OPINION: Where Does NUP feud with Mengo leave the “Struggle”?

By Andrew Baba Buluba

The remarkable disregard for cultural leaders by National Unity Platform ( NUP) stromgman, Waiswa Alex Mufumbiro must have conveyed restlessness to every Buganda Royal, including King Ronald Muwenda Mutebi.

Mufumbiro who speaks for the Makerere Kavule headquartered political outfit outrightly called out cultural institutions for what he referred to as “ thinking they are more important than they are.” Known for not mincing words, the former Jinja West MP candidate in a thinly veiled attack on the Kabaka and Buganda royalists called for the outright ban of cultural institutions that fail to align with the NUP ideology. Many have since come to relate Mufumbiro’s verbal hate against Kingdoms to the position of his boss, Robert Kyagulanyi, and you can not blame them.

There has always been naked animosity between Buganda and the ‘Ghetto Gladiator’ dating back to the pre-political days when the then-famous rapper encroached on the King’s land and attempted to rally public protests against the King when the latter sought to regain the same.

Kyagulanyi has passionately protested against what he feels is a deliberate plot by the bigwigs at the Bulange to sideline him in a way that gives unrivalled political mileage to the Yoweri Kaguta Museveni establishment that Mr Wine’s NUP pushes to dethrone. Mengo might have thought twice about hosting their own man who moves with dangerous gangs that once unleashed terror on Dr Kizza Besigye when he had gone for a talk show on Kingdom Radio station- CBS in 2020.

A barrage of attacks has been since directed to top bras in the Kingdom, with Katikkiro Charles Peter Mayiga most targeted. Keyboard activists who Mengo claimed are being bankrolled by the opposition outfit have made it a habit to disparage everyone, with mass calls for Mr Kyagulanyi to reign on the errant group falling on dead ears.

Recently, Kimaanya Kabonera MP, a member of Kyagulanyi’s party, Dr Abeid Bwanika openly called upon his party leader to push for the return to normalcy by calling his boys to order to cease attacking the Kingdom they so dearly cherish. The end was bloody. The veteran politician was roughed up by the ruthless gang and thrown out as Bobi Wine cheered in silence.

A similar gang was a couple of months ago recorded on camera assaulting a popular Buganda Radio Station Presenter, Meddy Nsereko in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, Bobi Wine has never bothered to come out and distance himself from the group many of whose members swear by his name before exerting their terror.

But Mufumbiro’s brutal submission on Pearl Radio must have rubbed the gentlemen at Mengo the wrong way and painfully. Owe’k Kiyimba, a powerful Kingdom official hinted at possible punitive measures errant social media attackers could face, which among others include excommunication from the Kingdom, and it’s understandable.

Mufumbiro didn’t only seem to reawaken Senior Baganda’s pain by referring to the nerve-wrenching Apollo Milton Obote’s Palace invasion that culminated in the death of Ssekabaka Edward Walugembe Luwangula’s death in exile but also pulled in the infamous 1789 French revolution that ended with the death of King Louis xvi in France.

With Bobi Wine and company swearing that they will abolish the Kingdom, it’s safe to speculate that an action-packed period awaits the opposition as the royalty of this country will fight with a determination not seen before to ensure their survival. Naturally, NUP will strive to disintegrate the power of such establishments which threaten his political agenda. The real question, however, is; Is the struggle still about “ defeating the dictator, or the King of Buganda?

The Writer is the Assistant Resident District Commissioner Rakai District