KAIHURA WANTS END TO CONFLICTS IN KASESE BEFORE ADF TAKES ADVANTAGE TO ADVANCE

 Government and other stakeholders should quickly solve the tensions around the Rwenzori Mountains especially in the Rwenzururu Kingdom before enemies of the country take advantage to advance their motives, the Inspector General of Police Maj.Gen. Kale Kaihura has said.

In a meeting with Rwenzururu King Charles Wesley Mumbere at his Buhikira palace in Kasese town yesterday, Maj.Gen. Kaihura said that the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo may easily launch an attack on Uganda if the tensions continue.

The Rwenzururu Kingdom is facing a double tension with the Bamba attacking Bakonzo in Bundibugyo district and the Basongora Installing own King in Kasese district.

The Bamba ethnic group says they are not supporting King Mumbere and wanted to burn to ashes the shrine he constructed in Busaru sub-county in Bundibugyo district.

Mumbere and his entire cabinet were in Bundibugyo on June 30, 2012 to celebrate the Kingdom’s golden jubilee, a move that did not impress most of the Bamba.

A day after on July 1, the Basongora ethnic group in Kasese district also installed their King Rwigi IV Agutamba Kabumba Rutakirwa Ivan Bwebale claiming they have also struggled for the last forty nine years.

The two issues have raised tensions in the Kingdom with the Bakonzo in Kasese on set to fight the Basongora in case they are ordered to. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the demand for spears in markets around the district has increased leading to a speculation for a tribal clash.

But the IGP is in the region to intervene in the matter and he arrived in Kasese yesterday after spending two days in Bundibugyo.

He said that there is need for dialogue between the Kingdom administration and the two communities in order to have a peaceful end to the problems.

Kaihura told the King that as ADF remnants remain operating in the DRC, the communities on the Rwenzori Mountains must act as one in order to build a resistance to rebels’ penetration.

He also said close to four hundred people who had sought refuge in Bundibugyo town have gone back home and police and the military are in control of the situation in Bundibugyo.

King Charles Wesley Mumbere told Kaihura that the Bakonzo are peace loving people that are why they did not retaliate last Friday when the Bamba attacked their families.

Mumbere said the Bakonzo cannot fight the Bamba because together they know the bitterness of the decades of struggle against Tooro Kingdom adding that they are political issues diverting the Bamba.

However, the King said he is better with the Basongora’s action to install a King in the district without consulting the already existing cultural institution.

He warned the Basongora not to take actions that may provoke the Bakonzo is they see their lives in danger.

The IGP is likely to have a private meeting with the Basongora elders in order to listen to their grievances that led to the installation of their own King without the consent of the government and Rwenzururu Kingdom. END.