History is usually made by the rulers, not the ruled, unless the ruled rise against the rulers. Most of the history of Uganda has been made by the rulers – either the traditional precolonial rulers or the colonial rulers or the post-colonial rulers.

The country has had many post-colonial rulers. From the time the British colonialists handed the instruments of power to a black man on October 9, 1962, the rulers who made history include:

1. Apollo Milton Obote, who received the instruments of power from the colonialists and ruled Uganda as the Executive Prime Minister; returned the so-called lost counties of Buyaga and Bugangaizi from Buganda to Bunyoro, abrogated the federal Uganda Constitution of 1962; innovated a republican Uganda Constitution 1966, abolishing the Kingdoms of Ankole, Buganda, Bunyoro and Toro and the semi-federal state of Busoga; made himself executive president with all power and authority concentrated in the presidency. He immediately replaced the Uganda Constitution 1966 with the Uganda Constitution 1967 and together with Kambarage Nyerere of Tanzania and Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya formed the East African Community (EAC) in place of the colonial East African Common Services Organization (EACSO) in 1967.
2. Idi Amin Dada who overthrew Obote’s Uganda People’s Congress regime on January 25, 1971; chased British Indians out of Uganda in 1972 and placed all businesses previously owned by them in the hands of Ugandans. He ruled by decrees; abolished the Parliament of Uganda; presided over the firing squad at Queens Clock Tower during which 17 Ugandans were killed, ostensibly for plotting to overthrow his regime; oversaw the murder of Anglican Archbishop Jonan Luwum. Amin also claimed a large chunk of Kenyan land up to Naivasha as Uganda’s land; militarily annexed the Kagera Salient of North West Tanzania, compelling Tanzania to militarily organise against him. Actually, Tanzania Peoples Defense Forces joined forces with Obote’s Kikosi Maalum and Yoweri Museveni’s Front for National Salvation (FRONASA) in 1997 to remove Idi Amin from power in Kampala.
3. Professor Yusuf Kironde Lule as the immediate ruler of Uganda following Idi Amin’s Ouster made history when he ruled for only 63 days. He made history when he combined his Freedom Fighters forces with Yoweri Museveni’s PRA to form National Residence Army (NRA) and National Resistance Movement (NRM), which are still in power today.
4. Godfrey Binaisa ruled Uganda for 11 Months
5. Paulo Muwanga ruled for a few months as interim president
6. Apollo Milton Obote ruled Uganda again from 1981-to 1985 when he was overthrown by Tito Okello and Basilio Okello. Obote spent most of his political time combating rebels before he was overthrown by his soldiers. While he made history for ruling Uganda twice as president, he also made history for being overthrown twice by soldiers.
7. Tito Okello ruled for six months. He made history by signing holding peace talks in Nairobi with rebel Yoweri Museveni, signing an agreement with him, but without causing cessation military conflict by Museveni’s rebels. Tito Okello made history by being the first President of Uganda to be overthrown by a rebel force dominated by refugees
8. Yoweri Museveni made history when he overthrew a government in Uganda using rebels who were predominantly Rwandese refugees (i.e refugees from Rwanda) and Banyamulenge refugees (i.e. refugees from Mulenge in the DRC, some of whom weaned themselves off to enter Rwanda and overthrow the regime of Juvenal Habyarimana. Yoweri Museveni was the first president to preside over the killing of 500,000 hundred people in Luwero Triangle of Buganda and over 300, 000 in northern Uganda. He also made history by initiating a constitution-machining process, in which 65 % of Ugandans wanted a federal system of government but the constitution that emerged endorsed the centralism Obote had initiated, with even far more powers the 1967 Uganda Constitution had given to his nemesis.

So much about history-making by the rulers of Uganda. I now want to write about why President Idi Amin Dada claimed so much of Kenyan territory in the western part of that country. It seems the president, having served as a soldier in the colonial Kings African Rifles in Kenya came to know so much about the human population dynamics and composition in that part of the country and concluded that the area should belong more to Uganda than to Kenya up to Naivasha.

I have been discussing with a Kenyan friend, Mr Juma Kwayera, who is also very experienced political journalist in Kenya, what exactly could have compelled Idi Amin to claim the land of a member of the East African country. This is how our conversation went:

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (OA) Good morning?

Juma Kwayera (JK). Good morning?

OA: I know you are very interested in the history of Busoga. Whenever I write about Busoga, you display a lot of enthusiasm but I have never established why a Kenyan should be interested in Busoga, more than one hundred from the border at either Busia or Malaba.

