Arrest of kingdom ministers portends trouble for Mengo

I was shocked upon learning of the arrest of Buganda Information Minister Mr Peter Mayiga, Deputy Information Minister Mr Medard Lubega and chairperson of the kingdom’s civic education committee Ms Betty Nambooze for inciting sectarianism. The action of arresting the three Mengo notables reflected humiliation of the people they represent.
I am a listerner to all of the accused’s programmes on the kingdom’s Central Broadcasting Service radio. While I sometimes find their language confrontational, their arrest will only inspire them to hero status and will only increase resentment to the NRM government.
Being the mouthpiece of the kingdom, whoever ordered their arrest should have respected their position in Ugandan society. The manner in which the youthful minister was arrested is a clue to what the police has already been accused of.
Why would an elite police force smash the window glass of a car whose occupant Nambooze cannot match the size of the smallest police constable? The image of the police force should be preserved.
Secondly, this should not have been done on the occasion of the Buganda Conference for it would loosely be interpreted that whoever arrested them was cowed by their achievement.
The government should be made to know that the people of Buganda today are more united against any force that will seek to antagonise them. Diplomacy would have been better than confrotation.
It was also conspicuous that Prof. Apolo Nsibambi, he of the Mawazo fame, did not attend the Buganda conference when colleagues Mazrui, Mamdani, Juuko and Sempebwa were indulging in intellectual discourse.
Why was Ms Ruth Nankabirwa and Speaker of Parliament Mr Edward Ssekandi the only notable people from the central government? Where was Prof. Makubuya? Was this scenario deliberate? Was it a reaction to Nsibambi’s recent humiliation at the funeral service of the late Kiggundu? Is this how a government reacts to pressure from a non-armed force? We need to differentiate between wit and abuse. Who of Mengo and the President is abusing the other. I don't need to be educated to know that words like 'Gasia tu', stupid, swine and many othes from the president's vocabulary are abusive.
That said and done, closure of CBS radio could be next. But how will Baganda react? Are we not rapidly sliding back towards 1966? Time will tell.