By Dusman Okee
A known scholar, a political commentator, a journalist and an ardent critic of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) Government, Charles Onyango-Obbo, after a long time of observation, wrote on social media platform X: “In a single and very rare speech, President Museveni’s charismatic brother, Gen. (rtd) Salim Saleh, can admit to past mistakes, personal failings and laugh at himself more than his elder brother and the Ugandan political class combined, can do in a year. He does not seek applause or seek validation.”
It is said, if a poacher turns game keeper, then, there is a keen interest for the game keeper to keep an eye on both, especially the game. Why would the poacher, who once mercilessly killed the game with poison, now turn the protector? Has the game turned golden? And if so, why? History never lies! It only needs witnesses and time, as it shapes events and trends.
In a paper, Consociational Democracy in Uganda, authored by Prof. Ogenga Otunnu and guided by Gen. Caleb Akandwanaho (aka Salim Saleh), Otunnu looks at how Uganda’s politicised and weaponised divisions were deliberately and systematically built by history and that, good enough, what history builds, politics and policies can unbuild, if carefully studied and painstakingly so, at a necessarily legally handled. Otunnu looks at how sectarianisms were invented in the pre-colonial Buganda in 1844, and to date, every Ugandan still has a share of that dividend. The question is: Is the share of the dividend shrinking, contained or increasing? One person, who probably gave considerable debate answers, is President Yoweri Museveni through his Movement system, studied and applied over the years.
To understand consociational democracy, Prof. Otunnu presses a fast rewind button, and looks at the onset of divisions in Uganda, starting with the arrival of Islam in Buganda in 1844 under Kabaka Suna who were Oman Arab Ahmed Bin Ibrahim came to trade, but to Suna, this was an opportunity to secure a constant supply of arms and ammunition and strengthen his political legitimacy. He allowed Islam to spread as a means to achieve his aim, and little did he know that it would erode the traditional Kiganda religion that was a source of power and authority to the Kabaka. This begun the religious identity in Buganda, which later deteriorated into an open conflict in 1875, leading to the first religious execution by Kabaka’s Suna’s successor, Kabaka Mutesa I, in order to regain control, order and authority in the kingdom.
In 1875, when explorer HM Stanley came over the guise of exploration and found Islam taking deep root, he befriended Mutesa I and quickly wrote a letter in a Daily Telegram back home, claiming the Kabaka had invited missionaries as well, yet in the actual sense, he wanted to put a quick halt to the spread of Arab traders (Islam).
The Church Missionary Society — Protestants and British aligned — arrived in 1877 and soon after, they were followed by their traditional rivals back home in Europe, the Catholic White Fathers, the French in 1879. This is now where proxy wars were later exported to the already-divided Buganda between the traditionalists and Muslim converts, a situation that shaped through to 1960 and 1970, influencing political, social and economic tragic events to the 1980’s.
The arrival of Christianity blew wind on the already smoking Buganda, to catch a fresh fire.
To sort out these problems which his father started, Mutesa I had already started by killing Muslims who were undermining his leadership, among other reasons, because he was not circumcised and, therefore, a Pagan who could not lead prayers, yet Baganda culture was against this, because the Kabaka was seen as a flawless human being. In 1886, when Kabaka Mwanga came to the throne at the age of 18, to halt the confusion between 1885 and 1887, he ordered for the execution and burning of approximately 32 Christians hoping to instil fear into future rebellions in the kingdom.
This fear instilled worked to his detriment where, Protestants, Catholics and Muslims got together and eminent death any time. They allied with some Buganda chiefs and overthrow Kabaka Mwanga in 1888. This was arguably the birth of the axis of evil and polarisation of Buganda and later Uganda.
Gen. Saleh and Prof. Otunnu, in their Constitutional Democracy paper, deduced that, if pre-colonial Buganda was the logic of the start of colonial divide and rule then, the British colonialism systemised it. They took it from the court of Buganda Kingdom, and embedded it into the laws, finance, economy, military and map of the region.
The trajectory of political, social and political events based on this polarity is not strange to a good number of Ugandans, apart from Gen. ZS, down to the time NRM took power in 1986. Between this period, Uganda has been a pawn on the chase game, where its journey was determined by third parties until 1986, when the NRM came to power and started a process of healing and inclusivity of all political, ethnic and religious groups under one movement.
Could this have been the start of a consociational democracy? What about the 2013 agreement between Uganda and Buganda where the Buganda earns today more government ministries. Was the return of the Asian property part of a subtle consociational process? Were the benefits here are wider and all these are in black and white in the President’s letter to the NRC delegates in 1996.
Amidst the above, there came the younger Caleb Akandwanaho, at the age of 16, circumstantially left school and joined the fray of what he or his generation never started. Fifty years later today, history still calls him to sort it out, in the same reconciliation record of the NRM. Fast forward, no matter what happened between Dr. Col. (rtd) Kizza Besigye and the NRM Government, the weight and demand has tilted towards Gen. Salim Saleh to “manage” the Besigye impasse.
The Commander in Chief and the Chief of Defence Forces have, in consonance, deflected the same to Gen. Saleh to handle. How? It’s up to him. After all, he is known for the daring peace mission including in 1988, when he flew directly in the middle of Uganda People’s Democratic Army rebels in northern Uganda to talk to peace.
The peace talks succeeded but the army command reprimanded him for risking the lives of the crew and the army helicopter. He engaged face-to-face with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel leaders to amicably end the war in the north, yet remained a fierce commander on the ground, if the rebels chose the opposite.
The big question is: Is Gen. Salim Saleh’s consociational approach innate?
Word is now rife that Gen. Saleh (the biblical Caleb) and Akandwanaho (a believer of God’s mercy) have come to a new public secret that he has made sure his historical comrade Dr Besigye has been taken to a place where, himself would prefer to be taken, for the best treatment and care, and once he recovers, the two will once again meet face-to-face not delve into the past, but to see the greater future of Uganda.
But again, even eyes will be focused on the inviolability of the legal profession to see their take, given that the Dr Besigye’s case is a complex one. For sure, the punchings of the peace began. Gen. Saleh’s past 50 years at war have proved that what is the limita insanifa (live black and etear), and so he must deliver. If Gen. Saleh succeeds, the country will applaud him, and many more consociational will follow.
But if it fails, he will once again be a lone wolf, a journey he seems painfully immune too. Good enough history will absolve him and on judgement day, he will have what to tell God as he gives an account of himself on earth.
The writer Dusman Okee is a social scientist, Kirema School of Research
