Obote did not fight for Uhuru
Oct 19, 2005
APOLLO Milton Obote who died recently will not be remembered as the father of the Uganda nation in the same mould Jomo Kenyatta and Nelson Mandela are remembered in aspect of their countries but will take his place in history as the first and only president in English speaking east, central and sout
By Peter Mulira
APOLLO Milton Obote who died recently will not be remembered as the father of the Uganda nation in the same mould Jomo Kenyatta and Nelson Mandela are remembered in aspect of their countries but will take his place in history as the first and only president in English speaking east, central and southern Africa, who promoted himself to that high office through unconstitutional means.
Normally when an elected government is overthrown in a coup, the group which perpetuates the coup appoints one of their own to be the new leader.
In the case of Uganda’s events of 1966, Obote who was prime minister just ordered the president out of State House, suspended the Constitution and declared himself the new president.
He later rammed through Parliament the 1966 Constitution authored by him which was passed after he surrounded the House with soldiers and military hardware.
Contrary to popular belief, Obote did not fight for our independence and indeed opposed the clamour for it in 1952, describing self-government in a newspaper letter as a Buganda thing. His ambition to study law at Khartoum University on a Lango district scholarship having been thwarted by the District Commissioner, Obote went to Kenya where he sojourned until 1957 after walking out of Makerere either on his own or under compulsion.
Obote returned to Lira in the late fifties where he became, according to some reports, a member of the district council and joined the Uganda National Congress of Ignatius Musazi after the party had split into two with David Lubogo leading a faction which included people like professor Senteza Kajubi, Erisa Kironde, Godfrey Binaisa and other young Turks who formed the United Congress Party in 1956.
The further split in UNC between Musazi and the party chairman, Joseph “Jolly Joe†Kiwanuka in January 1958, saw Obote’s break into national politics when Kiwanuka, desiring to neutralise Musazi’s influence in the north, invited Obote to be president of his faction of UNC where Kiwanuka remained the powerful chairman with a lot of ready cash reportedly obtained from china to support his party’s activities.
In 1959, all the existing political parties with the exception of DP joined under the umbrella of the Uganda national Movement and declared a trade boycott as a final push in the struggle for independence but Obote refused to follow Kiwanuka into UNM and remained on a limb in what was now a rubble UNC whose most prominent supporter at the time was Abu mayanja whom he later in life detained without trial in an act of ingratitude which became the hall mark of his political style.
With the political field virtually left to DP and Obote’s rubble UNC, African members of the Legico who had earlier refused to join the independence struggle took advantage of the void and formed the Uganda people’s party but their initiative was still–born and with the encouragement of a European member of the legico and his mentor, Barbara Saben, who was motivated by her and the establishment’s disdain for DP, Obote was convinced to unite his UNC, not Musazi or Kiwanuka’s, with UPP to form Uganda People’s congress.
After the election of 1961 (which DP won) it became clear that UPC could not win the independence elections without Buganda’s support and the idea of indirect elections for MPs from Buganda to the independence parliament was hatched by Grace Ibingira the main thrust of which was to ensure that the Buganda Lukiiko which would elect the MPs would be manipulated in such a way that all the twenty one members from Buganda would be deliverable to UPC to the exclusion of DP.
The seeds of instability of our country were planted at this stage because as is always the case with political unions which are not fully consummated each party under them keeps an eye open to steal an advantage at the earliest opportunity. Obote was a machiavellian operator who knew that once he had power gained on buganda’s back he could use it to break that very back in order to establish himself as the supreme ruler of the country.
Believing that a new Uganda under his guidance would rise from the ashes of a desecrated Buganda, Obote ordered the attack on the Kabaka’s palace in 1966 and went on to desecrate the kingdom in a vindictive manner by abolishing the kingdom and its federal government declaring for good measure in an unguarded moment that a good Muganda was a dead one.
Obote then led the rest of the country in a senseless crusade against the community and its culture, which left any future possibility of forgiveness an illusion.
The attack on the Lubiri was ordered on the pretext that there was a cache of arms there to be used in a coup. After overrunning the palace amin found no arms there. The claim that the lukiiko passed a resolution ordering the government to move off Buganda land is also spurious because no such law was passed according to the standing orders of the Lukiiko.
In a statement to Parliament on 25th May 1966, Obote reported that after attempts to get Ssaza chiefs to move the resolution failed, an MP who had sat on government benches until 24th august, 1964 helped in getting a most obscure member of the Lukiiko to move the resolution and to get into the Lukiiko chambers a gang of hooligans to shout down any member who dared to speak against the motion.
Obote went on to say: “The motion was moved last Friday, the speaker of the Lukiiko was powerless, the Katikkiro could not be heard — it was simply impossible for the Katikkiro to speak, it was simply impossible for the Ministers to speak in the Lukiiko. The hooligans were conducting the deliberations of the Lukiiko from the gallery....so last Friday a resolution was passed purporting to order the government from Kampala.â€
If the katikkiro and his ministers as well as the Ssaza chiefs were against the motion and members could not debate the motion freely how could the Mengo government and the Lukiiko be held responsible for the resolution?
In any case how did a speaker who had no control over the proceedings cause voting to be taken and how many voted for and against? The truth is that there was no voting because of the commotion and as such no resolution was passed.
