How Milton Obote died and UPC in 2016 politics

Nov 03, 2015

This year’s presidential nominations coincide with the 10th year memorial of the death of Uganda’s independence executive prime minister, Dr. Apollo Milton Obote, at Morningside Clinic in South Africa.

By Muwonge Magembe

This year’s presidential nominations coincide with the 10th year memorial of the death of Uganda’s independence executive prime minister, Dr. Apollo Milton Obote, at Morningside Clinic in South Africa.

Interestingly, the UPC party to which Obote belonged hasn’t fielded a presidential candidate this time albeit Obote participating actively in the previous general elections of March 23, 1961, April 25, 1962 and December 10, 1980; that were declared won by DP, UPC-KY and UPC respectively. Obote hence served twice as Uganda’s president.

On July 27, 1985, during his second tenure as president, Obote was deposed by his army commander, Lt. Gen. Tito Okello Lutwa, in concert with Brig. Bazilio Olara Okello, the northern brigade commander.

A day before the coup (July 26, 1985), Obote arrived early at his parliamentary building office on the fourth floor.

Through Martin Orech, his private secretary; Obote summoned the army chief of staff, Brig. Smith Opon Acak, whom he instructed to go to Nakasongola to thwart incursions by Maj. Eric Odwar, the Buffalo Battalion commander.

However, Acak defied Obote’s directive. Obote hence sent Lt. Michael Kasozi to Nakasongola to morale boost the commanders.

Later in the night; at 11:28pm, Obote’s chief driver, Celestine Odongo, instructed Henry Munyole to drive Obote from Parliamentary Building to Nile Mansions where Obote chaired a security meeting in suite 205 attended by the Inspector General of Police, Okoth Ogola and security minister Chris Rwakasisi.

As the meeting progressed, presidential guards like Capt. Tom Odongo received security alerts from Maj. Akiki concerning assassination plots targeting Obote.

This prompted Obote to spend the night at the residence of his personal physician, Henry Opiote, at Plot 20, Kololo, where he was received by Opiote’s brother, Eng. Alex Ochen, working with Uganda Airlines.

Opiote’s wife, Elizabeth, a South African, was not at home that night following her earlier trip to Johannesburg. While at Opiote’s residence, Rwakasisi spent the whole night pleading to Obote to leave for exile but Obote retorted: “No way. I am not going anywhere. If these fellows want the chair (presidency), let them come and kill me from here”. Rwakasisi pleaded: “No sir. This country needs you alive. As long as you will be alive in exile; your supporters shall have hope”.

Amidst that standoff, Abraham Sagal, a member of the presidential security, prevailed over Obote and took him inside the principal’s Mercedes-Benz model 600 and the journey to exile commenced. In Mukono and Jinja, Obote’s convoy encountered road-blocks manned by renegade soldiers.

Opiote skillfully presented his identification card and lied to the soldiers that Obote had sent them to pick his wife, Miria, from Malaba border following the conclusion of a women’s conference in Kenya. On clearance, they proceeded to Busia border, where they had a brief scuffle with the customs authorities, after which they entered Kenya. At this point, the convoy drivers realised that their vehicles were running out of fuel. Sagal raised US$250 he had saved on an earlier trip to Zambia while coordinating military support President Kenneth Kaunda had pledged to Obote before the coup.

Opiote also added some money he had saved from his July 17, 1985 trip to the United States. On July 29, 1985, Obote arrived in Nairobi and resided at the residence of Kitili Mwendwa; the first African to serve as Chief Justice of Kenya from 1968 to 1971.

In August 1985, Obote addressed Ugandan exiles in Nairobi that “I left Uganda because of a problem. Some of you are a security risk if you return.

“Those who think can go back safely, please do that. I have been given a plane by President Kenneth Kaunda to go to Zambia. Those of you who want to continue with me to Zambia, you are most welcome”.

Lt. Kasozi opted to return to Uganda with the presidential motorcade Obote used to escape. Obote’s wife, Miria, stayed in Nairobi waiting for her two children; Benjamin Opiote and Tony Akaki that were in Entebbe and Namasagali College respectively at the time of the coup.

Obote, along with hundreds of other Ugandans, left for Zambia through Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. They were received in Zambia by Alexander Grey Zulu, the Secretary of State for Defense and Security.

Obote was accommodated at Lusaka state lodge while other Ugandans he had travelled with slept at a Technical College hostel. The Zambian government offered Obote a black Nissan Cedric driven by Richard Okello.

In 1987, Oliver Tambo, the President of Africa National Congress (ANC), visited Obote. In 1988, Kaunda relocated Obote to a house located at Plot15 along Dunduza Chisidza Road in Lusaka, not far from Kablong State House. This house was formerly the official residence of Mathias Mainza Chona, who twice served as Zambian vice-president.

Zimbabwean freedom fighter, Joshua Nkomo, also resided in it earlier on during his exile in Zambia after Ian Smith released him in 1974 from Gonakudzingwa Restriction Camp.

In 1991, Indian Prime Minister Narasimha Rao visited Obote. Rao made the stopover in Lusaka after attending the 12th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting hosted by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe from October 16 to 21, 1991 at Victoria Falls. On two occasions, Obote received messages of inspiration from the excommunicated Catholic Archbishop of Lusaka, Emmanuel Milingo.

The two became friends in 1969, when the then 39-year-old Milingo, was among the priests Pope Paul VI consecrated as bishops at Kololo airstrip on August 1, 1969.

Others consecrated along with Milingo were John Baptist Kakubi, Bishop Barnabas Halebimana, Serapio Magambo, Edward Albert Baharagate, William Mahony (Nigeria), Constantine Guirma (Upper Volta), Raphael Ndingi (Kenya), Jean Marie Joseph Pisquire (Cameroon), Emile Njeru (Kenya), Anthony Salui Sanusi (Nigeria) and Andre Fernad Anguile (Gabon).

Apart from reading many books and newspapers while in exile; Obote played scrabble with Peter Ogwang, Charles Oketcho and Wilson Odur while sipping on Portuguese-made wine — Mateus. On a daily basis, Obote made it a point to chorus his favorite hymn — Tukutendereza Yesu, whenever cleaning his Afro-style hair using shampoo.

In 2003, Obote abandoned smoking. He did so while regretting defying earlier medical advice by Italian doctors in 1982 against smoking after they conducted a thorough medical checkup on his lungs and kidneys in Rome.

On September 9, 2005, Obote suffered a kidney complication and he was flown to Morningside Clinic in South Africa aboard South African Airways.

The first X-ray conducted didn’t reveal one of his 5-inch kidneys. This left concerned doctors wondering whether it had been removed in an earlier operation. On October 7, 2005, while on dialysis support, Obote asked for peas to eat. Minutes after, Obote surprisingly slipped into coma as they prepared to serve him peas.

On the evening of October 10, 2005, doctors pronounced Obote dead. His body was taken to Jorrisen Street, a Braamfontein-based Doves Funeral Home.

It was later flown to Zambia for a requiem service at Lusaka Holy Cross Cathedral attended by President Levy Mwanawasa and his predecessors; Frederick Chiluba and Kaunda.

Thereafter, the body was flown to Uganda. On October 25, 2005, Obote was buried at Abyeibuti village, Akokoro near the graves of his late father and mother, Stanley and Priscilla Opeto.

The writer is a researcher
 

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