The Uganda parliament enacted a law in 2009 banning female circumcision that prescribed very stiff penalties to those who defy it. The law imposes a jail term of 10 years for anyone found carrying carrying out female circumcision  and life imprisonment if the girl being circumcised contracts a serious disease such as AIDS or dies as a result of circumcision. March last year president Museveni signed the bill into law.

However, from the outset many people in Sebei were not happy with the law because it was the first time Uganda made a law against other people’s culture and also because there had not been any discussion about the bill before parliament debated it.

The first casualties of the law were the four seating members of parliament from the three districts of Sebei (Kapchorwa, Kween and Bukwo) who lost their parliamentary seats during 2011 presidential and parliamentary elections mainly because they did not oppose the bill when it was being debated in parliament.

Most Sebei traditionalists agreed that the law would be difficult to enforce and encouraged the people to go ahead and defy it. They vowed to defy the law and go ahead with female circumcision which was due in November-December 2010.

The circumcision season came and the Sebei went ahead and cut their daughters according to the tradition as if no law banning female circumcision existed. Although some people were arrested by the police for abetting female circumcision, they were later released for lack of evidence because no witnesses came forward.

Papers report that 120 girls were cut in November and December of 2010, but the number could be higher although there is no way of getting the right figures because some of the girls crossed the border into Kenya where they were circumcised and some were circumcised secretly.

Most people in Sebei do not support circumcision and this is the reason the numbers of those submitting to the knife is very small. As mentioned above, only 120 girls broke the law and were circumcised. When female circumcision was at its peak in the 1970s, over 2000 girls would be circumcised during a circumcision season and this was during a time when the Sabiny population was still small.

It is quite obvious that most Sebei see female circumcision as no longer fashionable and want to do away with it in their own way. On the other hand, the government was under pressure from pressure groups to proscribe the practice and it yielded. When this happened, most Sebei came together in defense of their culture.

What is needed now is for the government to open talks with Sebei elders and find an amicable solution to this very emotive issue.

The country is weighed down by a government unashamed of its obscene expenditure of tax monies to gratify thieving public officials as peasants waste away from avoidable and treatable ailments—

It is ununderstatement to say Ugandahealthcare system is dead. On Wednesday Mr. Vincent Onyango of Buyende District undressed to bare his irritation and make the issue of a rotten health service delivery stark naked to the public eyes of Ugandans. Mr. Onyango as a Good Samaritan had volunteered to deliver a boy to the hospital only for the staff to demand surgical gloves before treating the boy. Villagers saved the situation as they raised 10 surgical cloves to have the boy attended to and Onyango dress up.

There are several more catalogues of dramatic episodes that stand in our face like ulcerous sores unfit to be displayed. In the space of a few months a patient had died at Kagati hospital because he was unable to afford Shs 150000 for a hernia operation. In Mukono a woman who could not afford Shs 2000 for a surgical clove died as nurses refused to attend to her. In Nakaseke District the hospital operates without an ambulance and patients are stretchered on bicycles, risking more the lives of expectant mothers and patiensts in critical condition.

The social contract between theUgandan Stateand citizens has collapsed especially in the State’s corresponding duties to provide medical services. Government hospitals and healthcare centres today stand without the bare minimum medical personnel and equipment, including surgical gloves, ambulances, medicines and minimum theatre equipment. The healthcare system is riddled with unethical practices and has been rendered foul, run-down and repulsive. All this unchecked rot stick under the very nostrils of the government and its greasy-palmed officials entrusted to superintend the welfare of the citizens.

The country is weighed down by a government and bureaucracy unashamed of its obscene expenditure of tax monies to gratify bloated cabinet and thieving public officials as peasants waste away from available and treatable ailments.

We must commend the medical staff that have sacrificed and persevered without tears. They have ensured the invisible spirit of our citizenry is not crushed but enabled to pull through these wretched circumstances. We challenge the government as the key guarantor of public healthcare service delivery to renew its responsible to the citizenry and meet the medial needs. We need to get our priorities right. Ugandans deserve better.

Daily Monitor Editorial of 6 May, 2011

This was a very interesting and unexpected congratulatory message because it came against the backdrop of strained relations between the Kabaka and President Museveni. For along time, the two have not been on speaking terms, with the president complaining that the Kabaka was not even receiving his calls. The relationship between the two men had become so bad that the  kingdom’s senior officials, including a former prime minister, Mulwanyamuli Ssemogerere, openly campaigned for Mr. Museveni’s main challenger, Col Kizza Besigye.

Col Besigye, under the Interparty Coalition, an alliance of Mr. Besigye’s Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) and three other insignificant parties, had promised that if he won the elections and became the president of Uganda, he would grant Buganda a federal status, which she had briefly enjoyed in the early 1960s before Milton Obote abolished it in 1967.   The National Resistance Movement party of president Museveni  had resisted such a demand.

Col Besigye had seen his promise to grant Buganda a federal status as a trump card that would galvanize his support in Buganda and land him in State House, Entebbe. Unfortunately, things turned out differently because more Baganda voted for Museveni than those who voted for Besigye.

