The Prime Minister of Busoga kingdom’s Baise Igaga clan, to which Speaker Rebecca Kadaga belongs, has said the Rt. Honourable speaker has a right to pay respects to her clan ancestors at their sacred shrine whenever she feels like.
This follows the eruption of a public debate about the speaker’s visiting of her clan’s sacred shrine at Nyenda Hill over the weekend, which visit was captured and broadcast in an evening news bulletin on NBS Television.
Stressing that the speaker did not go to the hill to perform any acts of sorcery, but was only fulfilling a cultural norm that requires each member of the Baise Igaga Clan to visit the hill at least once a year, the prime minister of Ms Kadaga’s clan, Major Nantamu, yesterday argued that it is the speaker’s right to visit and respect her ancestors whenever she feels like.
“Others pray for blessings and others offer thanks. We never really listen in to what others say when they come to fulfill what is a known cultural norm,” Major Nantamu further stressed.
The clan Prime Minister also said that Speaker Kadaga was only one of many clan members who participated in the thanks-giving ceremony organised at the home of the clan leader Abel Kisubi to thank the clan spirits for all they do for their people. “ancestors” on Nhyenda Hill, Nakigo Sub-county in Iganga District. The visit was reportedly ahead of a thanksgiving service that was held at the home of Mr Abel Kisubi, the leader of the Speaker’s clan, the Baise Igaga in Idudi.
have an origin? Who doesn’t have where they came from? Those are my roots, I had gone to inform my grandparents that I went through in Parliament; I went through as the Speaker. That is all I had gone to inform them about.”
Altho graying man later emphasised in the video: “She has come to celebrate together with the members of her clan … she has come to thank the spirits of our clan which helped her to remain in that position and the victory she has attained.”
The shrines, according to Clan leaders belong to Ms Kadaga’s “ancestors” on Nhyenda Hill, Nakigo Sub-county in Iganga District. The visit was reportedly ahead of a thanksgiving service that was held at the home of Mr Abel Kisubi, the leader of the Speaker’s clan, the Baise Igaga in Idudi.
It was not possible to speak to Ms Kadaga about the visit as her known mobile phones were off, but Maj Nantamu, the prime minister of Ms Kadaga’s clan, said the Speaker did not go to the hill to perform any acts of sorcery, but was only fulfilling a cultural norm that requires each member of the Baise Igaga Clan to visit the hill at least once a year.
Maj Nantamu says that when members visit, it is up to them to do what they feel for as long as it does not desecrate the area.
