The parliamentary committee on Defence and Internal Affairs heads to Kasese district in the troubled Rwenzori region in western Uganda to investigate the seemingly intractable conflict there.

However, the failure by Parliament to assert itself and demand implementation of recommendations made after the 2012 and 2005 violence is certain to undermine its efforts and whatever solutions it may propose again.

The committee is yet to ascertain the truth about what triggered the violent clashes that first broke out in the outskirts of Kasese town on March 10, this year, following a dispute over poll outcomes in a lower council election. The fighting spread to the municipality and other major trading centres.

It soon morphed into running battles pitting different communities against each other and have sucked in the police and the army. At least 50 people have so far lost their lives in the clashes and many more have been injured and displaced.

The government claimed its security officers reacted in self-defence against organised youth groups who attempted to attack and disarm them with machetes, spears and knives.

Cyclic violence

But the majority of legislators from the district and officials from the Rwenzururu cultural institution, which is accused of organising and instigating the youth, insisted government security agencies deliberately singled out civilians and shot to kill.

The Rwenzururu Kingdom has suffered cyclic violent clashes since Independence. The 2012 clashes triggered what the parliamentary committee then would later describe as “micro-nationalism and ethno-centricism.” And its recommendations have never been formally presented to parliament and have never been acted upon.

“Many committees have been established including by the government itself and all have come up with recommendations. My disappointment is that the government has not implemented its own recommendations or those we have given it before. If they had, then we would not be having the problems we are having today,” said Kasese district Woman MP Winnie Kiiza.