The leadership in Mengo, the seat of Buganda kingdom, had misjudged the people’s mood by assuming that the people would vote as a block for anyone they gave support.  Just a month ahead of the election date, Museveni had rushed through the parliament a Traditional and Cultural Leaders Bill which effectively barred traditional leaders from taking part in ‘partisan’  politics. The leadership in Buganda interpreted the Bill as specifically targeted at the Kabaka and vowed to ensure that Museveni was  booted from power.

That all this was not sufficient to fire up the people of Buganda to rise to the occasion and vote en masse against Museveni must have been a source of great worry to the kingdom because it exposed its vulnerability.

Thus, the Kabaka had to act quickly to assure President Museveni that his kingdom was ready to work with his government. Museveni had the last laugh. The results of the elections had shown that Ugandans were no longer prisoners to tribal or cultural institutions. Furthermore, it was quite clear now that those who were clamoring for a federal Buganda constituted a minority that did not speak for everybody in Buganda.

Traditional or cultural institutions had been abolished by former President Milton Obote in 1967 and Museveni had reinstated them in 1993 against strong opposition from some of his colleagues in the government and military. Soon after their restoration, the Buganda kingdom began demanding for a federal status with rest of the country, a demand most people in Uganda consider untenable.

With his renewed mandate, Museveni would not hesitate to punish the monarchists who had opposed his reelection. Therefore, congratulating him on his  reelection by the Kabaka was a prudent thing to do.

The total amount of money given to each Member of Parliament (MP) by the Parliamentary Commission was shs 20 million (about 10, 000 dollars) and of this Shs 6 million was deducted   by the Uganda Revenue Authority as tax. The government said the money wired to each of the 365 members of Parliament was to facilitate the ‘honorables’  in supervising government programmes in their constituencies but did not specify the kind of government programs or how the money would be accounted for.

The money was part of an emergency supplementary allocation of 602 billion shillings passed by a hastily convened Parliament in January 2011; six months after Parliament had endorsed an annual budget of shs 8 trillion in June. Government reported that it was already in the red, having spent shs 8.6 trillion.

Campaigns for presidential and parliamentary elections due in February are in full gear with incumbent Museveni fighting to retain the seat that he has occupied since 1986 when his rag-tag guerrilla force stormed the streets of Kampala sending the then president Milton Obote in exile the second time.  Mr Museveni is prepared to do what it takes to win the presidential election. Money, it would appear, will decide who wins the election and for that there is no way the opposition can win.

Much of the money was to go to State House, President’s Office, Defense, Police and the Electoral Commission. However, the opposition argued that the money was needed to meet president’s campaign expenses.  Because the government has a big majority in Parliament, bills sent to Parliament are easily passed. Thus, when government reported that it was broke and urgently needed a supplementary allocation, it was a forgone conclusion that the request would be granted by Parliament.

Anywar and other opposition members thought that the money that was wired to their accounts was meant to reward the MPs for passing the supplementary budget and to persuade them to pass the contentious Traditional and Cultural Leaders Bill that was in the pipeline. The bill is intended to bar cultural and traditional leaders from participating in politics.

Anywar said she was surprised to find shs 14 million in her account purportedly meant for supervision of government programs in her constituency.  She said she had already received Shs 10 million that each MP received annually for constituency development.  She wondered how she was expected to supervise government programs when elections for a new Parliament were only two months away.  She deplored the way the current government spent public money on patronage at the expense of social services that would have benefited more people.  Ms Anywar declared that her conscious and her Catholicism would not allow her to accept bribe.

She therefore decided to return the money to the sender. Told about Anywar’s returning money, the Minister of Information and National Guidance, Kabagumba Masiko, said Anywar was right if she did not want to supervise government programs in her constituency and added that Anywar’s major problem was being a cheap populist.

Some MPs belonging to the ruling party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) chided the opposition for threatening to return the money instead of using it to provide services to their people.  The said they would use the money to serve their people. Others said that rather than return the money to the treasury, they would donate it to the Uganda Heart and Cancer Institute that desperately needed basic facilities.

A group calling itself the Civil Society  called a press conference and  deplored the high level of corruption in government and the rate at which public money was  being squandered on political patronage rather than  providing  services to the people.  They called on the public not to vote for members of Parliament who refused to return the money to the Treasury. They also gave the MPs one week in which to return the money, failure of which they would be sued. The warning expired on 4 February 2011. By then only nine opposition MPs had returned the money.

This is not the first time that members of Parliament have been given an inducement to do some urgent service for the government. In 2005, each MP received shs 5 million as an inducement to back Mr. Museveni’s bid to approve an  amendment of the Constitution to remove presidential term limits to allow him to stand as many times as he wished.

