ABSTRACT
The Protectorate Administration now insisted that the saza of Kitagweta should be amalgamated with Mwenge and Nyakabimba with Kyaka, thus creating counties of a size which displeased Rukidi who did not like to see his chiefs wielding such extensive authority. The Mukama appeared to justify Sandford’s strictures when he presented a petition in August 1934 protesting that the practice of allocating official land to chiefs had been abandoned with a consequent loss of labour and other forms of tribute. The increased prosperity came at an opportune time, for in 1949 the Protectorate Administration decided to change the system of direct taxation to enable local governments to take greater responsibility for their own affairs. The voice of Buganda was becoming increasingly strident and it was not now the members of the Congress who were calling the tune but the kingdom’s more conservative leaders, whose aim was to protect the traditional powers of the Buganda hierarchy rather than to promote democratic process.
