Today in History; January 07, 1962

276 days to go

The minster of local government  DJK Nabeta addressing a public rally at Entebbe said   the two major parties Democratic Party (DP) and Uganda Peoples Party (UPC) had pledged in their manifestos to uphold the dignity of the status of the traditional rulers so the people of Uganda were free to decide for themselves which of the two parties offered the best policy.

"The position of our four rulers had been embodied in agreements for each other, and there was no argument about it. What the forthcoming elections were going to decide was who would be Uganda‘s next Prime Minister, leading to her independence," he explained. Uganda's polls were set for March ahead of the independence day October 9 when Britain would hand over power to Ugandans.

Answering a question on direct elections  allowed for Buganda, Nabeta said ‘ this involved a fundamental principle for any party concerned. So far as the DP is concerned, it stood for democratic direct elections everywhere. If indirect elections were allowed for one place, there would be no end to requests from some other areas for the same method to be applied there and we would soon be where we started’, he said.

Did you know?

Phillip Omondi (1957 – 21 April 1999) was a Ugandan football player and top scorer with 28 goals. He played for the Uganda national football team at the 1974, 1976 and 1978 African Cup of Nations, where he was the leading top goal-scorer. He also helped the team to the 1973 and 1977 CECAFA Cup titles.