On the Eve of Circumcision
For sometime before the date of circumcision, various activities have been taking place. The initiates have been visiting and extending invitations to various people. They have also been amassing some of the gear that they would wear for the occasion. These include beads, shawls, head caps, preferably made of colobus monkey and a flywhisk made of a cow’s tail. The parents have been busy procuring provisions, mainly consumables for the visitors. The night before the circumcision actions begins.
As the night arrives, people start arriving at the homes of the initiates amid the throbbing of drums. In most cases young people, both girls and boys in a village or several villages, come togather in one home, dance and perform all the required rituals together. The girls have their own rituals and instructors who are women. The rituals are performed to make the initiates prepare for the knife in the morning. They mainly include administration of certain herbs that are chewed or drunk. These herbs create a certain numbing effect and lessen the pain. The initiates are also instructed how to maintain body cleanliness.
During the course of the night, the initiates move from home-to-home until all the participating homes have been visited.
Circumcision songs and dances are not only entertaining they are also quite erotic. The songs call on the initiates to be strong and brave and not cry during circumcision. They are warned that the knife is sharp and painful and whoever is not ready to face it is free to opt out. They songs recall incidences of people who cried during circumcision and the pain and humiliation their families went through.
As dawn breaks in the east, the initiates gather before one of the homes where the circumcision will take place. They stand in a file and their faces are smeared with chyme from a freshly strangled ram. The chyme reduces the movement of the face muscles particularly the eyelids, making the initiate look like he is drugged. When the smearing is done, the initiates move into enclosures and the cutting begins.
Circumcised women are allowed to watch the operation in the girls’ enclosure where men are prohibited. Women are prohibited from entering the boys’ enclosure to witness the circumcision.
The hushed, almost eerie atmosphere that has prevailed as the cutting went on, is suddenly broken by drumming, ululation and dancing, an indication that everything has gone well. This outpouring of joy is particularly noticeable among the parents of the initiates who are now relieved from their anxieties.
However, if one of the initiates cries and he or she has to be restrained, which sometimes includes tying with ropes, everybody becomes sad and somber and the celebration becomes muted at the place of circumcision.
While the initiates are being cut, their instructors stand watching everything, making sure that the surgeon is not making unnecessary cuts or too slow. Once the circumcision is complete, the instructor collects pieces of cut skin and the soil on which the blood has been dripping and either burns them or throws them into a pit latrine. This destruction of the blood and cut parts of the initiate is to ensure that people with bad intentions do not perform witchcraft and harm the initiate.
Bathing-shaving ceremony
Following circumcision, the parents of the initiates (they are now known as ‘chemerik’ in Kupsapiny or Kupsabiny, the local language) and the instructors may decide that the initiates stay in one place for the first few days or they disperse with each going to their homes. In most cases, the initiates who live near one another stay in one place. During the first four days after circumcision, the chemerik are secluded from the rest of the community except young boys and girls who are uncircumcised and their instructors. The children bring them food and carry any errands back and forth.
On the fourth day of seclusion, a small ceremony is organized by the parents during which the chemerik bathe for the first time since they were circumcised. They also shave their hair and wear new clean clothes. A fire is lit and the shaved hair is burnt. A few people, mainly friends and age-mates of the parents, usually attend this brief ceremony. Beer and food are served and there is drumming and dancing.
After this ceremony, most chemerik who have been staying together separate and go to their homes or villages where they will continue to be secluded until the rest of the rites have been completed.
Seclusion Period
In the past, chemerihood lasted for several years during which the initiates or chemerik were fed on coagulated sour milk and other choice foods that made them grow healthy and fit. Meat was strictly prohibited. They could not walk on the paths and to cross them they placed leaves on the ground and walked on them. There were a number of the don’ts that they had to observe.

The role of instructor at this time is that of a teacher and a counselor. He tells the initiate that it important to be polite and obedient to one’s parents, people who are older than you ae and your parents age mates. In the Sebei culture, your mother’s age-mates are referred to as your mothers. The same applies to your father’s age-mates who are your fathers. These people must be respected the same way one respects one’s parents.
He is told not to covet somebody’s wealth, such as cattle or his wife or wish him death.  He should always tell the truth and love his family. The initiates are also shown plants that are medicinal value and how they are prepared and used.
The final ceremony
Important rituals are performed before the initiates can be released to the community at large. Remember that all this time they have been secluded from the rest of the community including their own parents. The rituals that have been performed before and after circumcision have applied to both sexes, and the remaining rituals will apply to both sexes except the rituals of the lion and leopard.
The ritual of the leopard is only open to female initiates and is administered by women, while that of the lion is for male initiates and is administered by men. I need not go into details here because this will be the subject of our later dispatch.
Once the rituals of the lion and leopard have ended, the initiates shave, bathe and wear new clothes. Female instructors instruct female initiates about the ways of womanhood. They are shown how to get grain from the granary, how to use grinding stones, prepare food and how to behave towards their husbands.
Male chemerik learn from their male instructors how to use the spear, bow and arrows and how to be responsible husbands. The initiates are allocated to age-sets or age groups. An age-set identifies people who were circumcised during certain period. For example, Nyongi refers to people who were circumcised between 1954 and 1960 inclusive.
Finally, each initiate chooses a new name for himself or herself. They will now use these new names for life. The only people who can still call you by your childhood name are your close relatives. The chemerik are now men and women, ready to marry, bear children and play their part in the world of adulthood.
Significance of Circumcision
Clearly, circumcision for both boys and girls among the Sabiny marks the end of childhood and the beginning of adulthood. It is moving from a relatively secure world of parental protection to an insecure world where one is alone and responsible for his own existence.
The Sebei do not make much distinction between the world of men and that of women. They realize that both share the happiness and sorrows of the world and both must prepare for such a world. This preparation involves the imparting of Sabiny cultural traditions that include good behavior, respect for others, both the young and the elderly, not doing anything that would disrupt the peace and the wellbeing of the community.
Circumcision or the cutting of the flesh gives symbolic expression to the decisiveness of the step that has been taken by the individual, an affirmation that there is no coming back. You are now in a very different world, a world of hostile elements, the cutting of flesh and shedding of blood are indications of the nature of that world.
That world demands courage and bravery and this is the reason why the initiate must not flinch or cry the circumcision. Those who shy away or cry during circumcision are cowards, are a shame to their families, and must endure permanent stigmatization.
The initiates learn from their instructors how to use magic to punish disobedient boys and girls. They do this by making them cry during circumcision. This powerful tool, exercised only by circumcised adults, ensures that young people behave well towards their seniors.
The Sebei word for circumcision is wonsho, meaning the act of chasing away. Won is to chase away. Therefore, the culmination of the activities that take place before and after circumcision, is the expulsion of boys and girls from their parental homes so that they can start their own homes. The ceremonies and the rites prepare them for this eventuality.