JK: It might interest you to know that I was born in Masindi Hospital. During my childhood I interacted with the Banyoro and later the Basoga, in Jinja. I enjoy reading about Bunyoro and Busoga. I liked your many articles about Busoga even before we connected digitally.

OA: Yes. I am now one of the elders of Busoga. I did not want to leave the physical world without writing anything about Busoga in general and the Mulawa clan in particular. Mulawa clan is my clan.

JK: I read all your articles on Busoga. I liked your Treatise on the Political Conflicts for Kyabazingaship in Busoga History. Before you started writing on Busoga, most writers had given the impression that Busoga had no prehistory. It was as if Busoga came to be only about 300 years ago. But Busoga is a water rich area with a large part of Lake Victoria within its territory. Besides, River Nile, which is mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible has its source in Busoga. I was wondering why such an area cannot have a prehistory of its own, let alone an ancient civilisation like that of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China or India. Researchers have done a disservice on Busoga historically and prehistorically speaking.

OA: Five years ago, I interviewed a young academician who was interested in deconstructing the history of Busoga. He was called Mahir Balunywa. He was of the view that Busoga existed in ancient, prehistoric and historic times.  According to Mahir Balunywa its ecology and mineral wealth could have played a role in many writers of history ignoring it in favour of Bunyoro and Buganda. There is no way God purposed that the area has everything – minerals, rivers, a lake and wildlife – and he did not purpose that there were people too. If life started in East Africa as archaeologists keep telling us then it must have been in the water rich Busoga and surround areas.

JK: So, the Basoga have been very much integral to the bioecology, history and environment of this area which includes western Kenya where I come from?

OA: Yes Juma. Did you say you like my articles on Busoga?

JK: Yes, I read them with a lot of interest. There is something interesting about the Soga, Ganda and Luhyia that writers of history have completely ignored. The three peoples were highly politically organised as kingdoms and very friendly. They had diplomatic ties, and hence envoys between them, before the British colonialists arrived towards the end of the 1880s. The were actually nations in their own right.

OA: Kingdoms, nations?

JK: Yes. But I don’t know whether the nations/kingdoms were started at the same time and by the same people. I leave that to the historical researchers. That is one reason why your articles on Busoga are being read widely in western Kenya. I guess in Uganda too.

OA: I don’t really know if they are changing minds so that our history is revisited. So much is not included in our history. It is one of the disadvantages of being colonised. The colonisers and occupier write only the history that serves their interests.

JK. Interestingly, although well-organised before the colonialists disorganised them for selfish interests, the Ganda and Soga in Uganda and Luhyia in Western Kenya have never been loud about power. They tend to serve power. They served the colonial power. They are serving the current powers. It is no surprise that the Basoga say “Omwami Kyakobye Zena Kyenkobye (What the boss has said is what I say). This dismisses the myth that Basoga and Baganda significantly participate in the Luwero Bush war that brought Museveni to power in Uganda.

OA: That is a good insight in the personality of a Musoga and a Muganda. I take it that they are unlikely to take up arms against a reigning power.

JK: Historically, no.

OA: By the way Juma, was there a kingdom called Wanga Kingdom among the Luhyia?

JK: Yes, there was. The Wanga king was called the Nabongo, the same way the one of Busoga was called Isebantu and the one of Buganda was called Kabaka. The Nabongo presided over the entire Luhyialand. However, the kingdom was recognised by the name of his small indigenous group, the Wanga. The other small indigenous groups had vassal kings who were all under the Nabongo.

OA: I see. By the way the name Nabongo is common in Busoga and Buganda. Could it be that some Luhyia migrated to Busoga and Buganda since the kingdoms were friendly nations and shared envoys, and decided to stay. In Busoga, if I remember well there is a place called Buluya. May be that is where the people of the Nabongo settled. There is need for historians to be more serious about our history.

JK: Yes. The Luhyia Kingdom, or what is generally known as Wanga Kingdom, bordered Busoga of long ago, in the west, and extended all the way up to Lake Naivasha to the east. Some historical accounts say it stretched up to Lake Magadi at the coast.

OA: Is that the reason why Uganda’s first military and brutal ruler, Idi Amin Dada claimed a huge slice of western Kenya?

JK: Precisely. I am told Amin wanted Ugandan eastern border to be at Lake Naivasha.

OA. I am not surprised. Amin had been a soldier in the colonial army, the Kenya African Rifle. He must have been interested in all the history you have told me and made up his mind while in power in Uganda that he should claim the area bequeathed by the British colonialists to Kenya. By the way of interest, is the recent declaration by President Museveni’s son, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba that he could march his army to Kenya and capture Nairobi in two weeks. Birds of the same feather?

