The cultural institution of Rwenzururu marked the coronation
and official government recognition on October 19 in Kasese Town.
This event marked 50 years since Charles Wesley Mumbere was
enthroned to take over from his father Isaya Mukirania. Isaya, the key leader
of the Rwenzururu movement died in 1966.
Uganda government officially recognized the Obusinga bwa
Rwenzururu on 19th October 2009.
Thus, yesterday’s event was historic for Rwenzururu. Indeed, thousands of people living around Rwenzori Mountains attended the fest. The
central government was well represented by four ministers at the function.
President Yoweri Museveni who was the expected chief guest,
delegated the Minister of Tourism, Prof. Ephraim Kamuntu to represent him.
District chairpersons from Mubende, Ntoroko, Kabarole and Kasese attended in
person.
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| Omusinga Charles Wesely Mumebere holding a spear (wearing bark cloth) |
The media at national level especially the television
stations were missing in action except reporters from local radio stations, New Vision, CBS fm, Red
Pepper and Daily Monitor. In the
newspapers today (October 20) only New
Vision ran a front page story picture and a news story on page 3 with a
contradicting headline about the same event on the two pages. CBS fm aired a
story about the event and of course radio stations in Kasese town and Rwenzori
sub-region.
There was no live coverage of the event by any national
television. Even the “public” broadcaster UBC TV did not do better. Was it because these
stations were not aware of the event? Or it was because there was no news
(conflict) in the area? Perhaps Kasese is too far away from where news stations
are headquartered.
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| Minister Kamuntu (shaking hands) being welcomed at the Rwenzururu anniversary |
Rwenzururu kingdom, particularly Kasese has been rocked by
clashes between Uganda national security agents and the elements in Obusinga
bwa Rwenzururu royal guards.
The leading television stations in Uganda have always rushed
to Kasese to cover the sad news of floods of River Nyamwamba, the clashes between
security agents and royal guards, the deaths of people resulting from simmering
ethnic tensions. In such times TV and radio stations even broadcast live feeds
to the rest of the country.
But, lo and behold, they are slow to cover and broadcast the
good news that portrays the happy moments in the Rwenzoris. I am told, some national
TV stations had reporters at the event but they are still filing the stories
because this kind of news from Rwenzururu is not urgent. What message are such
media houses sending to the community? What kind of impressions do such absent
media want the rest of Uganda to have about the people of Rwenzururu?
Maybe isn’t it time that we redefined news to include happy
times as well not just conflict?
Well put Herbert, the media houses especially TV didn't show solidarity with us during time of joy! They must change this trend!Otherwise, they may end up portraying the Rwenzori wrongly yet we harbor a big percentage of tourism activities in the country!
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading and for your comment. We as a people from the region now have the power of social media and we tell our story.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand Mubatsi, the rwenzorians do give business to those media houses e.g announcements,documentaries, adverts and many others its sad that they took the event unserious, can i shun thier internet live streams?
ReplyDeleteThank you Edward for reading and your comment.
DeleteThanks for your comment Jimmy. Two things explain the low media coverage as I have found out. One, some individuals in some media houses say they were not informed about the function in time. there was a challenge on the side of event organizers especially the sub-committee in charge of publicity. Two, some journalists claim they were not facilitated. This I think is a weak excuse.
ReplyDelete