Therefore, they wanted the Bill to be shelved because it had some contentious sections that the people of Buganda might  interpret as intended at undermining the authority of the Kabaka. The Speaker agreed with the legislators that the Bill would be shelved.

However, after hurried consultations with President Museveni, the Speaker reversed his earlier undertaking to defer the Bill until after elections. He told the MPs that they should debate the Bill and pass it before elections. If the Bill was shelved, people might think that the Bill had bad intentions. To show that the Bill had been brought in good faith, it should be debated and passed before the elections. The MPs were hopelessly alarmed but they had no choice because that is how the system works.

The Bill, among other things, seeks to operationalize Article 246 of the Constitution, which specifies the activities of cultural leaders in Uganda. The major aim of the Bill, we are told, is to ensure  that traditional leaders do not take part in politics, taking into  account the events of 1966 that  led to the abolition of kingdoms by Milton Obote.

A little historical background here. At independence, Uganda had five tribal kingdoms: – Ankole, Buganda, Bunyoro, Toro, and Busoga. However, because there was no law regulating the actions of the kings, the king of Buganda, Fredrick Edward Mutesa, formed a political party called Kabaka Yekka (king only) which formed a coalition with Mr. Obote’s Uganda People’s Congress (UPC). The coalition won the 1962 independence elections.

In the new government lineup, King Mutesa became the first president of an independent Uganda, replacing the British Governor General, a mainly titular post, while the leader of UPC, Milton Obote, became the executive Prime Minister. The two men had a number of differences, which culminated in the storming of the king’s palace by the Uganda army, led by Idi Amin, the deputy commander of the army,  in 1966 and the fleeing of the Kabaka to Britain, where he stayed until his death in 1969. The victorious Obote suspended the constitution and abolished the kingdoms. Yoweri Museveni restored the kingdoms in 1993 against the wishes of some of his commanders.

After restoration of their kingdom, the people of Buganda demanded that their assets, which had been seized by the government in 1966, should be returned. Specifically, the government should return 9,000 square miles of land, which had become public land. They also wanted 20 billion Uganda Shillings (about 1 million US dollars)  as payment for rent for the period government was using their buildings and other properties. The third demand was that Buganda should be given a federal status with the rest of the country.

Because the government of Museveni would not accede to these demands, the relationship between King Mutebi and President Museveni has become very icy to say the least. In September 2009, the two men clashed.  The government prevented the Kabaka from visiting Kayunga,  one of the counties in his kingdom to officiate at a youth function. The area is mainly inhabited  by a small tribe called the Banyala. The  Banyala leader, one of the small cultural leaders encouraged by the government,  objected to the visit saying the Kabaka should have sought person from him to visit his kingdom.  The government warned the Kabaka not visit the area saying the Kabaka’s visit might provoke violence. The Kabaka said his visit must go on  regardless.  When it became clear that the Kabaka had been prevented by government from visiting Kayunga, riots broke out in a number of towns in Buganda including the capital city of Kampala and about 27 people were shot dead by the security forces while quelling the riots.

Then, in April 2010, the Kasubi tombs where the remains of Buganda kings are interred were  torched by unknown people. The Baganda felt that the arsonists were government agents in yet another of those actions meant to destroy their kingdom. The Kabaka visited the tombs and was moved to tears at what he saw.

After the Kabaka had left, President Museveni visited the area and was met by an irate mob that accused his government of trying to destroy their kingdom. Two people were shot dead by the presidential security agents. To date the killers have not been brought to book.

To some people in Buganda, the cultural leaders Bill is primarily aimed at Buganda. It is meant to prevent the king from influencing the coming elections that is why it must become law before February 18. It is clear that those Baganda who support the monarchy are supporting the opposition Inter Party Coalition (IPC) led by Dr Kizza Besigye, Museveni’s archenemy.   Indeed, two former Buganda Prime Minister Messrs Mulwanyamuli Ssemogerere and Dan Muliika have formed a pressure group called Suubi (hope) which has joined IPC to uproot Museveni from power. It is believed that the group has Kabaka’s blessings.

