By Joel Musiba
Before the return of multiparty politics, Busoga spoke with one voice, where leaders fronted the needs of the region without leaning on any political ideology aimed at strengthening the development of Busoga politically and economically. The shift to competing parties after 2005 fractured that unity and eroded the region’s political influence as intelligent minds in the region started fighting each other based on the ideology of making their political parties great in the region.
The era of central coordination: Pre-2000s
Under the Movement system, Busoga’s leaders advanced through a single political structure where they stood together to see that the region developed in all aspects of life, like health, education and way of living. The region produced national figures like Specioza Wandira Kazibwe, Uganda’s first female Vice President; A.M. Kirunda-Kivejinja, Second Deputy Prime Minister; and Rebecca Kadaga, Deputy Speaker. By 2001 the combined voices of the region saw Busoaga’s effective representation in the administration of Uganda as well as the attainment of a reasonable portion of the national cake as regional balance was seen to form in favour of the region due to the strong voices in leadership.
With the Kyabazingaship restored in 1995 under Henry Wako Muloki, cultural and political leadership were aligned. Busoga’s chiefdoms, districts, and parliamentary bloc could lobby as one unit in Kampala. Just as in the post-independence era, Uganda advanced with the Kyabazinga of Busoga as the vice president of Uganda; projects like the Jinja Nile Bridge and rural electrification had clear regional champions (great Busoga leaders) and boosted industrial development in the region.
Multiparty politics: Division by design
The 2005 referendum restored multiparty competition that, in the minds of political heads at the time, was looked at as democracy but an indirect political decline within regions. In Busoga, this split the leadership class across NRM, FDC, UPC, and later DP and NUP; political icons like Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga, Salam Musumba, Professor Nabwiso and many others split themselves to these merging new political parties. Instead of one regional agenda, MPs and local leaders now answer first to party headquarters, fronting ideologies of political parties as the priority as opposed to that of the needs of the region.
Electoral contests turned districts against each other. Kamuli, Iganga, Jinja, and Mayuge began competing for the same ministerial slots, creating conflicts among the people who used to be one family of Busoga. Nowadays party primaries are more important than Busoga. In caucus meetings leaders from the same districts fight each other in efforts to get party cards; an example is the NRM party elections, which are built on lining up a method that causes divisions among people of the same place of residence. The Lukiiko of Busoga, once a coordinating council from colonial days, lost its convening power because elected leaders owed loyalty to their parties, not to the Kyabazinga or to a regional pact.
The cost: Fragmented bargaining power
With votes divided, Busoga’s leverage in Cabinet appointments and budget allocations fell; this is so because of the concept of unnecessary opposition. Among the people of Busoga, the theme is fronting the ideology of political parties first against that of the needs of Busoga people. National infrastructure bypassed the region. The promised “regional tier” government through the Busoga People’s Forum, launched in 2002, stalled once party interests overtook regional ones.
Youth unemployment became the song of the day; the downfall of the industrial revolution in Busoga emerged as factories were transferred to the central region of Uganda, and the price of cash crops like sugarcane crises hit hardest, but Busoga could not mount a united response since political actors feared losing loyalty from their political parties.
Where Buganda and Ankole caucuses still delivered bloc votes, Busoga’s MPs were scattered in a bid to strengthen their relationship with their political party heads as opposed to uniting with their brothers and sisters in the region for regional development. Cultural leadership and political leadership also diverged, with Kyabazinga elections after 2008 generating rival camps aligned to national parties, a final blow to development, making the ideology of unity a myth. The people of Busoga split more, with the Balamogi people viewing the Basoga (Batenga people) as their enemies with whom they can’t sit on the same round table to develop ideologies that could transform the region back to its greatness.
From kingmakers to spectators
Busoga’s pre-2000s greatness came from negotiated unity. Among the 11 chiefdoms under the Kyabazinga and, later, one movement structure feeding leaders into national offices. Multiparty politics replaced negotiation with competition; this could make the unitary regional political bargain on the national cake a total failure. The region stopped producing vice presidents and prime ministers and instead produced opposition-leaning districts with limited access to state power. Unity was Busoga’s currency. The multiparty system spent it.
The concept of rebuilding Busoga’ political greatest
Rebuilding requires putting region before party — reviving the Busoga caucus, empowering the Kyabazinga as a neutral convener, and demanding that parties compete on a Busoga agenda, not the other way around as it is.
A number of different civic organisations have identified solutions to the problems facing Busoga. The Busoga Engagement Forum for Transformation identifies the problem of Busoga as bad governance, and personally I support the ideology. The reasoning behind the ideology is that the region no longer produces Busoga-loving leaders who could front the needs of people first but front their needs first.
Leaders are sometimes voted into offices whose roles they don’t understand, as some care more about holding titles than serving the subordinates (people of Busoga).
Now is the time to mentor leaders, shaping them as servant leaders as opposed to rulers. These leaders will effectively front the needs of the region first as opposed to individual benefits.
Mr Joel Musiba is a lawyer and spokesperson for the Busoga Engagement Forum for Transformation.
