**A local Ugandan king will go ahead with a controversial visit, despite two days of riots which have left at least nine people dead, his premier says.**Earlier the police had said Saturday’s visit would not happen as it would be “unwise” and a “security risk”.
The Buganda king wants to travel to Kayunga, an area near the capital which says it has seceded from his kingdom.
His premier John Baptist Walusimbi told the BBC that the government should ensure the king’s security.
At least two more people were shot dead and a police officer stabbed on Friday, witnesses said, after seven people died on Thursday in the Kampala riots.
Four radio stations have been taken off air after the government accused them of inciting violence.
The army has deployed troops to help deal with the riots.
Although Mr Walusimbi vowed that the visit would take place, he also appealed for youths to stop the violence.
“Please refrain from any unlawful act so peace can prevail,” he said on the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme.
As head of the ancient Buganda Kingdom Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II is hugely influential among the Baganda people, Uganda’s largest ethnic group.
But he is constitutionally barred from taking part in politics.
Correspondents say there has been a long history of tension between the king, known as the kabaka, and central government - particularly over land reform proposals that the Baganda say threaten their community.
Mr Walusimbi admitted that relations were strained but said the king recognised that President Yoweri Museveni had restored the kingdom, which had been abolished in 1966.
He said the kingdom wanted a federal system in Uganda and to have its property confiscated by the previous government to be returned.
‘Mature people’
The government feared the king’s visit to Kayunga could spark violence. Some of the Banyala people who live there see it as an affront, as they say they are no longer part of his kingdom.
In a speech broadcast on TV late on Thursday, President Museveni said the visit could have gone ahead if the king had agreed to two conditions.
He said he had asked the king to send delegates to meet community leaders before the visit, and had also requested that media outlets loyal to the king stop criticising the government.
“I told [the king] that the meeting in Kayunga would not take place until some conditions that will be communicated to him by the minister of internal affairs are met,” said the president.
“My reaction to these issues is to ring the king and we sort them out as mature people. But he could not pick or return my calls for the last two years.”
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