Accordingly Ugandans have been living under a great lie which has led to all manner of skewed policies towards Buganda. It is sad that Obote’s legacy is entertwined with this lie.
The writer is a Kampala advocate
APOLLO Milton Obote who died recently will not be remembered as the father of the Uganda nation in the same mould Jomo Kenyatta and Nelson Mandela are remembered in aspect of their countries but will take his place in history as the first and only president in English speaking east, central and southern Africa, who promoted himself to that high office through unconstitutional means.
Normally when an elected government is overthrown in a coup, the group which perpetuates the coup appoints one of their own to be the new leader.
In the case of Uganda’s events of 1966, Obote who was prime minister just ordered the president out of State House, suspended the Constitution and declared himself the new president.
He later rammed through Parliament the 1966 Constitution authored by him which was passed after he surrounded the House with soldiers and military hardware.
Contrary to popular belief, Obote did not fight for our independence and indeed opposed the clamour for it in 1952, describing self-government in a newspaper letter as a Buganda thing. His ambition to study law at Khartoum University on a Lango district scholarship having been thwarted by the District Commissioner, Obote went to Kenya where he sojourned until 1957 after walking out of Makerere either on his own or under compulsion.
Obote returned to Lira in the late fifties where he became, according to some reports, a member of the district council and joined the Uganda National Congress of Ignatius Musazi after the party had split into two with David Lubogo leading a faction which included people like professor Senteza Kajubi, Erisa Kironde, Godfrey Binaisa and other young Turks who formed the United Congress Party in 1956.
The further split in UNC between Musazi and the party chairman, Joseph “Jolly Joe†Kiwanuka in January 1958, saw Obote’s break into national politics when Kiwanuka, desiring to neutralise Musazi’s influence in the north, invited Obote to be president of his faction of UNC where Kiwanuka remained the powerful chairman with a lot of ready cash reportedly obtained from china to support his party’s activities.
In 1959, all the existing political parties with the exception of DP joined under the umbrella of the Uganda national Movement and declared a trade boycott as a final push in the struggle for independence but Obote refused to follow Kiwanuka into UNM and remained on a limb in what was now a rubble UNC whose most prominent supporter at the time was Abu mayanja whom he later in life detained without trial in an act of ingratitude which became the hall mark of his political style.
With the political field virtually left to DP and Obote’s rubble UNC, African members of the Legico who had earlier refused to join the independence struggle took advantage of the void and formed the Uganda people’s party but their initiative was still–born and with the encouragement of a European member of the legico and his mentor, Barbara Saben, who was motivated by her and the establishment’s disdain for DP, Obote was convinced to unite his UNC, not Musazi or Kiwanuka’s, with UPP to form Uganda People’s congress.
After the election of 1961 (which DP won) it became clear that UPC could not win the independence elections without Buganda’s support and the idea of indirect elections for MPs from Buganda to the independence parliament was hatched by Grace Ibingira the main thrust of which was to ensure that the Buganda Lukiiko which would elect the MPs would be manipulated in such a way that all the twenty one members from Buganda would be deliverable to UPC to the exclusion of DP.
The seeds of instability of our country were planted at this stage because as is always the case with political unions which are not fully consummated each party under them keeps an eye open to steal an advantage at the earliest opportunity. Obote was a machiavellian operator who knew that once he had power gained on buganda’s back he could use it to break that very back in order to establish himself as the supreme ruler of the country.
Believing that a new Uganda under his guidance would rise from the ashes of a desecrated Buganda, Obote ordered the attack on the Kabaka’s palace in 1966 and went on to desecrate the kingdom in a vindictive manner by abolishing the kingdom and its federal government declaring for good measure in an unguarded moment that a good Muganda was a dead one.
Obote then led the rest of the country in a senseless crusade against the community and its culture, which left any future possibility of forgiveness an illusion.
The attack on the Lubiri was ordered on the pretext that there was a cache of arms there to be used in a coup. After overrunning the palace amin found no arms there. The claim that the lukiiko passed a resolution ordering the government to move off Buganda land is also spurious because no such law was passed according to the standing orders of the Lukiiko.
In a statement to Parliament on 25th May 1966, Obote reported that after attempts to get Ssaza chiefs to move the resolution failed, an MP who had sat on government benches until 24th august, 1964 helped in getting a most obscure member of the Lukiiko to move the resolution and to get into the Lukiiko chambers a gang of hooligans to shout down any member who dared to speak against the motion.
Obote went on to say: “The motion was moved last Friday, the speaker of the Lukiiko was powerless, the Katikkiro could not be heard — it was simply impossible for the Katikkiro to speak, it was simply impossible for the Ministers to speak in the Lukiiko. The hooligans were conducting the deliberations of the Lukiiko from the gallery....so last Friday a resolution was passed purporting to order the government from Kampala.â€
If the katikkiro and his ministers as well as the Ssaza chiefs were against the motion and members could not debate the motion freely how could the Mengo government and the Lukiiko be held responsible for the resolution?
In any case how did a speaker who had no control over the proceedings cause voting to be taken and how many voted for and against? The truth is that there was no voting because of the commotion and as such no resolution was passed.
Accordingly Ugandans have been living under a great lie which has led to all manner of skewed policies towards Buganda. It is sad that Obote’s legacy is entertwined with this lie.
The writer is a Kampala advocate