Uganda Updates
When Mumbere resigned Kingship for material economic benefits
To the starters, Charles Wesly Mumbere, has been the reigning king of Rwenzururu kingdom since October 19th 2009.
The belief is correct but not completely factual as the embattled Rwenzururu king resigned his kingship in exchange of economic value at a certain point, www.muwado.com can reveal.
Mumbere, the son to Isaya Mukirane, who was recognized as the region’s king in the 1960s, inherited the latter’s title at the age of 13, before assuming the office as a king at the age of 18.
RESIGNATION
At the age of 30, alongside other protagonists in the Rwenzururu kingdom, Mumbere agreed to enter into “reconciliation and agreed to a settlement in 1982.”
According to a discussion paper titled The Rwenzururu Movement and the struggle for the Rwenzururu Kingdom issued by in March 2016 by Arthur Syahuka-Muhindo of the Institute of Development policy Management, Univesity of Antwarp-Germany, Mumbere and company agreed to disband the kingdom in exchange of other things.
The protagonists who constituted the Rwenzururu forces then, agreed to lay “down arms” for “a degree of local autonomy and integration of Rwenzururu leaders in the Kasese [district] administration”, the discussion paper notes in part.
When it came to Mumbere, the King at the time, he was offered a range of economic benefits.
Certainly, the now the imprisoned king agreed to resign his kingship in “return for promises of development funds for social welfare and education.”
The discussion paper further reveals that Mumbere was interested in “material incentives as well including a bus, a car, a pickup truck, two shops, a residential house, and a government scholarship for study abroad which was to materialize in the US.”
U-TURN
But shortly after installation of Tooro’s king in 1990s, a section of Rwenzorians resurrected the call for restoration of their defunct kingdom with the majority agitating to have ex-king Mumbere return from US where he lived to be crowned the king.
MUMBERE LINKED TO ADF-NALU REBELS
With the death of Amon Bazira, the former leader of NALU (1989-1993) and ADF in 1996, there emerged persistent allegations that Mumbere had took over from the latter to lead the rebel movement that had opened fire to topple Museveni’s government, complicating the talk to install Mumbere as a king by the NRM government.
Indeed, there were implicating documentary evidence to pin down Mumbere regarding the accusations, and most importantly, the documents indicated that Mumbere accepted to be the “titular” head of NALU.
Consequently, Cryspas Kiyonga (then Uganda’s Health Minister) and the vice-chairman of the National Resistance Movement (Al Hajj Moses Kigongo) convened a meeting of the Bakonzo tribal elders on August 27, 1998 to discuss the issue.
Among them were former Rwenzururu Kingdom ministers, NRM political cadres and parliamentarians including Christopher Kibanzanga, a brother to Mumbere and the current state Minister for Agriculture.
What shook the audience in the meeting was the fact that the documents in form of letters and the photographs were “identified as being truly of his brother [Mumbere]”
The press conference was convened thereafter, to record and publish this revelation which changed the dynamics of Rwezururu politics.
Not only was at the Mweya meeting alleged Charles Mumbere’s involvement in ADF activities16, but it was also proposed to strip him of his kingship title.
www.muwado.com will keep you posted on the Kasese impasse
