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Professor Simeon Kayiwa is a founder and senior Pastor of Namirembe Christina Fellowship. He is also the chancellor of Kayiwa International University. 

He had a chat with Maureen Nakatudde about what happened during independence and its aftermath.

I was nine years old when Uganda attained her independence. We saw three parties Kabaka Yekka, Democratic Party, and Uganda People’s Congress entering independence on our behalf. 

However, on the ground, there was a complete misunderstanding of what we had achieved. Instead of people rejoicing together, they went to each other banana plus coffee plantations, and cut them down.  

In the village, for example a member of DP would destroy a member of KY’s food. That happened in Gomba and some other parts of Buganda. 

It indicated how much food we lost through misunderstanding politics.

Each party was shouting “Kulwa Kabaka (because of the King).” They made Kabaka responsible for the food loss and hunger that came after independence.

A few years down the road, they was a scuffle for lost counties: between the Banyoro and the Baganda. The Kabaka, therefore, was divided between fighting for Buganda and Uganda. Nowadays that hatred no longer exists between them because of the many intermarriages taking place. 

But back then, every tribe was inherently hateful against another. It was difficult to eat in Kampala if the food was grown in Ankole or Bunyoro. They could boycott selling to Baganda.

People also boycotted Indian shops yet they had the things they wanted. However, it took place only for a short time. People realized that they could not sustain that kind of lifestyle and would go at night and buy from Indians. 

If the locals would see you buying from Indians at night, they would attack your house and that was between1962 and 1966.

The King, then, Sir Edward Mutesa II, was overthrown. In 1969, he died in England. I heard the news when I was going to Masaka Senior Secondary School that morning. 

The radio announced, Mr. Edward Muteesa died of alcoholic poison in England. The whole of Buganda wailed. Traffic stopped immediately and schoolchildren ran into street opposing the Prime minister Dr. Apollo Milton Obote.  

That later culminated into Idi Amin overthrowing him in 1971. Obote had made himself very unpopular especially in Buganda, Toro, Ankole and Busoga areas.

On the side of independence, people thought it was Obote’s independence not Uganda’s. This is because everything was UPC. The Baganda did not celebrate independence at all when the king had been killed. Unfortunately, Obote was suspected to have caused that death.

Right now independence makes sense because we are allowed freedom of worship. In my case, I am the author of the Ebiwempe revival, which began in 1977 up to 1979. Obote II tolerated Balokole (born-agains) although Idi Amin had abolished our churches.

One of Amin’s sons claims that some religions had reported to him that born-again believers were CIA agents, so he killed some of them. Amin had moved emotionally without research. Obote did not kill us, but oppressed us.  

There was no law that legalized balokere in Uganda until President Yoweri Museveni came and allowed us to operate. Today people speak freely and they do not expect to be killed.