A storm of outrage has swept through Buganda following Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu’s recent public gesture of paying respect to former president Milton Obote, a man widely remembered for dismantling Buganda’s cultural and political foundation.
In an open letter that has gone viral on social media, Brian Ssemwogerere, a self-described “concerned Muganda,” accused Bobi Wine of betraying the very people he claims to represent. “Your recent public gesture of paying respect to the late Milton Obote was a painful betrayal to the people of Buganda,” he wrote, recalling how Obote once declared that “a good Muganda is a dead one.”
For many Baganda, Obote’s name is synonymous with the darkest chapter in their history. In May 1966, Obote ordered an attack on the Lubiri (Kabaka’s palace) at Mengo, where royal guards and civilians were killed, and the Kabaka, Sir Edward Mutesa II, was forced into exile in Britain, where he later died in 1969.
The assault, led by Obote’s then army commander Idi Amin, left the palace in ruins and the kingdom in mourning. The following year, Obote abolished all traditional kingdoms and centralized power, erasing Buganda’s cherished identity from Uganda’s political landscape.
Those events still remembered with bitterness, are precisely why Brian’s letter struck a chord across the kingdom. To him and many others, Bobi Wine’s decision to honour Obote is more than a political misstep; it is a moral betrayal.
“By honouring Obote, a man who dismantled Buganda’s dignity and killed our king, you have only deepened our doubts,” Brian lamented.
“You justified the fears of many that you and your movement may be slowly walking the same path of those who once betrayed Buganda.”
The letter also takes issue with Bobi Wine’s silence on growing hostility toward Buganda’s cultural leadership among his supporters online. Brian pointed to bloggers such as Fred Lumbuye who, despite operating within Bobi Wine’s political orbit, have consistently attacked the Kabaka, Katikkiro and the Kingdom owned radio and television station CBS and BBSTV.
“These continuous attacks on our cultural leadership have gone on without your public condemnation,” he wrote, adding that Bobi Wine’s silence has created the impression that he “silently endorses or tolerates such disrespect.”
This sentiment reflects a broader unease within Buganda, where traditional loyalty to the throne remains deeply intertwined with politics.
Many recall how Obote’s hostility to the monarchy was not just political but cultural, an attempt to extinguish Buganda’s influence altogether.
Historians note that after abolishing the kingdoms in 1967, Obote seized royal assets, banned traditional councils, and replaced them with government-appointed administrators.
For two decades, Buganda’s kingship ceased to exist until it was restored in 1993 by President Yoweri Museveni.
Against that backdrop, Bobi Wine’s tribute to Obote appears to reopen old wounds.
His critics argue that a man positioning himself as Uganda’s liberator cannot afford to trample on the very heritage that defines his people. “Leadership must never forget history,” Brian wrote, in what reads less like anger and more like a plea for moral clarity.
“Those who ignore it end up repeating the very wrongs our ancestors fought to correct.”
For a movement that draws its strongest support from Buganda, Bobi Wine’s gesture risks alienating his cultural base.
It is a reminder that in Uganda’s complex political fabric, history is not a footnote, it is a living force.
As the debate rages, one truth remains: Buganda has not forgotten 1966. And when its sons appear to honour those who once broke its spirit, the pain resurfaces raw, unhealed, and unforgiving.
