When Kabaka meets President Museveni
This is a pictorial representation of the meeting between the Kabaka of Buganda and President Yoweri Kaguta Museven of Uganda.
President Yoweri Museveni and Kabaka Ronald Mutebi held talks at State House, Nakasero. He later tweeted on his handle:
“Held a meeting with His Majesty the Kabaka of Buganda Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II at Nakasero State Lodge. His Majesty was in the company of Owek. Charles Peter Mayiga and Prince David Wasajja. We discussed matters of mutual interest.”
The meeting followed debate about a government plan to change the Mailo Land tenure system, which the Kingdom of Buganda opposed.
Sources that attended the meeting intimated that the fears thawed after candid exchanges, resulting in the President tasking the Attorney General to constitute a Working Committee, comprising government and Mengo officials, to resolve the apparent differences between the two sides and map a way forward.
The meeting between President Museveni and Ronald Muwenda Mutebi, the Kabaka of Buganda, may have taken the latter’s subjects and country by surprise, but not the salient issues on the table.
With fresh air fanning them on the lush compound of State House Lodge in the leafy Nakasero suburb, the principals ruminated over, and thrashed out, the touchy proposal to scrap Mailo land tenure system.
The proposition was first broached a couple of years ago, by the Justice Catherine Bamugemereire-led commission, appointed by President Museveni to inquire into land administration and policies in the country.
Seizing on the idea, Mr Museveni has repeatedly and publicly welcomed the idea, and described Mailo tenure as “evil”, jolting Mengo – the administrative seat of Buganda Kingdom – whose officials have dug into the past to remind the President that their support brought him to power.
The reminder, reportedly echoed by King Mutebi, was unavoidable after the Kabaka, speaking at his 28th coronation anniversary held at Nkoni palace in Masaka City, said Mailo land tenure was a “pillar” and its abolition would cripple the kingdom.