Political pundits believe that this time round Dr Besigye might dethrone Museveni from Buganda that has always voted for Museveni. This is a chilling thought as far as Museveni is concerned. Therefore,  the main purpose of the Bill is to ensure that the Kabaka does not influence the coming elections by endorsing IPC.

What the Bill is supposed to do

1. Bars cultural leaders from participating in partisan politics and from promoting  or providing direct support to a political party
2. Bars cultural leaders from recommending to the masses to support an individual politician or promoting a political party manifesto
3. Bars  traditional leaders from commenting on political issues
4. Calls on any cultural leader who wishes to join politics to abdicate his post
5. It states that where there are more than one cultural leader in an administrative region, the position of a titular leader in the regional government  must be held in rotation
6. No person shall be compelled to pay allegiance to a cultural leader
7. Local governments can create a cultural leader if the majority of the people wish
8. Prohibits cultural leaders from dealing with or receiving funds from  foreign governments  or agencies without permission from the Foreign Minister
9. Cultural leaders are liable to prosecution for civil wrongs they commit or committed by their agents
10. Government is free to withdraw its recognition of any cultural leader who fails to adhere to the provisions of the Bill

The Bill provides financial and other assistance to the institution of cultural leaders. Among these are the following:

• A generous tax-free monthly allowance
• A four-wheel drive car and an escort vehicle
• Government protection for the leader and his family
• Free education for two of their children up to university level
• First class travel at government expense
• Burial expenses to be met by the government

Reactions from the cultural leaders

Most cultural leaders were happy with the  Bill because of the financial support government was extending to them. The Prime Minister of Bunyoro kingdom said most sections, especially the ones on facilitation, were good because cultural leaders were not facilitated and yet they were important people who needed transport, allowances and education for their children and healthcare. The prime minister of Alur said there was nothing new in the bill since everything was already in the constitution. The cultural leader of Japadhola, Adhola, welcomed the promised remuneration of cultural leaders, adding that cultural leaders rendered useful service to the nation and the facilitation would allow them to do  their work better.

However, the representative of the Buganda kingdom was not amused by the so-called facilitation. He said that the Bill was not only patronizing but also insulting. He said Buganda needed a federal status where they can collect their own revenue to facilitate the Kabaka. He further said that the Kabaka should not be restricted from talking to his people on any subject, including politics.

Some people in Buganda believe that the Bill is just the beginning of a process by President Museveni to abolish kingdoms. They cite the section on withdrawal of government  recognition of cultural leaders who fail to adhere to the restrictions imposed by the Bill. They also object to the section, which allows rotation of titular leadership in an area, which has more than one cultural leader. The Baganda contend that there is only one cultural leader in Buganda and that is the Kabaka.

The right given to local government by the Bill to create cultural leaders, even where they never existed before, was seen as intended to dilute the institution of cultural leaders by the government. It is what Milton Obote did before he abolished the kingdoms in 1967.

In his new year’s address to the nation, President Museveni defended the Bill by saying it was not intended to dethrone some cultural leaders, as some elements of the society were claiming, nor was it meant to stop citizens from prostrating before their leaders. The Bill, the President went on, was to protect the politics of the country from opportunistic politicians who would want to drag traditional leaders into politics contrary to Section 246 of the Constitution.

The President clarified that there was only one overall cultural leader in Buganda because the others presided over some sections of Buganda. Therefore, the question of rotation of cultural leaders in the region would not arise.

However, the Baganda were not satisfied with the President’s clarification. They called upon the government to scrap the Bill altogether because it was not only obnoxious but also unconstitutional. If the government persisted in passing the bill, they would take their case to the nation’s Constitutional Court, they warned.

Meanwhile the NRM legislators from Buganda are cringing with fear, praying for miracles to save them from  imminent political oblivion.

From Mwiri Obote went to Makerere University College where he spent two years, 1948 and 1949, doing an intermediate course, majoring in political science and geography.

Mr. Obote did not complete his studies at Makerere having been dismissed for participating in a strike over food in 1949. Obote disputes this and says he left Makerere because the Lango District Administration that had promised to sponsor him for a law degree course in Khartoum, Sudan, reneged on its promise, allegedly under pressure from colonial authorities who did not approve of his political views.

After leaving Makerere College, Obote took up menial jobs in Uganda and later ended up working for a construction company as a clerk in neighboring Kenya. Obote was in Kenya during a time when Kenya was literally boiling politically. The Africans, especially the Kikuyu people of Central and Rift Valley provinces, were agitating for land, which had been forcefully grabbed by white settlers. The Mau Mau uprising, supposedly led by Jomo Kenyatta who was later to be arrested and detained, was taking shape.  Obote says he became a member of the Kenya African Union (KAU), one of the African-led political parties.

In 1956, Obote returned to Uganda and was nominated a member of the Legislative Council (LEGCO) representing Lango District.

The rise of Obote

Obote entered politics at a time when Africans the entire continent were agitating for independence. Sudan and Ghana were on the road to becoming independent. Kenyans had taken up arms and were battling the entrenched British settlers who had turned indigenous Africans into squatters on their own ancestral lands.

