The
former Katikkiro, who spoke to The Observer at his Hotel La Nova in
Masaka last week, said he has retired to look after cows, goats, chicken
and grow banana in Masaka.
In an extensive interview about his life
(details of which will be published in our subsequent issues),
Ssemwogerere spoke about his life as a student, as District
Administrator in the first years of Museveni’s rule, how he turned round
the National Housing and Construction Corporation, and his job as
Katikkiro.
Ssemwogerere described what he called Museveni’s change of character as one of the biggest regrets of his life.
He
said when he was still Katikkiro, some revolutionary colleagues sent
him to speak to Museveni about what they called corruption, nepotism in
government and the wars that Uganda was fighting in the region.
“He
welcomed me very warmly, but the end of the conversation was not the
best. He was not amused. In fact, after that we didn’t communicate for
about a year which was very unusual,” Ssemwogerere said. He was
apparently shocked that his fellow freedom fighter, with whom they
fought for liberty for countries such as Mozambique, was no longer
willing to listen to wise counsel.
He describes Uganda as a country
where most institutions have all been weakened and some destroyed, “to
the extent that now we look at only one person, the provider, the
protector, the supreme judge and everything.”
SERVING KABAKA
In
this extensive interview, the first since he resigned from Mengo,
Ssemwogerere speaks about how he was appointed Katikkiro in July 1994
and how two prominent Baganda, including one currently working with
Museveni, attempted to block his appointment on the basis of his
religion. He is a Catholic.
He also talks about the more than 50
meetings he had with the President over various Buganda demands,
including a federal system of government, land, Kampala and
establishment of CBS radio.
In one such meeting at State House
Nakasero, around 1998, which was attended by angry security chiefs,
Ssemwogerere says he was intimidated by the President who accused him of
treason. He quoted Museveni saying: “…The information I have is that
you, the Katikkiro, and a few others, are organising a rebellion and
insurgency and the literature is here.” The President, according to
Ssemwogerere, placed two voluminous books on the table as evidence.
Apparently,
the President was perturbed that Baganda had cancelled that year’s
coronation anniversary celebrations and instead flocked to churches and
mosques to “mourn” the passing of the Land Act 1998.
On his
retirement in December 2005, after his negotiated regional tier system
of government was rejected, Ssemwogerere said, “I requested the Kabaka
to retire me so that he could find somebody better to carry on the job,
and he did.”
The former Katikkiro adds that the Kabaka was “subsequently not very happy” with the deal he had negotiated.
“I said, ‘why should you be unhappy, you are the king, you are free to do whatever you want to do. So, that is what happened.”
RWANDA INVASION
In
a revelation that for the first time shades light on Uganda’s
involvement in the planning of the 1990 invasion of Rwanda by the RPF,
Ssemogerere says that the whole of present-day Sembabule district was a
training ground for the invaders. Formerly part of Masaka district where
he was District Administrator, Ssemwogerere says the area was cut off
by Gen. David Tinyefuza to allow RPF train its fighters and smoke the
meat they would eat during the war.
Road blocks were mounted and
nobody was allowed to reach certain parts of Sembabule, not even he, the
area administrator. “They had created villages. That was just before
the Rwandese (RPF) attacked Rwanda and yet I didn’t know about it. What
they used to do is to slaughter the animals and make mikalo (smoked
beef) to prepare for war,” he said. Our series on Ssemwogerere’s life
will be published in our Monday edition
