Swahili is the most widely spoken language in Uganda in geographical terms.The most spoken could be Luganda or Runyakitara. Unknown to many Ugandans standard Swahili is spoken in many parts Buikwe,Also broken or pidgin Swahili is spoken in Kasese,some parts of Masindi like Kinyara,Lugazi,Kakira,Busia,Tororo,many parts of Bugisu though they also speak Luganda,towns like cheoskunya,Kiriki etc all virtually use Swahili as their main language of communication and virtually in all towns of northern Uganda.Local languages but also Swahili.By the way,northern Uganda is the biggest region geographically in Uganda almost 40% of Uganda,so any predominant language there gives it a big geographical spread.

To show that many people understand Swahili in Uganda,lets look at few examples: when former Kenyan President Moi was leaving office,he came to say farewell to Uganda and had a public rally with president Museveni in Arua,he spoke in Swahili and people understood him well.last week when president Museveni addressed a rally at Kamet in Bukwo he used Swahili and was understood well.Some time back Rails and President Museveni addressed a public rally in Eastern Busoga,Raila talked in Swahili,and was understood well,in 1996 when ADF first struck in Kasese,President Museveni addressed a public rally, he spoke in English and Runyakitara but translation was made in Swahili and the translator was Aggrey Awori.No Ugandan language,not even Luganda could meet this feat.it could may be in Kasese and Busoga but not in Sebei and West Nile.

Zimbabwe, South Africa and South Sudan recently introduced Swahili as one of the subjects to be taught in schools. .Swahili is one of the four national languages of DRC Others being Lingala,Kikongo etc

Opposition to Kiswahili in Uganda was started in the early and mid 20th century especially in the 1940s in Buganda, it was mainly attached to the Buganda question and one if the reasons Mutesa one was exiled The Kingdom was heavily supported by Christian missionaries who wrongly feared that the spread of Swahili will lead to spread of Islam.The late professor Nsimbambi wrote widely on this in a research report produced in 1969,long before Amin regime associated with robberies started. In all major towns of Uganda,you will find good mechanics are baganda and they use mainly Swahili and English to interact with their clients9.If we are to take Uganda to mean the whole country and not the Bantu areas,Swahili is the most appropriate language to be adopted as the national language. Luganda,Luo,Runyakitara,Ateso and Lugbara could he the other national languages, but the main one which should be supported by government is Swahili.

Lastly, for those who don’t know or hate Swahili,you have no choice,Swahili cannot be fought and its onslaught I’d unstoppable. Even Luganda cannot be fought,it will spread further, let’s support all these languages.it should not be if or but all.As I said above,all our neighbouring countries Kenya,Tanzania,DRC,currently have Swahili as national languages. Rwanda and South Sudan have introduced and imported teachers from Tanzania to teach it.Uganda,which is more heterogeneous fits more actually with Swahili.