Mbale City, (UG): About 15 years ago, precisely around 2010, when disasters struck Masabaland and hundreds of lives were lost, including displacement and relocation of Bamasaba people to different parts of Uganda, Hon. Moses Wetangula Masika, then Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Minister, was the strongest politician across Masabaland, both in Kenya and Uganda.
He was FORD Kenya leader then and also the Kenyan Minister for Foreign Affairs under President Mwai Kibaki. The politics and details of becoming a Foreign Affairs Minister in Kenya are quite different, unlike here in Uganda.
In Kenya, becoming a minister, such as for Foreign Affairs, is about one’s political mileage and strength, unlike in Uganda, where it is about tribal or nepotic connections and other loyalties.
Hon. Moses Wetangula came to Bududa loaded with over three truckfuls (trailers by description) of assorted items in the form of clothes, foodstuffs, mattresses, and blankets and handed the items, including some cash money, to the Local District Leadership in Bududa to be distributed to people paralysed by landslides in camps of Bulucheke and Bukalasi. The Bamasaba are still nostalgic about these kinds of efforts from the now Speaker of the National Parliament of Kenya.
Recently, when the Umukuka III of the Bamasaba people, His Royal Highness Jude Mike Mudoma, led a bereavement team to console Rt Hon Speaker Moses Wetangula, who had lost his dear mother Anna, he assured the Umukuka that it is his singular honour to support the cultural institution of the Bamasaba people, where he belongs.
Who is Rt Hon Moses Wetangula?
Moses Wetangula Masika was born in Nalondo, Elgon in Nyanza District, and will be 68 years of age by September 2025.
Rt Hon Moses Wetangula went to Nalondo Primary School for his primary education and Busakala and Kamusinga for both lower secondary and advanced level, respectively. Later on, he went to Nairobi University, where he completed his LLB degree magna cum laude.
His entry into national politics began somewhere around the late 1980s when he formed FORD Kenya with a number of comrades, ostensibly calculated at fighting the one-party rule in Kenya. He paired up with the likes of Mwai Kibaki and gave President Daniel Arap Moi a run for his money.
After the enormous political pressure by Moses Wetangula and others became too much for Mzee Moi to bear, Moi surrendered and opened up the country to other political forces, hence ending the one-party rule in Kenya.
The demise of one-party rule in Kenya can firmly be tagged on the activism led by FORD Kenya leader Moses Wetangula, with his fiery brand of politics alongside others like Mwai Kibaki, Kenneth Matiba, Wamalwa Kijana, among others. Moses Wetangula was the youngest on this team, since by 1991, when he formed FORD Kenya, he was less than 35 years of age.
The slogan of FORD Kenya was well thought out on account of the prevailing political structure and vagaries in Kenya at that time. You needed an awakening slogan to galvanize the citizenry to your side under President Moi. Because of the repressive nature of his regime, even unauthorized coughing could cause you trouble from authorities.
For example, bedroom discussions that one uttered in the presence of only his wife in the bedroom could find their way into public state intelligence circles. The best topic in Kenya during Moi’s tenure, which was not construed as incriminating by authorities, was climate/weather-related topics, as long as you didn’t malign the meteorologist.
FORD Kenya, which is an acronym for Forum for Restoration of Democracy in Kenya, was determined to see President Moi off, so that Kenyans could enjoy their liberty and freedom as free citizens and say what they wanted without fear of recrimination from authorities.
FORD Kenya, as a people-led political party, was and still is a strong advocate for freedom, justice, and truth. The party has its national headquarters in Nairobi, continuing with its formative objectives.
Rt Hon Speaker Wetangula is always a calm person and a little bit taciturn by character, always very measured in his submissions. The Bamasaba of Kenya and Uganda have a lot of aspirations in him.
One of his closest political allies in Uganda and former Manafwa RDC, Madam Irene Khainza Manghali, says Moses will one day rule Kenya as a President.
When the Umukuka III led the bereavement team, we found him with over 60 MPs waiting to receive the Umukuka III of the Bamasaba people, and his supporters had brought over 100 cows, including over 10 aeroplanes with government comrades who had come to attend the funeral of his dear mother. This shows the popularity of Rt Hon Moses Wetangula Masika among the Kenyan political landscape.
Steven Masiga is a researcher from Mbale and a Master’s student of Laws.
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