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Rwenzururu Kingdom Obusinga Bwa Rwenzururu (OBR)

Uganda has several traditional monarchies with tribal kings, who now have a largely ceremonial role with some modest regional powers. By the nineteenth century, the Kingdom of Buganda was the most stratified of these societies, with the king (the kabaka) having an absolute right to use violence. The kings of Ankole, Bunyoro and Toro were also powerful but their authority was moderated by other sources of political power. The Rwenzururu kingdom of the Bakonzo people (which had disputable historical credentials) is based near the Rwenzori mountains which straddle Uganda and DR Congo, with supporters among those who share the same culture and language in both countries.

In 1889 the explorer H.M. Stanley arrives at a snow capped huge mountain locally known as Rwenzururu by the mountain dwellers, Rwenjura by some of those staying on the low land, and Bugombowa (Bugombwa) by the forest people. Some mountain dwellers also called it Viruka (Birunga, or Biruka), Aviruka (Ebiruka). Explorer Stanley nick-named the mountain “Ruwenzori” by combining the words Rwenzururu and Rwenjura together. H.M.Stanley mentions a King of the Bakonzo by the name of Ruhandika.

The Mountains of the Moon were a mythical chain of mountains designated by Ptolemy as containing the sources of the Nile, and extending across the broadest part of Africa, from Cape Guardafui on the Indian Ocean, to the Bight of Benin, on the Atlantic. Modern exploration proved that no such range exists, though there are numerous different mountain systems in that extensive region. The only mountains that can be looked upon as representing the ancient Mountains of the Moon lie in eastern Equatorial Africa. The loftiest of these are Mount Kilimanjaro, estimated to be 18,800 feet high, Mount Kenia, with an estimated elevation of 18,000 feet, and Ruwenzori, which is also 18,000 feet in height.

The Rwenzururu movement is in many ways the most spectacular example of Ugandan ethnic political participation, mobilizing people almost exclusively on the basis of ethnic identity. They demanded that the names of the streets in Kasese town should be changed to honor Rwenzururu, and that the Konzo language be used exclusively in government offices.

The Rwenzururu Kingdom was established in the early 1960s on the Rwenzori range in the Ugandan Congo border area. The Rwenzururu movement began as a separatist movement from Toro Kingdom. The mass movement appeared to most people in Uganda, to have erupted somewhat spontaneously, leading to bloodshed and massacre of hundreds ofpeople in the district. Tensions led to battles in 1963-1964 between the Konjo and the Amba on the one hand, and Toro and Ugandan army units on the other; the latter effectively suppressed the rebels. However, the Rwenzururu movement reconsolidated.

President Mbutu of Zaire and President Daniel arap Moi of Kenya both supported a revival of the Bakonjo rebellion under the new label of the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda, a much grander sounding name than Rwenzururu. In fact NALU was just a cut-rate version of Rwenzururu without the popular appeal.

The Rwenzururu Kingdom, located in the Rwenzori Mountain Region of the South Western part of Uganda spans into the Democratic Republic of Congo among the Bakonzo / Banande, Bamba and Basumba people who dwell in the mountain region. A Banya Rwenzururu (The people of Rwenzururu) The term Banyarwenzururu refers to the people of Rwenzururu (Rwenzori Mountains). Banyarwenzururu also means the mountain covered with snow, which was mistakenly re-named by explorer H.M, Stanely as Ruwenzori – the Mountains of the Moon.

The Rwenzururu Kingdom is a monarchy of the inhabitants of and people descending from the Rwenzori Mountains. The Bakonzo/Banande, Bamba and Basumba are ethnic groups that originally lived and still live on and around the Rwenzururu Mountains. Currently, the Bakonzo alone are about 6,000,000 people with an estimated 1,000,000 on the Ugandan side of the Mountain and 5,000,000 on the Democratic Republic of Congo side and are more commonly known as Banande.

On the Ugandan side the Bakonzo occupy the Rwenzururu Mountains cut across the District of Kasese, Kabarole and Bundibugyo. Those in Congo are found in North Kivu province with Butembo and Beni as their major towns. The Bamba who are sub-divided into Babwisi, Babutoku, Vonoma and Babila predominantly occupy the plains of Bundibugyo district.

The Bakonzo - tired of being subjected to the rule of another tribe under colonial rule - declared their own kingdom in 1962. The Rwenzururu movement, comprising two diminutive tribes, the Bamba and the Bakonjo, even at its peak in the early 1960s, after Uganda attained independence in 1962, never posed a real threat to successive governments. Most of the territory claimed by the Rwenzururu was mountain scrub in a remote border area near Zaire which had little strategic or economic value.

The Ugandan "Rwenzururu" movement fought for independence in the 'Mountains of the Moon' region. The separatist movement had been a continual destabilising factor in the area as its fighters swept down the mountains to harrass and loot towns and tribes at the foot. The rebels would retreat up the mountains before Uganda army reinforcements arrived, and government troops always found the climb up the rugged mountain trails too difficult.

The former Rwenzururu King Irema Ngoma gave up on 15 August 1982, and surrendered his army to the Obote government. The movement laid down arms in return for a degree of local autonomy. The leaders agreed to end their 20-year struggle and surrendered their arms to the Uganda Government on 15 August 1982. The movement was led by its self-styled king and general, Charles Wellesley Irema Ngoma and his 'queesn,' Zeuliah. The 'king' was 'head of state, head of government and minister of defence' of the 'United Kingdom of Rwenzururu.'

