UGANDA: Focus on Bakiga migration

FOCUS ON BAKIGA MIGRATION

CHANGE OF GUARDS - The Bakiga is one of the tribes of Uganda found in the South Western region bordering with Rwanda and DRC.  In Rwanda, among the ethnic Hutu there exits one subgroup called Bakiga that is in the northern highlands that border with Uganda.  The other Hutu subgroup that is found in Rwanda's southern region are called Abanyanduga.  The Bakiga of Uganda immigrated from the present-day northern Rwanda's highland region of Ruhengeri and Byumba.

They lived in an ancient state of Bumbogo under their king, Mbogo.  Their Mbogo State was invaded by a Tutsi King, Kirima who defeated their own Mbogo.  One of Mbogo's sons called Kakiga fled with the royal drum northwards and settled around Kagarama forest in present day Kabale district.  Mbogo's son to read Kakiga and not Bakiga.  The new Tutsi reign in the northern Rwanda highlands was kept reminded that Kakiga would return.  Indeed, Kakiga's plans of returning was halted by Bunyoro's invasion of the state of Bumbogo around 1700AD among other reasons.  Kakiga opted to stay in present day Kabale thus the origin of the Bakiga of Uganda. You easterners may not know the silent scheming by Bakiga for land until when they cross the Nile and they will. 

Through interaction, the Bakiga who settled in present day Kabale gradually developed a Kiga dialect that borrows Kinyarwanda, Kinyankole, Kihaya and Kihororo words.  However, Kakiga made a declaration that his sons and daughters should never marry foreigners.  During the 20th Century, present day Kabale had been incorporated into the Rwandan colonial state under the Germans.  Upon the death of Rwanda Kingdom's King Rwabugiri, in1895 his Queen Muhumuza fled the kingdom to the Kiga highlands of present day Kigezi and founded the Nyabingi cult.

In 1908, the British colonialists who were administering what was later to become Uganda, set foot in the German territory of Kabale.  At a meeting in Brussels, an Anglo-German agreement was signed on May 14, 1910 in which the boundary between British and German territories were modified.  Consequently, the two colonial powers signed an Anglo-German Protocol in 1911 at Kamwezi.  This protocol placed the present-day Ugandan territories of Kisoro and Kabale under the British in Uganda thus the Bakiga and Bafumbira tribes.

Around the same time, the fugitives Rwandan Queen Muhimuza declared a rebellion against colonists but was captured the same year and imprisoned in Luzira Prison where she died decades later.   After the end of the First World War, Rwanda came under the administration of the Belgians.  Around 1927-28, the anti-colonial resistance was spearheaded by Queen Muhumuza's son, the radical Prince Ndungutse Semaraso around Byumba in Rwanda who claimed to be a Mwami (King).  This rebellion together with famine forced many more Banyarwanda Bakiga to flee to the British Uganda.  By 1930, this new set of refugees settled in and around Kabale while others settled in areas of Ndorwa and Rukiga.

The surge in population in Kigezi had put a lot of pressure on the land.  This population pressure prompted two Bakiga elders, Ngorogoza and Mpambara to approach the colonial administration with a proposal of relocating some Bakiga to areas outside Kabale.  The proposal was approved and in February 1946 the two leaders went into Kanungu and Rukungiri to locate suitable areas for resettlement of Bakiga.

In June 1946 the first group of Bakiga from Kabale were resettled in Rujumbura county, Kinkinzi and Kambuga in Rukungiri under the Voluntary Resettlement Scheme. By 1948, 30,000 Bakiga had been moves into an area that came to be known as North Kigezi with a total of 789 people settled in the area of Kihihi.  However, the exercise was slowed down by a malaria outbreak of malaria.  After the new settlers proved to be a source of cheap labour for the colonialists, more land was parcelled out for them from Kigezi and Queen Elizabeth Game Reserves.

In other areas, in July 1946 the same Bakiga leaders approached the King of Ankole for land to resettle Bakiga from Kabale.  With the King's approval Bakiga were resettled in some areas of Rwampara, Sheema, Kashari, Rubaya and Rubindi.  During the same year, the colonial administration appointed one Mukiga elder, Ngorogoza as Secretary General of Kigezi district

A few years later the Bakiga in Ankole had filled the areas they had been given in Ankole.  They had spilled to other areas of Ankole like Isingiro, Maramagambo forest and Bunyaruguru.

In 1955 Ngorogoza was appointed chief Judge of Kigezi district.  In June 1955 he led a delegation to the King of Tooro with a request for land for the Bakiga.  The King of Tooro accepted and Bakiga were ferried to Kibale (present day Kamwenge district).  It is worthy noting that the number of Bakiga migrants to Tooro increased between 1959 and 1969 to coincide with events in Rwanda that led to the influx of refugees from Rwanda.  By 1975, approximately 80,000 Bakiga had migrated from Kigezi to Tooro.

