Mr Andrew Mwenda is being truly callous and disingenuous here. In 2015, he wrote that QM single-handedly took charge of that Kingdom, mobilized resources and built it to where it is today. (See link here: independent.co.ug/attempted-…) He said that thanks to his political brinkmanship (or “cunning”) President @KagutaMuseveni criticized PM Milton Obote for banning Kingdoms but when he returned them, he stripped them of their true power; both political and economic. Mr Mwenda actually went further to show that King Oyo’s grandfather, Rukidi IV, whose will the Babiito are prioritizing over King Oyo’s, “used to earn royalties from Katwe Salt Lake, Kilembe Mines, Hima Cement, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Semliki National Park and other treasures that make Toro Kingdom the tourist capital of Uganda. Indeed, Rukidi IV owned shares in Katwe and Kilembe and earned dividends.” What Mr Mwenda forgot to tell his readers is that all those assets he listed were in present day Rwenzururu Kingdom, which the Babiito elite lost due to the same arrogance, sense of superiority and refusal to devolve power that they demonstrate to this day. Anyway, when King Oyo’s father took over the throne upon return of Kingdoms by the aforementioned Museveni, he inherited a shell. It helps to know that “Tooro” was so skint that their King, Omukama Patrick David Matthew Kaboyo Rwamuhokya Olimi III had to work as Uganda’s Ambassador to Cuba from 1990 to 1993. Oyo took over in 1995, upon his father’s early demise. So, here’s a recently widowed 20-some year old woman, who was always treated as an outsider by the Babiito, taking over ruins of a Kingdom and somehow turning it around and making it relevant again. Andrew himself acknowledges that the Babiito shunned the Kingdom and they offered no help. That help he says came from President Museveni, Sudhir, Gaddafi etc, thanks to what he referred to as Best Kemigisa’s “excellent social networking skills”. Anyway, that was, I suppose, when Mr Mwenda was in good books with QM. Now he says of her -at a time when she has lost a son she raised through sheer grit to become one of the most recognizable Monarchs IN THE WORLD-that her grief is fake. He writes: “please, don’t falsely accuse Best Kemigisa of grieving. If she did, it was not necessarily grief of losing a son. That was secondary. Her primary grief was loss of power.” That’s callous, in the extreme. But even if it were true, the power that Mr Mwenda alludes to, comes from a Kingdom that he himself acknowledges she built from the ashes. This is the same Andrew who will defend NRM/NRA’s right to rule in perpetuity because “they hunted their animal”. The cynical Republican in me thinks that if hunting animals is to guarantee rule in perpetuity, the best place to see that is in Kingdoms. After all, aren’t they by nature ruled by lineages of strongmen and women who “hunted their animal”? If that wasn’t the case, Kasagama’s descendants would have made way for other Batooro to take turns at it. That the QM might have been involved in some dubious dealings or even murder as Mr Mwenda accuses her of (which decision to conceal, he actually says he pragmatically defended and understood) should really be immaterial…by his logic. In the past, Kings would kill thousands. The Tooro that Mwenda, QM and co are jostling over isn’t any different. It’s built on skulls of thousands. So, what’s a bad QM orchestrated property deal here and there? And it’s not like Mr Mwenda and his buddy Bob Kasango (MJRIP) didn’t play any role; is it? But I digress To casual observers, especially some of us from republican societies like Bugisu, all this noise and name calling seems rather hypocritical and shows a lack of understanding of the history of the very entity they’re fighting over. But also, it is so on brand for Mr Mwenda. When an association serves his interests, he will go in hard for it. When it stops, he calls them murderers. See Obote family, Kizza Besigye etc