By Mahir Balunywa
Center for Critical Thinking and Alternative Analysis
On Saturday night, I listened to an audio on the Impala platform. The audio sounded like the Rt. Hon. Alitwala Kadaga, the former speaker of parliament was cautioning the Basoga against a clique of some Basoga elites who have now taken it as a fully paid job not only to fight her out of Busoga Kingdom affairs but also to put an end to the kingdom.
Going by the audio (if it’s her words), one would rightly posit that the Busoga kingdom is in a crisis. The crisis seems to be internal, with external funding. The internal leadership of the kingdom is now set to flush out a woman who has fought for the restoration of the kingdom in Busoga. These internal contradictions now point to the emerging facts: those pro-Bukedea are now fighting the hegemony of the celebrated political figure Kadaga in Busoga. They have infiltrated the kingdom leadership, acquired all the financial resources to dislodge her, and later handed over the kingdom to Bukedea.
This faction has also marshaled a strategy to replace the same celebrated Kadaga from the position of NRM chairperson of the eastern region. They seem to be fronting another adversarial force. And they appear to be heavily funded, militarily vibrant, shameless, and without remorse or regrets for their actions in Busoga, a region to which they natively belong.
On the contrary, another group of eminent Basoga politicians has said, “No, over our dead bodies.” These have now come up with a campaign to restore and protect the legacy of the Right Hon. Alitwala Kadaga. This group seems to be of classical substance, looking at Busoga beyond NRM rule. As elders, cool-headed, they recall what Busoga has gone through over the successive years and are opposed to the disintegration of Busoga. Incidentally, both groups belong to the same ruling political party.
As I listened to the audio, I asked myself: Will the kingdom survive this crisis? Might this clash lead to the end of the kingdom? What are the issues at stake in Busoga currently? Is there an asymmetrical relationship between the recent appointments of the Executive Director and Deputy Executive Director of KCCA, who are both from Busoga and more so one from Kamuli? Is this part of the long-protracted battle that began right from dislodging Alitwala from the National Speakership now dawning on her in Kamuli? Where does all this leave Busoga and Alitwala in 2026 national politics? Can Kadaga be undermined, leaving Busoga overmined?
In respect, the legendary Japanese political philosopher, Francis Fukuyama, in his book The End of History, once remarked that what is happening today is not new—it has happened before. To diagnose current problems, go back into history; the solutions to today’s problems lie in history. This led me to dive into the history of Busoga in an attempt to find answers to what seems to be nagging me this Sunday morning.
Back in history, Nadiope approached Obote and told him how UPC was bound to collapse if Wako retained Kyabazingaship of Busoga. Obote advised Nadiope to go to court, which Nadiope religiously did. After long court proceedings, Nadiope realized he had no chance of winning the case, so he again approached Obote, who instructed Chief Justice Udo Udoma. A day before the court ruling, Obote telephoned Udoma and gave him instructions to declare Nadiope the winner or else he would pack his bags back to Nigeria, where he was a citizen.
The following morning, Udoma arrived at Jinja High Court to make his ruling before a highly charged court of Basoga, who had traveled overnight from Gadumire, chanting and dancing in the compound of Jinja Town Hall, the venue of the court. Justice Udoma took his seat, read a long-ruling with session breaks, and ultimately told the court that Wako won the case for valid reasons. Before completing his judgment, the Basoga from Gadumire, who were the court majority, chanted.
However, after a short pause, Justice Udoma proceeded and added that Nadiope won the case. He promised to present his long-written judgment in the future, but that future never came. This left the Gadumire group in dilemma. One prominent elder in attendance remarked in profuse confusion, “Atiano Omulamuzi akobereki, ati Nadiope asingire omusango, Wako asingire ensonga?” The Nadiope group left court chanting and was later joined by UPCs in Busoga to celebrate their court victory.
However, for reasons not relevant right now, Nadiope later fell out with Obote, and Obote decided to imprison Nadiope, his former vice president. Slowly but surely, the Busoga kingdom became extinct and was later overtaken by the bigger 1966 crisis, marking the end of kingdoms in Uganda. The rest is now history.
Conclusion:
Going forward, I appeal to the two groups to think beyond their current positions and value Busoga as their motherland. Community interest should be placed above personal interests. In this regard, I authored a small book at the Islamic University in Uganda, titled When Institutional and Individual Interests Clash (2015). In respect, Chinua Achebe rightly remarked, “When the center fails to hold, things fall apart.”
There should be a limit to our self-seeking interests. When a man dies, he goes with nothing but his nakedness; all that we consume finally ends up in the toilet. Primitive accumulation of resources eventually killed capitalism—that’s why the legendary Marxist theorists Marx and Engels argued that communism would triumph at the end of capitalism. After accumulating all this ill-gotten money, you end up bringing it back to those from whom it was stolen.
The love of money is synonymous with the worship of it; this is purely political idolatry.
We must return to the human tradition of putting humanity first. Use your academic qualifications (if they are genuinely acquired) to reason and help your people out of abject poverty. At times, we don’t need to go to school to distinguish between good and bad. Bad is evil, and we all know how evil looks. Don’t paint evil with good, for not even Satan will side with you. “For God and my Country,” as the Mwriri motto goes.