Amin, however, said he had no intention of taking any inch of neighbours’ land: that all he was doing was just to remind Ugandans of their past history and geography. He directed all Ugandans to buy The Voice of Uganda of February 16, 1976, in which he detailed the former boundaries of the country. He said “Uganda’s borders were beyond Juba and Torit in the Sudan and all areas of western Kenya, up to about 30 kilometres from Nairobi”. He stressed his views of Uganda borders in his book titled The Shaping of Modern Uganda and Administrative Divisions published in 1976. He denied planning war to claim the lost lands.

JM: Well, Black colonial designs, conquest and occupation of other people’s territories are possible.

OA: I am really intrigued by what I have learnt today. It seems the Basoga and Luhyia were interacting a lot in the past.

JM. Your articles on Busoga pricked my interest. Some names such as Iganga, Mayuge, Bukooli et cetera are names of places in western Kenya. In Kakamega where I come from, there is a group of indigenous people, which in colonial and neocolonial linguistics would be called a subtribe, called Basogo or Basoga. Their name means “skilled swimmers” or “skilled tree climbers”.

OA; That is very interesting. In Luuka District, in an area called Nankongolo, there were skilled tree climbers, who exploited the fact the Basoga of those days would keep their harvest in the branches of trees, away from the ground where there were pathogens (Bacteria and fungi) that could make their food rot and thieves that could steal the food. Those skilled tree climbers would swiftly go up the trees and come down with the heavy food and then run off with it on their backs

Besides, my own people of a Clan called Mulawa, which originated in the Busoga part of the Buvuma Island in Lake Victoria (Nalubaale before the colonialists renamed it in honour of their Queen, Victoria, were very skilled fishermen who dived into the water like the Kingfisher bird to catch fish. They were also very skilled makers of boats. It is said that the first colonialists to travel to Entebbe, the seat of colonial power in the evolving British Uganda Protectorate travelled in a boat made by the Balawa, as they were and are still called.

JK: Interesting.

OA: By the way while I used to live central Kenya, I could hear on radio drumming and singing similar to Basoga drumming and singing. Soaringly even when I could get Malawi radio, I could hear people who drummed and sang like the Basoga.

JK:  Yes, the isukuti song and dance in Kakamega are like that of the Basoga of Uganda. It has been there for centuries.

OA: One thing emerges from this discourse between you and me. And that is that there is need to rethink our history to decolonise it and bring out historical truth. Our children continue to be taught distorted history. As I wrote in one of my articles on Busoga, there is no area in Uganda whose history has been as distorted and misrepresented like that of Busoga.

JK; From the little I have heard of the history of Lake Victoria Basin, the Basoga, the Baganda and Baluhyia interacted, often harmoniously. They intermarried a lot, and as I said earlier their kingdoms had diplomatic ties.

Apparently in your last three articles on Busoga, you have repeatedly referred to the Chwezi. Although not Basoga I can confirm that there is a clan among the Kabras, a sub-tribe of the Luhyia (I belong to), in western Kenya called Bachezi or Bachetsi. It is believed they have the power of control over lightning and can tickle it to make it laugh like a human being. So when you see lightning, just know that this clan is at work.

OA: Interesting. There is so much knowledge outside the classroom, which can be far more useful that that from the classroom.

JK: Yes. Your articles fascinate me. I hope others are also fascinated. I am already finding similarities that suggest that there should have been a powerful nation in this part of the lake basin, which the British and Arabs interfered with, thereby interrupting its political, social and economic transformation and progress. The political infighting you describe among the Basoga is similar to what I see among the Luhyia of Kenya. They provide the ladder for others to ascend to power.

Then there is the Busoga gold. Only Kakamega AND Busoga geologically belong to the same rock system. It extends into the DRC. My innocent and unqualified observation is that it is not coincidental that people in these parts of East Africa are choreographed – via scatter and rule – to be subservient to power or political wielders of power in their respective countries.

OA:  Thank you JK and Good Bye.

JK: I am obliged. Good Bye.

• A Tell report / By Prof Oweyegha-Afunaduula, a former professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences of the Makerere University, Uganda

Some readings

The Citizen (2014). The Untold Story of Kagera War by Tanzania, Uganda Top Soldiers.  June 02 2014.the citizen.co.tzz

The East African (2011). The Day Idi Amin Wanted to Annex Western Kenya. The East African, the East African, September 10 2011. theeastafrican.co.ke