Rows in Buganda helped Obote rise to power

Sep 11, 2006

DR. Apollo Milton Obote’s meteoric rise to the top leadership of Uganda started soon after he returned from Kenya where he received his political tutelage in the labour movement. In a sense he owed his rise to the wrangles which afflicted politics in the central region. <br>

PETER MULIRA

A LEARNED FRIEND WITH A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

DR. Apollo Milton Obote’s meteoric rise to the top leadership of Uganda started soon after he returned from Kenya where he received his political tutelage in the labour movement. In a sense he owed his rise to the wrangles which afflicted politics in the central region.

Although as a consummate politician with the gift of the garb he could have won his colours on his own steam, it is unlikely that he would have ascended to the top slot if the leadership of I. K. Musazi and Ben Kiwanuka, the leaders of the two major parties, had not been undermined by their own community.

Obote’s rise to power started with his good luck in joining the Uganda National Congress (UNC). UNC split down the middle in July 1956 after a group of 14 young turks on the central executive rebelled against Musazi’s leadership to form the United Congress Party.

Obote was the most promising of the the young cadres left behind. After UNC split further in January 1958, between two factions led by Musazi and J. W. Kiwanuka, the chairman, both leaders organised their rival general meetings in Kampala and Mbale. At Kiwanuka’s meeting in Mbale he personally campaigned for Obote who was sent for from Kampala to be elected president of that faction while Kiwanuka himself retained the powerful office of chairman.

Later when Kiwanuka and Musazi decided to take their factions into the Uganda National Movement, Obote reneged and trudged on as president of the party but the intentions of the secretary general, Dr. B. N. Kunuka remained unclear. In 1960, Abu Mayanja temporarily became secretary under Obote but was replaced by Otema Alimadi when Mayanja became a minister in the Buganda government. At this time Kiwanuka was still in exile. Earlier in 1958, Obote’s hand had been greatly strengthened when the UNC of whatever faction won the direct elections to the Legislative Council (Legco) taking five of the 10 district seats while DP won one seat and the rest went to independents.

The Buganda Lukiiko had boycotted the election which tragically denied leaders from the region a national exposure. With all the leaders from the central region who had come together in UNM languishing in exile where they had been rusticated by the colonial government the national political scene was left to three contestants namely the members of UNC in the Legco, DP and the Mengo establishment but towards the end of 1959 most of the members in the Legco formed the Uganda People Party (UPP) under William Rwetsiba.

UPP did not pull much weight and because its leaders were all from outside Buganda and with an anti-Buganda outlook, the party fostered a chasm between the central region and the rest of the country so that by April 1960 when the party joined with Obote to form the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) the country was not in one piece.

It is claimed that the UPC resulted from the merger of UNC and UPP but this is contestable because as soon as Kiwanuka returned from exile he revived his faction with Dr. Kunuka as secretary general and Jenkins Kiwanuka as publicity secretary.

As a result of this chasm, the future of the country depended on how to bring Buganda back into the national fold with the rest of the country becoming more and more impatient with Buganda’s federo demands which threatened to delay our independence.

At this stage UPC, DP and Mengo held the key to the post-independence character of our country. When the elections of 1961 were announced, all the parties supported them but Mengo once again declared their boycott in Buganda. In defiance the parties encouraged their supporters to register but very few did.

DP won the elections and its leader, Ben Kiwanuka, formed the government which lasted only until the next elections a year later.

At the London independence constitutional conference which was held in 1962, three of Buganda’s demands threatened to scatter the conference. These were Buganda’s two lost counties, federo and indirect elections to the National Assembly if Buganda was to send its representatives to the house. Settlement of the lost counties issue was postponed to be decided in a referendum to be held two years after independence while the second and third demands were granted with the strong support of Obote’s UPC but in the teeth of opposition by Kiwanuka’s DP.

Kiwanuka’s stand at the conference ought to be understood in its context. As a Muganda, if he had supported Buganda’s demands, the rest of the country would have accused him of being tribalistic and most likely Obote would have marshalled the non-Buganda delegations against him which would have turned DP into a tribal party.

Kiwanuka had also disenchanted the Baganda when he gave a press conference soon after his victory and some of his statements in English when translated by a Luganda paper lost their meaning in which they gave offence to the office of the Kabaka. He had to be punished.

On the other hand, Obote had ample room to manouvre. It was not difficult for him to convince the other delegates from his party that winning all the 21 seats of Buganda’s representatives in Parliament would give the party a head start DP could not beat.

Obote’s other explanation for his action that he did not want these demands to delay the independence time-table was also cogent. What is more difficult to understand is Buganda’s excitement about the arrangements reached in London.

When the Colonial Secretary, Ian Macleod, visited Uganda late in 1959, he had been asked by the DP delegation which met him about usefulness of constitutional guarantees since the party with a clear majority in parliament could change the constitution at will.

On that occasion Macleod had dodged the question but this should have served as an eye-opener for the Mengo delegation that in politics there are no guaranteed positions.

As expected, UPC won the independence elections by 36 seats outside Buganda to DP’s 24 nationally. With Buganda’s 21 seats sitting on the government side, UPC had a comfortable majority in Parliament with which to rule the country but unfortunately there was no meeting of minds about the direction the country.

Within three months problems started to appear. The Baganda MPs started complaining publicly that UPC was treating them as second fiddle and were not consulted at all on any matter. At the same time many of them resented Mengo’s attempts to treat them as its delegates in parliament.

These problems grew bigger and bigger until they exploded in 1966.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});