But the Second World War had been costly in terms of resources and lives and the colonialist western nations were exhausted and ready to divest their African colonies and get on with rebuilding their consumer economies which the war had devastated. It was just a question of when and not if Uganda would become independent.

However, the situation in Kenya, Northern Rhodesia and South Africa was more complex because of the settler population which saw Africa as home and therefore nowhere to go. Here the struggle for independence was bound to be more intense and bloody.

The British developed Uganda as a protectorate, meaning that a time would come when they would leave and let Ugandans run their own affairs. This was part of the reason no strong parties emerged that transcended tribal affiliations.

During much of the colonial period Ugandans were busy growing cotton and coffee and political activity was left to county and districts councils. The country was divided into districts which were tribal in nature. Those communities that had traditional kingdoms were left to run their own affairs with their king as the head of the district administration.

Although the people saw themselves as belong to a geographical entity called Uganda, there was very little national character in it that bound them emotionally. This was to play a significant role in what followed after independence on 9 October, 1962.

As independence approached, Ugandans had to find a common denominator under which independence would be granted and flourish. They parties they formed, such as the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), the Democratic Party (DP) and the Kabaka Yekka (YK), were either tribal or religious and lacked national character. UPC was formed by Protestants with some Moslems, DP was mainly Catholic and KY was formed by Buganda monarchists with Kabaka as its leader.

When Obote joined the Legislative Council as a representative of Lango district, no one knew him beyond his home district. He was a young man in his thirties, politically inexperienced and, for that matter, not very different from his colleagues from other districts. His oratorical skills, however, were soon to distinguish him from the others and propel him to leadership.

In his own words, Obote says, “When I came to the Legislative Council (Legco), it was a timid talking ship.” He soon stood out of the crowd because he had a message:  ‘self government now.’ Obote was able to outsmart his fellow legislators because of his stay in Kenya that had given him not only courage but also a more internationalist outlook that his colleagues lacked.

Without strong national political parties, Uganda became independent in 1962, with UPC and Kabaka Yekka forming the government. Obote says that he solely negotiated with the Kabaka (king of Buganda) about the formation of the alliance, reporting only the progress of the negotiations to the UPC executive committee. He goes on to say that he and the Kabaka had a common cause: they both wanted the DP government out of power.

We can understand why Obote wanted DP out of power but we cannot understand why the Kabaka wanted DP which was led by Ben Kiwanuka, a fellow Ganda, out of power. Kiwanuka is reported to have said to a Uganda Argus newspaper, “Look the Kabaka knows where I am; if he has a problem, he should contact me.’ Obote says UPC capitalized on this, calling on Baganda not to vote for the DP whose leader, a commoner, had no respect for the king. But observers have said that it was because Kiwanuka was a Catholic and both Obote and Kabaka were Protestant.

The exact details of the concessions Obote made to Mengo (seat of Buganda’s kingdom) are unknown but it appears that the people of Buganda were promised a lot that Obote later found difficult to fulfill. It did not take long before the relations between the KY and UPC soured.  As we have seen (visit Buganda perpetual demands), the bad relations culminated in the attack of the king’s palace, suspension of the constitution and abolition of kingdoms.

Road to destruction

The problems that Uganda faced after independence were not unique to Uganda but they needed an astute decisive politician to deal with them as they arose. Although Obote was a good public speaker, he lacked experience, decisiveness and the courage to deal with complex political and social issues that confronted the country.

Obote had one vice that most of the people who have written about him have ignored to mention and that was drinking. Obote and his close friends spent most of their time drinking beer and whisky. If Obote was visiting an area upcountry, all sorts of drinks would be carried by trailers to the lodge where he  would be staying and on the arrival of the president’s entourage, UPC supporters would converge at the lodge where they would drink and sing party songs until the wee hours of the morning.

President’s rallies that were supposed to begin before noon would be delayed until late in the afternoon, giving time to the revelers to clear their hangovers.  This lack of seriousness to duty speaks much for Obote’s ability to govern the country effectively.

Further, Obote lacked courage or honesty to admit or take responsibility for his actions. For example, he says that Idi Amin attacked the Kabaka’s palace without his knowledge. If it is true that Amin attacked Mutesa’s palace without the authority of his commander-in-chief, then Obote was not in charge of the country at that time. There is no mention that Amin was reprimanded for disobeying the president.

In 1969, UPC had its delegates conference in Kampala and a number of dignitaries, including presidents of Tanzania, the Congo, Zambia and Zambia were invited. When the visitors were leaving, Obote saw them off at Entebbe International Airport while the delegates continued deliberating. On coming back, Obote says he found that the delegates had resolved to turn Uganda into a one-party state.

Clearly, Obote did not want to take the responsibility and wants his critics to think that he had nothing to do with it. If he did not approve of the resolution to turn the country into a one-party state, then why did he not stop it being implemented? Once Uganda became a one-party state, all opposition parties were banned and political activists who opposed UPC were incarcerated for years without trial until Amin let them out after ousting Obote.

