September 11 Killings in Kampala City

On September 11 2009, Ugandans woke up to a chaotic scene of gunshots and killings on the streets of Kampala as a result of some spontaneous violence that spread through out central region of Uganda when it became known that the King of Buganda, His Highness Ronald Muwenda Mutebi would not be allowed to visit his subjects living in art of his territory at Kayunga to the East of Kampala.

 The Prime Minister of Buganda who had been mandated to prepare grounds for the long awaited visit of the King to Kayunga was blocked the previous day from proceeding to the venue of the meeting on the orders of the Uganda military operatives. This incident sparked off widespread unrest in the city and through out the Buganda Kingdom because the Buganda royals were riled by this kind of limitations to the Kings movement in his own Kingdom.

Upto 22 people, including a soldier and a policeman were killed by evening of September 11 2009 as a result of civil unrest on the streets of Kampala orchestrated by Baganda Youths. Over 80 people have so far been admitted to Hospitals around the city with serious injuries. Some Police stations were burnt, prisoners released and over 30 trucks and small cars set aflame. At the peak of the crisis, the attacks had degenerated to sectarian nature, with the Banyankole ruling tribesmen being targeted and the level of anarchy was sliding out of control. Thousands of troops alongside the police had to be deployed around the city to restore law and order.

The root cause of this crisis lay in the perception by the royals in Buganda that the ruling government of Yoweri Museveni has an agenda to disintegrate the kingdom of Buganda by encouraging and recognizing breakaway tribes within Buganda Kingdom. In this particular case, a new King was recently crowned by President Yoweri Museveni in Kayunga among a sub tribal group of Baganda called Banyala. This coronation did not go well with Buganda Royals who strongly condemned it as a move to weaken Buganda. They for example found it inconceivable for the government to put conditions that requires the Kabaka to seeks permission from the newly crowned king of the Banyala first before making a visit to the area, yet this is an area within Buganda itself

The ensuing stand off has seen upto over 600 people arrested so far and a couple of radio stationed believed to have helped to incite unrest have been closed down by the government. Some journalists are also in jail for being too critical of the persons of the President while some popular talk show radio presenters have been directed to suspend their broadcasts. In the event of the hard crack down on the rioters, the situation appears to be relenting, especially when the King backed down from his defiant mood of insisting that he would visit Kayunga after all.

Human right bodies both locally and Internationally have condemned police brutality on the arrested rioters who were seen being seriously clobbered with batons even when they had raised up their hands in the spirit of surrender to the authorities. A shoot on sight policy has been declared by the police, meaning that any body found destroying property or threatening other Ugandans with violence in Buganda would be short on sight.