At the time of leaving Kabale, their leader, Ngorogoza gave them the wise counsel thus;

     "I would, in writing this, like to remind settlers that even if they become rich and change their mother tongue, they should remember the proverb; 'even the hot water eventually cools.'  They must never forget the good customs and characteristics of the Bakiga, nor forget their language; and they must fill in their bones that they are Bakiga, remembering where they used to live."

In April 1971 then President Iddi Amin while commissioning the Paratrooper Dropping Zone in Kisoro, proposed resettlement of some Bakiga to Karamoja region.

In the 1940s and late 1960s, some more Bakiga were settled around Kagadi in Bunyoro.  In Tooro, the Bakiga population gradually dominated the traditional area around Bigodi that had been given to them in 1955.  The settled in many other areas of Tooro and with time their population became dominant.  They eventually took control of the political and economic life of the region.  However, in 1992 the then Minister of Internal Affairs, Col. Butime spearheaded a scheme to evict the Bakiga who had encroached on Kibale Forest land.  The highly controversial issue politically cost Butime to this date.  Museveni resettled the evictees on a 15sq km government land in Kagadi, Kibale district in Bunyoro.  Each family was given 12 acres of land and cash to start a new life.   While the population of Bakiga in Kibale stood at 11% in 1991, it surged to 32% within a very short period.  The settlers had been inviting their kinsmen from Kabale and other areas to come and share the 12 acres as they plotted to acquire more land the same way as had been the case in Tooro. 

The fresh resettlement of Bakiga in Bunyoro coincided with Museveni's scheme of targeting Buganda's land.  Under the 1900 Buganda Agreement, the British colonialists had helped Buganda Kingdom to annex Bunyoro's counties of Buyaga and Bugangaizi popularly known as the Lost Counties.  With 3,000 Sq. Miles gazetted as game and forest reserves, huge chunks of land were allotted to Baganda royals and chiefs popularity knows as Absentee Landlords.  The new Bakiga settlers in Kibale illegally occupied both government forest reserves and land belonging to these absentees.  Museveni came up with a scheme of buying off absentee landlords so that the land reverts to 'indigenous Banyoro'. 

 In 2006, Museveni appointed a Commission of Inquiry into Bunyoro's Land issues headed by Ruth Mukama.  During the same year, the King of Bunyoro granted Bakiga stay in Bunyoro by awarding them a Certificate of Recognition of Bakiga who had massively migrated to Bunyoro under the government programme to decongest their native districts of Kabale, Rukungiri and Kanungu. Soon after, like had been the case in Tooro and North Kigezi, the Bakiga in Kibale district became dominant in economic and political terms.  The Bunyoro protested and in 2009, the Bunyoro Kingdom parliament asked government to evict Bakiga immigrants from forest reserves and to halt the Bakiga influx into Bunyoro.  Museveni unconstitutionally ordered the Bakiga off the elective positions.  In particular, he stopped a Mukiga, Karwemera who had democratically won the LC V Chairmanship in favour of the Munyoro looser, Namyaka.  However, since then the influence of the Bakiga in Bunyoro has flourished.

Apart from government led resettlement programmes for the Bakiga in North Kigezi, Ankole, Tooro and Bunyoro, the Bakiga have initiated their own immigration schemes into other areas.  They moved and settled in areas of Kooki (Rakai), Buwekula (Kasambya, Kasanda),  Kyankwanzi and Kiboga where their dominant demographics are reflected by the presence of Members of Parliament like, Hon. Oshabe, and Hon. Kamusiime.  In Mpigi and Wakiso, the Bakiga influx dates to the early 1990s when they came as charcoal burners.  It is by coincidence that the Timber business in Kampala is dominated by the Bakiga.  In Kasese district, the large number of resident Bakiga is attributed to their 1960s cheap labour for the Kilembe  and Hima mines.

Unlike the Balalo whose migration to newfound lands has been characterized by outright resistance from indigenous communities, the Bakiga influx is smooth.  They use both diplomacy and financial muscle to acquire land before indigenous communities realize that they are being politically and economically outnumbered by the newcomers.  Their worldwide connectivity both within Uganda and abroad is always at hand to provide all the necessary back up in as far as land acquisition is concerned.  It in this regard that the Bakiga under their associations -/diaspora bases International Community of Banyakigezi - Ug Chapter (ICOBA) and the Banyakigezi Rwenzori Association supported by the leadership of Kigezi region hosted Tooro"s King Oyo on a two days tour of Kabale where they asked him for more land and his blessing for intermarriage between the Bakiga and Batooro

The Bakiga land scarcity and migration has been used as a cover for other communities like the Bafumbira and Banyarwanda to settle in different parts of the country.  In this regard, in 1995 Tooro experienced  a surge in Bakiga migrants that  coincided with the 1994 Rwanda Genocide that saw millions of Banyarwanda Hutu flee to neighbouring countries.  It’s not a coincidence that Banyarwanda Hutu linked to the 1994 genocide have repeatedly been captured from these Bakiga newfound lands when they have successfully settled.  No wonder, the Banyarwanda Hutu of northern Rwanda are Bakiga. 

INFORMATION IS POWER AND THE PROBLEM OF UGANDA IS MUSEVENISM