The 'King General" agreed to come down from the Mountains of the Moon and settle with his family in Uganda's western town of Kasese. This followed an agreement between leaders of the movement and Uganda's army chief of staff Brigadier Oyite Ojok, and a minister of state in the office of the president, Chris Rwakasisi, in western Uganda.

Brigadier Oyite Ojok assured the 'King-General' that no member of the movement would be prosecuted or victimised for illegal possession of guns, or involvement in the Rwenzururu activities after the surrender on August 15. The Rwenzururu fighters surrendered on that, day along with the movement's organisers and their arms, and would 'accept the concept of Uganda's republican constitution of one nation'. By 1985 the Rwenzururu movement in the Ranges of Rwenzori Mountains in Western Uganda threatened to swing back in action by re-establishing its Kingdom in the Mountains and forcing people in the District to pay allegience to the movement. The new self-styled leaders of the movement established headquarters at Bukikira in the mountains.

In late 1986 rebel Rwenzururu's soldiers established their headquarters at Kichwamba, within the vicinity of Hima Cement Factory and were terrorising people in the area. Many Bakonjo Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) former youth wingers, Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA) members and many of their colleagues escaped into the mountains with guns. These people come from the mountains and start looting and shooting in the air in and around Rugendabara.

Since coming to power in 1986, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) brought some stability to the country. But some National Resistance Movement members based in Kasese encouraged the Rwenzururu movement. The movement was under the officious title of the Rwenzururu Freedom Council. The Rwenzururu isolationist government threatened non-Bakonjo working in Kasese to leave the district with immediate effect. Kasese District Administrator Joam Kabachelor conveyed this adverse warning to President Toweri Museveni in late September 1986 in Kasese at the end of the President's western Uganda tour. The Rwenzururu leaders also demanded that the pre-independence boundaries be revived. This would involve the redrawing of the present Kasese-Kabarole and Bundibugyo geographical setup.

It demanded that all civil servants and those working in the parastatal organistions in Kasese quit forthwith. The threat is backed by the presence of an army. Its strength is not known but its chief of staff is Richard Kinyamusutu who had also been the chief under Rwenzururu leader Irema Ngoma . The same army has made it difficult to control smuggling in the hills as they help to escort the coffee smugglers to Zaire. Under the arrangement, smugglers paid them a certain tax for this service.

By October 1986 there were two National Resistance Army (NRA) roadblocks, one at Nyakigumba and one at Rubona. But these roadblocks were too far to be of help to people living in and around Nyakigumba. At Rugendabara, there was a Nyakatonzi Coffee Growers Co-operative Union which bought and processed coffee from different parts of the district. But because of insecurity, business in the once busy place had almost come to a standstill.

The Rwenzururu movement surfaced again in 1986. Although people can move about in the areas surrounding the mountain slopes, they were required to have identity cards issued by some unknown officials in the mountains. This was common knowledge to the people in Rugendabara. Anybody was free to have the identity card as long as it was paid for. Though it was still a mystery who was selling the cards, some pepple had the cards.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni officially recognised the kingdom in 2009. On 30 August 2009, the President of the Government of Uganda, General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni expressed his position to recognize Obusinga Bwa Rwenzururu. He announced this at St. Paul’s Cathedral of the South Rwenzori Diocese of the Anglican Church in Kasese Town. He also accepted Omusinga Irema-Ngoma’s invitation to attend the 43rd Coronation Ceremony of King Charles Mumbere to be held in Buhikira Royal Palace in Kasese town, on October 19, 2009.

However unrest continued in the complex ethnic and political conflict, as many in the region still felt marginalised by authorities in distant Kampala. Some in Uganda, with the support from their sister tribe in the DR Congo, took up arms and agitated for the creation of the Yiira Republic which would cover territory in Uganda and part of North Kivu in the DR Congo. The Banande in DRC and the Bakonzo in Uganda, have the same culture and language and are believed to stem from one people known as the Ba-Yira.

Though Mumbere distanced himself from the cause, authorities accused his royal guards of training in the mountains alongside separatist militia forces to attack government installations.

On 29 June 2013, due to security reasons, police in Kasese prevented the Rwenzururu king, Charles Wesley Mumbere, from visiting Bundibugyo District, where he was scheduled to preside over the kingdom’s Peace Day. Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd that had gathered following the incident. Police stated the king’s visit would spark tribal clashes because the community in Bundibugyo was opposed to the kingship.

Heavy fighting broke out 26 November 2016 in the western town of Kasese, home to Rwenzururu King Charles Wesley, who is an opponent of Uganda's long-time President Yoweri Museveni. His royal guards attacked patrolling security forces, killing 14 police officers.

Ugandan troops tried to disarm King Charles Wesley Mumbere's guards and arrest him. The Ugandan security forces overwhelmed the guards, broke into the palace and arrested Mumbere. In the process they killed a number of the king's supporters. More than four dozen people were killed in clashes, mostly guards protecting the tribal king. The militia were armed with modern weapons as well as spears and machetes.

"We have told the government the kingdom is not involved in the creation of Yiira republic which wants to break away (from Uganda) and that the royal guards are not involved," Rwenzururu kingdom spokesman, Clarence Bwambale told AFP shortly before the king's arrest as heavy shooting echoed in the background.