Baganda. The trio was hijacked for a week, drove to various districts in Western Uganda.
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