Towards the end of the UPC delegates conference, there was an attempt on Obote’s life which he escaped with minor injuries. Obote says, on being rushed to Mulago Hospital, the country’s top medical centre, a nurse who was on duty tried to give him a poisonous injection but was stopped by somebody who recognized what was happening. We are not told what happened to the person or persons who wanted to ‘ poison’ Obote.

Obote says that after the attempted assassination, Idi Amin, the commander of the armed forces, went into hiding. A few weeks later, Col Okoya and his wife were killed in Gulu. Although enquiries in both incidences pointed to Amin as a suspect, no action was taken to arrest him and bring him to justice.

Obote seems to have known about the plot to overthrow him in 1985. He says, ‘I learnt about the coup over many weeks since there was political crisis involving the army. The first ominous sign came when I was in Mbale on the Cooperative Day. There was some movement of the army in Kampala.’

When Obote returned to Kampala from Mbale, he appointed one Brigadier Livingstone Ogwang to investigate the ‘uncoordinated troop movement,’ as his vice president and minister of defense, Paul Muwanga, termed it. Obote says Brig Ogwang was frustrated but he does not tell us the person or persons who frustrated him and what action he, as the president, took to punish and stop those who were frustrating the investigations.

Obote goes on to say that in spite of all the happenings, he was not afraid of a coup. He was busy organizing for the general elections, which were due in December 1985, which he was sure UPC would win. To him UPC victory would throw the plotters in disarray because they would not dare overthrow a government with a renewed mandate. Unfortunately, Obote’s government fell to the plotters a few weeks later before the elections were held.

Obote’s legacy

Obote will be remembered for building roads and increasing access to education. He also increased access to medical facilities by building hospitals and dispensaries all over the country. Although the army was dominated by people from northern Uganda for historical reasons, other sectors of the government, especially the civil service, was open to all Ugandans provided they had the necessary qualifications.

Obote seemed to have lacked courage to deal decisively with threats to national security.  Before Obote left for Singapore, rumors of a military coup were rife but Obote took no precautionary steps.

The coup that toppled his second administration did not take him by surprise either. Obote knew about what was going on and did not try to stop it. He was busy organizing his UPC for the forthcoming election, hoping that the new mandate would put to shame the actions of the plotters. In the event, the plotters acted fast and threw him out of office before the elections.

He also failed to appreciate the threat Museveni’s guerilla fighters posed to his government. He often referred to them as bandits and kept on saying they would be flushed out of the forests.

Obote lacked political diplomacy and the ability to compromise with one’s foes and probably time and space for personal reflection, as he was always surrounded by inebriated sycophants.

Obote’s dithering and lack of courage plunged Uganda into turmoil, destroyed the economy and caused thousands of Ugandans to lose their lives.

Obote died in South Africa in 2005, a very bitter old man who never came to terms with his own mistakes.

The Sebei are outraged that the government, with the connivance of REACH,  should enact a law that criminalizes female circumcision without carrying out proper consultations with the local people. The campaign has for the last 15 years  been funded by the Reproductive, Educative, and Community Health  ( REACH)  which is  under the auspices of the United Nations Reproductive Fund (UNFPA)

They say that they are not opposed to the idea of ending FGM, the way it has been approached is what they do not like. They say that the campaign has been hijacked by non-Sebei who know nothing about their cultural traditions. The campaigners are not only impatient but also arrogant.

To beat the law enforcement agencies, the girls are circumcised at night and some people have taken their daughters across the border into Kenya where the law is less strict.

The Sabiny Today’,

I would like to thank you and your team for conceiving the idea of founding ‘Sabiny Today’ that not only informs but also gives the people of Sebei the opportunity to report and discuss issues that affect them. Since the appearance of the first issue of your paper on the streets of Kapchorwa, I have been eagerly looking forward to the next issue every Monday.

I would like to seize the opportunity offered by your paper to say something about circumcision in Sebei. We all know that from time immemorial the Sebei have circumcised teenage boys and girls, primarily to mark the end of childhood and the beginning of adulthood. Probably the second reason why young people had to be circumcised had to do with cleanliness, which was meant to prevent the possibility of acquiring venereal and other diseases. This applies more to the circumcision of the boys than that of the girls.

The other aspect of circumcision was to instill a sense of bravery to the young people. That is why those being circumcised must bear the pain of the knife without flinching or making any form of movement. Those who cried during the circumcision were stigmatized because they were considered cowards. The world out there was a hostile one full of dangerous wild animals and cattle rustlers and needed brave men and women to survive.

Circumcision among the Sebei and, indeed among the Kalenjin, was not just about cutting flesh and shedding blood. It was about much more than that. The rituals and ceremonies that were performed during and after circumcision had important underlying theme: the need to be respectful of others in order to maintain harmony in the community.  The cardinal message was you must show good behavior towards others.

How do you relate with other people, e.g. your parents, your age-mates (binta), the elders and even your own family?  The initiates (chemerik) were repeatedly reminded by their instructors (matirenik) that they must respect their parents and elders at all times because if they did not, they would not be blessed. Telling lies, stealing and coveting what is not yours were strictly forbidden. People who were circumcised during the same period, forged permanent bonds of friendship that were observed throughout the width and breadth of the Sebei nation.

