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
