How colonialists prepared Uganda for self-rule

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By the mid-1950s, it was clear that the British were ready to grant Uganda independence. However, unlike other countries, Uganda was not ready for self-governance and thus had to be marched there.

To start with Buganda kingdom, which had a governance system that was over 400 years old, hesitated to be part of the united Uganda. In his book A Political History of Uganda, Prof. Samwiri Karugire notes that when the colonial government announced that there would be direct elections, the kingdom filed a suit to block them, but lost.

Even when the governor, Sir Frederick Crawford, set up a constitutional committee on self-government, the kingdom declined to send a representative. Nevertheless, the committee, which was later known as the Wild Committee, was unveiled on Wednesday, February 4, 1959. Its chairperson was John Vernon Wild OBE.

It comprised two Asians, 11 Africans and three Europeans. Its other members were John Wild (chairperson), Cuthbert Obwangor, A.A. Baerlein, Milton Obote, T.B. Bazarrabusa, K. Ingram, H.K. Jaffer, C.B. Katiti, Erisa Kironde, Balaki Kirya, G.B.K. Magezi, B.J. Mukasa, William Nadiope, G. Oda, C.K. Patel and Frank Kalimuzo (secretary).

Some of its members were drawn from the newly elected Legislative Council (Legco).

BUGANDA GETS UNCOMFORTABLE

The committee collected views and handed its report to the colonial governor on December 5, 1959. In his book, The Desecration of My Kingdom, Sir Edward Mutesa writes that to Buganda, the committee’s report contained everything that they feared — it was heavily in favour of direct elections and a unitary state.

“When the constitutional committee reported, among other things, a plan for a unitary state with direct election to the national assembly and with no safeguards for Buganda: in fact, it had all that we wished to avoid,” Mutesa said.

To address Buganda’s fears, Reginald Maudling, the British secretary of state for the colonies, set up another team known as the Relations Committee, which later came to be known as the Munster Commission, on December 15, 1960.

It was led by the Earl of Munster (Geoffrey William Richard Hugh FitzClarence) and its purpose was to moderate Buganda’s relationship with the rest of Uganda.

Meanwhile, the colonial governor was bent on organising independence elections.

1961 ELECTIONS

On March 1, 1961, amidst immense opposition from Buganda, the colonial government held the first general election, which was won by the Democratic Party (DP) under the leadership of Ben Kiwanuka.

Because of Buganda’s boycott, Kiwanuka, as chief minister, struggled with gaining legitimacy to lead Uganda. Apart from being boycotted, the election widened the wedge between Mutesa and Kiwanuka.

Kiwanuka supported a unitary state and direct elections, which Mutesa and Buganda opposed. Mutesa was not happy with Kiwanuka’s new position as Uganda’s chief minister.

Mutesa described Kiwanuka as “puffed up with pride and success. Until then, I had seen him as a friend from whom I had drifted apart. Now, he became intolerable. He made personal attacks on me.”

In June 1961, the Munster or relations committee that had been set up to moderate relations between Buganda and the rest of Uganda handed over its report to the governor and it was on its basis that the Lancaster House Conference in London was convened, starting September 18, 1961 up to October 9, 1961, mainly to discuss the pillars of the independent state of Uganda.

But before the Lancaster Conference of 1961, a young politician, Milton Obote, representing Lango district, had led a breakaway faction of the Uganda National Congress into a union with the Uganda People’s Union of William Rwetsiba to form the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC).

UPC had quickly gained popularity outside Buganda. In Buganda, parties were not popular because the natives were comfortable with the Kabaka at the top.

As representatives of Uganda prepared for the Lancaster Conference, Obote reached out to Buganda with a proposal for an alliance to help it defeat Kiwanuka and his DP.