Busoga politicians' contribution to mutilation of Uganda's constitutions: 1963-2017

By Dr. Frank Nabwiso

Isaac Mufumba from Busoga sub-region recently published three articles in the Sunday Monitor newspaper of 3rd, 10th and 17th June 2018, covering the "rise and fall" of Sir William Wilberforce Nadiope in Uganda's politics between 1949 and 1971, a period of 22 years. 

The articles reminded me Frank Nabwiso, from the same Sub-Region of the need of a suitable Ugandan scholar to write the history of Uganda's Parliament from its small beginnings on 29th June 1921 to 29th June 2021, when it will be 100 years old.  

The research, so I believe, should also show how some Ugandan politicians have been mutilating, with impurity, its national constitutions in the last 55 years (1963 to present), starting with Sir William Nadiope's political problems of 1963 to 1971.  

It appears Mufumba has not read the book entitled "Evolution of Busoga's Eleven Hereditary Chiefdoms and Kyabazingaship in Uganda: 1600-2016", which was launched by its four authors in December 2016, led by Rev. Father Kayaga Gonza of the Jinja Catholic Diocese. 

In my opinion, it provides more accurate information on the life of Nadiope from his birth on 10th April 1910 to his death in November 1976, and why and how the then Busoga Government in 1955-1962, under the third Isebantu Kyabazinga of Busoga, Henry Wako Muloki, donated Bugembe hill and palace to Busoga Anglican Church.

Certainly, it was not because Muloki's father, Ezekyeri Tenywa Wako, the first Kyabazinga of Busoga had sent a poisonous rat to bite Nadiope, when he was the Kyabazinga in 1949-1954.  Instead, Nadiope had left the palace in 1953 on his own volition and turned the Palace into his maize store, which attracted some rats.  

It is also not true that I was dismissed from my job as a Program Assistant in Radio Uganda in October 1964, for questioning Nadiope's and Uganda Prime Minister A.M. Obote's "academic credentials".  By that time, I was a first year at Makerere University, and no longer an employee of the said radio broadcasting station.  

What is true is that I ceased working in that parastatal organization on 6th September 1963 for four reasons.  First, Nadiope had consistently resisted my appointment, from 1st October 1962, because I was from Bulamogi and not his Bugabula County Secondly, himself and his UPC party cronies did not like my well-researched presentations on Busoga history including cultural institutions, music, dance, literature and other issues. 

Thirdly, I had been given a scholarship to study international law in Moscow and I was expected to go at any time.  Fourthly, it was Nadiope's cronies who told Adoko Nekyon (the then Minister of Information, Broadcasting and Tourism) and not Alex Ojera, as reported by Mufumba, that I had questioned Obote's academic credentials when he received an honorary doctoral degree in law from Long Island University in New York State, without doing any class work.  So, up to now, I believe that my Lusoga translation that Obote "Yafunie diguli etali nsomerere" was correct.  

However, Mufumba's interview with Patrick Miyingo (who joined Radio Uganda in 1964 while staying in the houseboy quarters attached to Nadiope's official residence as the first Vice-President of Uganda from 8th October 1964 to May 1966) re-confirmed to me two things. 

First, that Nadiope with four ministers (Grace Ibingira, Mathias Ngobi, Balaki Kiirya and George Magezi) had actually made attempts to overthrow Obote's first government, before they were nipped in the bud on February 22nd 1966.  Secondly, that Nadiope had allowed his official government in Kololo to be used as the meeting venue.

Earlier, in August 1962, Nadiope had inaugurated his first assault on the 1962 Constitution by allowing Busoga Lukiiko (Council) which had never been legally constituted to elect him Kyabazinga again in September of the same year, when he was already the Minister of Internal Affairs in Obote's first cabinet.

And when the High Court of Uganda ruled in February 1963, in favour of the opposition which had sought annulment of his election, Nadiope caused Obote and Ibingira to rush to Parliament in one afternoon, to pass the "Busoga Validation Act" which enabled Nadiope to remain the Kyabazinga. 

That act, automatically caused serious cracks in the 1962 Constitution, including Schedule 5 concerning Busoga's quasi-federal relationship with Uganda Government the same act set the first precedent of mutilating a national constitution to please and protect one individual's personal interests.

In 1964 Adonia Nume Lwerere, the MP for Busoga North constituency (which at that time covered the whole of the current Buyende District and Nawaikoke Sub-County in Bulamogi County or Kaliro District became the Deputy Speaker.Since the culture of changing the national constitution on the personal whims of the top leaders had already been initiated in 1963, it was not difficult for Nume and his boss Narendra Patel (the Speaker) to push controversial bills or constitutional amendments through Parliament hurriedly. 

As is widely known, the abrogation of the 1962 constitution and introduction/debate of the 1966 was completed in one day, before the members got their copies.  Both the Speaker and his deputy did not protest against that awkwardprocedure, and willingly allowed the third constitution of September 1967 to sail through the same August House without much ado.  They readily consented to the proposal that all the MPs (including themselves) should transit into the Second Parliament without subjecting themselves to another general election.

In the next five years (1966-1971) Parliament continued to pass harsher laws (including emergency laws in Buganda) which transformed Uganda into a civilian-cum-police/ military state.  

In May, 1980, Alexander Blasio Nume Waibale, (a nephew of the already mentioned Adonia Nume Luwerere) was elected the Speaker of the third Parliament (called the National Consultative Council or NCC).  The NCC, however, virtually had no influence, and accepted the establishment of a military government called the Military Commission, after the overthrow of Godfrey Lukongwa Binaisa's 11 months Government.  The Military Commission leaders included Paulo Muwanga as the Chairman and Yoweri Kaguta Museveni as the Vice-Chairman who dictated what the governmentwanted.  

In 2001-2006, Rt. Hon. Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga, (the Woman MP for Kamuli District, who had become the second Deputy Speaker from Busoga Sub-Region) strongly supported the erasure of presidential term limits in Article 102 of the 1995 Constitution.  Additionally, during 2006-2011 when she was still the Deputy Speaker, she and her boss, Rt. Hon. Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi did not allow the 8th Parliament to debate the 80 or more electoral reforms which had been introduced by the opposition groups.

From 2011 to present, Rt. Hon. Kadaga has served as the first substantive female Speaker of Parliament in Uganda.  However, I have heard many people expressing disgust over the manner in which she handled in 2017 the deletion of the presidential age limits, and the extension of the MPs stay in parliament from 5to 7 years, in the 1995 constitution. 

This means that she has a lot of work to rebuild a positive legacy in her political career in the last 29 years.  Since she is reported to have revealed in 2013 at Busoga University, and in June 2017 at Pilkington College Muguluka, that she was writing her autobiography, I would humbly request her to include an explanation which will defend her actions.  

Lastly, I believe that many people in Busoga are still remembering that Hon. John Balyeku, the Jinja West PM, seconded Hon Magyezi's motion to remove the age limit article, and that Isanga Musumba from Kamuli District is the one who moved a motion in Parliament to thank Rt. Hon Kadaga for the way she handled the said debate.  

The writer is a former Kagoma MP