Culture is dynamic and can change as societies experience or become exposed to new ways of life. Even during our lifetime, much has changed among the Sebei. However, the changes do not come overnight; they take time because the forces of change now and those of gradual change must be given time to dialogue until they find a common ground. If this is not done, there will be discord in the community.

The Sebei used to remove two incisor teeth from the lower jaw and girls used to cut permanent marks on their stomachs that were meant to make them attractive. As people go to school and interact with students from other communities with different cultures, strong cultural beliefs change and people begin to be open-minded and see things more objectively.  There are no young people in Sebei today who extract their teeth, or teenage girls who cut marks on their bellies. These practices disappeared because they were no longer relevant to our modern way of life. No force was applied. They just disappeared.

Even the circumcision of girls has been declining as more Sebei girls attain education. This was in motion even before REACH came to Kapchorwa. However, because REACH provided employment to some people and because of the need to continue being employed, female circumcision in Sebei has received more attention than it deserves. The Uganda newspapers are having a field day with all sorts of stories about FGM in Kapchorwa. Only last week an old woman was pictured in the New Vision, gleefully displaying two rusty razor blades, which they said the Sebei use for cutting their daughters.  It was a pathetic sight because that is not what really happens. In addition, in the same article the world was told that the Sabiny had lined up 200 girls for mutilation in defiance of the law.

It was obvious that someone here in Sabiny fed the New Vision reporter with such wrong and exaggerated information for the ears of anti-FGM donors. These exaggerated reports damage the reputation of Sebei and must be discouraged.

Female circumcision is still being practiced in many parts of the world, including Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc, but none of these countries has gone to court to ban it. They are using education to fight it. It is wrong to run to court to make a law against yourself.  It only means the Sebei are incapable of dealing with their own problems; they have to take them to others to solve for them, people who do not have the slightest idea about the Sebei ways.

Lest I am misunderstood, I am one of those who feel that it is time for female circumcision to go. I have all along believed that education, coupled with persuasion rather than force is the best way to stop female circumcision in Sabiny.  Now that female circumcision has been outlawed by parliament, we have to obey the law. What I am not clear about is the position of the law versus married women who choose to be circumcised.  Let me put it this way: if a woman who is aged 18 years and above decided on her own to be circumcised, could she be arrested? If so, are her rights not being violated?

The Sebei claim they have an elders’ association. What is the role of this elders’ association? However, from the look of things, it appears what is called Sebei Elder’s Association is an anti-FGM organization which is funded by REACH.  People who have different opinions about FGM are barred from membership. This is an exclusive club going under the wrong name.

The Sebei need a genuine elder’s association that brings together all elders in Kapchorwa, Kween and Bukwo.  Once you are fifty years and above, you automatically become a member for life and no one has the power or authority to revoke your membership regardless of your views. It is healthy for people to have different views and we must learn to be tolerant of other people’s views.

Many of our cultural values are disappearing fast. We need to examine our songs, dances, folklore, and language. I have attended a number of marriage introductions (okwanjula) and the songs they sing make me feel like crying. Where are  the drums, the songs and the dances that made us unique in Uganda? This is happening because we spend all our time worrying about girls’ circumcision and forget to appreciate that female circumcision is only a small part of our culture.

Sebei is losing its soul. It has become a copycat, imitating other people and forgetting itself. There is a lot that is good about our cultural values that should be preserved.  I blame the elders, including myself, for failure to assert our right to lead and instead allow inexperienced youngsters to hijack our responsibility.

As for female circumcision, we need to close the chapter because it is no longer an issue. It is my considered opinion that not more than 20 girls will be circumcised this year, a negligible figure that should not concern us much.  Let us turn our attention to other pressing needs, such as the quality of education in our schools, maternal health care and nutrition, etc.

The law, which has already been endorsed by President Museveni, imposes stiff penalties to the perpetrators of female circumcision. It states that those who support or carry out female circumcision risk being jailed for 10 years, and if the victim dies or acquires a serious infection like HIV/Aids because of circumcision, the perpetrators face life imprisonment.

The Sebei argue that they were not consulted before act went to parliament and that the parliamentarians were ignorant about the Sebei cultural norms. They further argue that it is wrong for government to legislate against other people’s culture. Some are even threatening to take the matter to the nation’s  Constitutional Court to have the law declared unconstitutional. However, the CC has already declared FGM unconstitutional.

The circumcision season begins early December and the Sabiny say they have already lined up 200 girls for circumcision. So what is the government saying about this open defiance? The police say the culprits will be arrested and prosecuted.

Even before the lawmakers enacted the anti-FGM law in December 2009, the number of girls who underwent FGM had been declining and it was only a matter of time before it disappeared altogether. In the past, more than 2000 girls were cut during a circumcision season, which takes place once every two years. That the Sabiny are now talking of 200 girls is an indication that FGM has lost much of its appeal among the Sabiny.

Most prominent Sebei do not think the threats will amount to anything, although they agree that there was no need to enact a law banning FGM since many Sabiny do not  subscribe to it these days. They believe that the most effective way to discourage female circumcision in Sebei is to promote girls’s education.