Today in History: How Museveni was appointed vice-president

Today marks 33 years after former president Apollo Milton Obote was overthrown.

On 27 July 1985 2nd Lieutenant Walter Ochora announced on Radio Uganda that the Uganda National Liberation Army had overthrown President Milton Obote.

Chief of Defence Forces Lt. Gen. Tito Okello became president two days later, rising to full general. Brig. Bazilio Okello became CDF with the rank of Lt. General and Col. Zedi Maruru was promoted brigadier to become chief of staff.

On 2 August 1985 the new president met leaders of Uganda's political parties and despite losing a battle with the English language, he managed to explain why the army had ousted Obote.

After taking oath as president, Gen. Tito Okello invited Uganda's religious leaders to explain why the army he commanded had removed the elected government of Dr. Milton Obote and his Uganda Peoples' Congress.

On 2nd August 1985, Gen. Okello launched an assault on the English language, and despite losing it, Uganda's top clerics were able to understand why the old general had decided to give marching orders to Dr. Apollo Milton Obote.

When Gen. Tito Okello took power, he named the Uganda Airlines General Manager Colonel Wilson Toko de-facto vice president and Defence Minister. With Lt. Gen. Bazilio Okello as Chief of Defence Forces, this trinity was the nucleus of the Military Council government, which invited all rebels who had been fighting the Obote regime to join it for peace.

It was, however, a very shaky regime and what with Kampala's rumour-mill, the Military government found itself pre-occupied with dispelling rumours.

After the Okello generals took power, they called on 'Comrade Museveni' who was leading the guerrilla war against the government to report to Kampala Central Police Station.

Then they softened and invited him to join the government. Then they realised that the NRA was consolidating and getting ready for the final onslaught to capture power, so they agreed to peace talks to be chaired by Kenya's President Daniel Arap Moi in Nairobi. 

At the start of the peace talks, Museveni played hard ball and started by rejecting the participation of people he called killers. That way, Brigadier Wilson Toko was dropped from the Okello delegation.

In fact, Museveni refused to shake hands with any of Okello's officials except Paulo Kawanga Ssemogerere whom he reached across the wide table to greet. He ignored the other officials like Sam Kutesa, who was Okello's Attorney General.

Museveni also pressurised Okello to drop Obote's Vice-President and Defence Minister Paulo Muwanga as his Prime Minister and replace him with Abraham Waliggo. 
Museveni only attended the opening of the talks which lasted several months and kept coming in at crucial stages, otherwise he left the NRA delegation to be led by Mzee Samson Kisekka. Other members of Musveni's team included the brainy Abu Mayanja and Hope Kivengere.

After four months of tough negotiations, the two belligerents National Resistance Army and Military government signed a peace agreement on December 17th 1985. The agreement recognised Tito Okello as President and Yoweri Museveni as Vice-President and each of the two belligerent sides would contribute half of the troops to form the new national army for Uganda. Meanwhile, the NRA continued to get ready for power.

But Nairobi Peace Agreement contained a key clause that called on both sides to immediately cease any human rights violations - a condition the Okellos simply couldn't guarantee as its marauding soldiers continued to murder people and commit atrocities.

The NRA would later use this failure to move in and take power, accusing the Okello's of having violated the agreement. And so after intense fighting, the NRA swept into Kampala on January 25th 1986, to usher in a new era.