Ethnic citizenship clashes with civic citizenship in Uganda
When it serves his purposes, President Museveni will do anything. Having come to power on a narrow, ethnic, regional and personal ambition alone, the NRM has reached the natural zenith of power that such a non-national agenda can sustain. As seen from the recent riots in Buganda over the Kabaka and Kayunga, the Museveni has to heavily and openly rely on the army and a militarised police, to retain power and maintain grip on the state and government. But what lessons can we learn from this recent brinkmanship with the Kabaka of Buganda? The first lesson of the riots is that Ugandans need to reflect on what kind of a post- Museveni society they want to build. They can choose to build a just and fair society based on universal standards of equality, democratic rights of civic citizenship, or one based on inequalities ascribed by particularities of ethnicity, accidents of birth, wealth, and access to power and influence. The other lesson is that ruling party and opposition leaders ought