By Patrick Jaramogi
Buganda Kingdom Premier (Katikkiro) Owek. Charles Peter Mayiga has lashed out at Presidential candidates and politicians for threatening locals as they campaign for votes. Addressing the Lukiiko at Bulange on Monday, Mayiga who talked “tough” said threatening people was not the way for winning their hearts to garner more votes. “I have heard people saying our sons will be shot. Shoot who? Do you know what you are talking about?” he mused.
His remarks seem to retaliate on those made by NRM Secretary General Justine Kasule Lumumba who while addressing NRM supporters in Nsangi in Wakiso said government would shoot all those who came to demonstrate in the streets. Lumumba said then: “I warn you. Don’t allow your sons and daughters to come to the streets because government will shoot them.”
Mayiga advised politicians to watch their statements saying such statements caused untold suffering to Ugandans in recent years. Mayiga said politicians should struggle to win peoples’ hearts and not the body. “Idd Amin and Obote (former presidents) won peoples bodies and not their souls by such threats and you saw how they ended up,” he said. He warned politicians against dishing out money to get votes. “Why should a presidential candidate “buy” votes? Why dish out money for votes. People who use cash to woe voters are not worth electing,” he said. He urged the Baganda to vote for people who have Buganda and the Kingdom at heart.
These remarks come at the time when a recent survey revealed that NRM candidate Yoweri Museveni has spent shs27b in eight weeks while Go- Forward’s Amama Mbabazi had spent at least shs1.3b while FDC was stated to have spent over shs900 million in a spate of two months campaigns. The figures don’t reflect what has been spent to-date.
Charles Peter Mayiga also told those vying for elective posts in Buganda to put the Kingdom at the heart of everything. “I would prefer to elect a person who will ensure that our Kabaka is free to move and visit his subjects in Buganda without a hustle,” he said perhaps referring to the Federal type of system. He noted that none of the presidential candidates had the mandate or capacity to construct any road as they promise using their personal money. “No presidential candidate can construct any road using his/her money so they should not be making such promises. All the monies they use are your money, the tax payer’s money and not necessarily theirs,” he said.
Speaking on the return of the Kingdom properties, Mayiga told the Lukiiko that most of the Kingdom assets had been returned with most land titles already transferred in the names of the Kabaka. “However we are still negotiating for the return of other properties. We are told some other titles will be transferred this week (before elections) though we have had a rough time with the land officials,” said Mayiga.