Mayiga Boos at Mengo Shs 7Bn Budget
By Stephen K Muwambi
Katikkiro Charles Peter Mayiga
Katikkiro Charles Peter Mayiga expressed ridicule for Buganda’s Shs7Bn 2014/15 budget calling it a
crying shame for a kingdom that has existed for a thousand years and
boasts of ten million people.
“Obviously one man Mukwano cannot have a
superior budget to that of a kingdom of a thousand years and boasting
of ten million people. It’s totally unacceptable,” Mayiga remarked.
The development savvy Premier was addressing the Lukiiko Budget conference chaired by Speaker Nelson Kawalya.
To Mayiga, Shs7Bn is far to below the
money required to carry out the development Buganda needs adding that at
that rate, the kingdom will take ages to return to the summit.
The Katikkiro said Baganda are enterprising and capable of making a far better budget than the 2014/15 Budget. “Our trick is self recovery,” Mayiga added.
Among Mayiga ambitious programs the
2014/15 financial year, include completion of the Masengere Plaza inside
Bulange, Kasubi and Wamala Masiro, building a modern women exclusive
hospital, among many others.
Mayiga’s fundraising charm has seen the
kingdom raking in over Shs3Bn that has helped to rebuild the burnt
Kasubi royal tombs, Masengere Plaza among others.
By calling for an enhanced budget,
Mayiga would be understood to communicate the message that the kingdom
cannot continue to rely on hand-outs from wel-wishers but the Lukiiko
members and Kabaka chiefs need to create other avenues of raising funds
for development.
Already some people have expressed disapproval towards what they regard as the alms-seeking culture at Mengo.
To Mayiga’s relief, however, majority of
people have continued to contribute handsomely to his fundraising
initiative and there appear no donation fatigue in the near future.
However, the Katikkiro’s call for an
enhanced budget only points to one reality that the fundraising as a
source of funding for the kingdom’s development is unsustainable in the
long-run the reason for Lukiiko to get into the enterprising mood.
Enquiry into Kasese deaths
Meanwhile, Mayiga used the same occasion
to demand for a thorough and professional into the actual cause of the
killings and raid on military barracks and police stations in Kasese and
Bundibugyo which left over ninety people dead and others maimed.
Mayiga lectured diplomacy above use of
force in settling disputes in the country, adding that respect for each
other should also go a long way in avoiding problems such as those that
happened in Kasese and Bundibugyo.
There have been calls from other
kingdoms and the opposition as well as from some quarters in the
security for a thorough investigation into the cause of the Kasese and
Bundibugyo attacks.
Whereas President Museveni apportioned
blame to his sleepy spies, DISOs, GISOs, PISOs and Rwenzururu King
Wesley Mumbere, the demand for a thorough enquiry has remained.
For example, Mumbere blamed the attacks
on the President for creating kingdoms within kingdoms with intention to
weaken existing kingdoms which infuriated Bakonzo youths who picked up
machetes and guns to protest the installation of Lt Kamya as the king of
Bamba.
Some have blamed the security’s order to
Mumbere never to step foot in Bundibugyo where he was born it being the
kingdom’s headquarters for Lt Kamya. They see this as an infringement
on Mumbere’s constitutional rights to move wherever he wants in Uganda.
It should be remembered that the same
happened in Buganda in 2009 when youths rioted in protest to
government’s Kayunga travel ban on Kabaka Mutebi.
Other observers have blamed the attacks
on neglect of Kasese region by government which has contributed to the
ruling NRM party show in national elections in the locality. There is
also a feeling that Kasese is cheated when it comes to ministerial
appointments with the evidence of only one Mukono minister Dr Crispus
Kiyonga a good piece of evidence to drum the point home.
These and many other school of thoughts
have been advanced by whoever chooses, it’s why a thorough investigation
is perhaps need to be carried out to get to the bottom of the problem.
Problem is government has a notorious
habit of commissioning commissions of enquiry whose findings never get
publicized for the public to know what caused the problem in the first
place. Such unpublicized commissions of enquiry results are much known
to detain us here.
Edited by Robert Ndawula
No comments:
Post a Comment