In November 2016, Uganda’s armed forces raided the Rwenzururu kingdom
palace in Kasese Municipality, arresting and detaining the king and other kingdom
officials on treason and other charges. This was the climax to a puzzling wave of
violence that was then unfolding in the Rwenzori Region. We consider this violence an
unintended consequence of the deepening politics of fragmentation, which takes two
forms: “kingdomization” and “districtization.” Through fragmentation, Uganda’s
ruling elites seek to weaken subnational concentrations of power, resources, and
legitimacy wielded by otherwise coalesced, potentially strong, subnational authority
structures and sociopolitical groups. Fragmentation fractures preexisting intraregional unity, generates new conflicts, and reopens old wounds, leading to violent
encounters at the sub-national level, between regional sub-groups, and with the
central state. This unfolding of violent encounters involving both state and non-state
actors has important ramifications for managing national security within socially
fragile contexts and a politically fragmented polity.
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