Uganda won autonomy when she was a divided country!
May 15, 2006
When the idea of an East African Federation was first mooted by the British government in the late 1920s, it received strong opposition in Uganda where Africans feared that white settlers would take their land as had happened in Kenya.
A learned friend With a historical perspective
Peter Mulira
When the idea of an East African Federation was first mooted by the British government in the late 1920s, it received strong opposition in Uganda where Africans feared that white settlers would take their land as had happened in Kenya.
As a result of this opposition the then Kabaka of Buganda, Sir Daudi Chwa II, sent a delegation to London in 1931 led by Mr. Serwano Kulubya to present the Africans’ case to a House of Commons select committee dealing with the issue.
Kulubya’s delegation seems to have been successful in its mission for the federation idea was shelved for a number of years and in its place the East African High Commission to run common services between Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika was established in 1948 with headquarters in Nairobi.
However, five years later in 1953 the then Colonial Secretary, Mr. Oliver Lyttleton, made a speech in London in which he outlined new plans for the closer union of the three east African territories of Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika. The speech which was widely reported in the East African Standard immediately caused excitement here especially since it came during the height of the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya.
In a series of letters exchanged between the Kabaka of Buganda and the governor, Sir Andrew Cohen, the African viewpoint was forcefully put forward and in the end the two leaders held a number of inconclusive meetings culminating in the fateful one on November 30, 1953. At this meeting the Kabaka was given an ultimatum to support the British policy or else have his recognition as Kabaka withdrawn in a confrontation which in a way predetermined the future course of Uganda’s history.
Upon Mutesa’s refusal to sign the undertaking before consulting the Buganda Lukiiko the Kabaka was arrested and put on a plane which had been specially hired for the purpose and taken to London to begin his exile. A strong campaign which was mounted in London for Mutesa’s return resulted in the appointment of Professor Keith Hancock to come to Uganda and with a committee of 12 local members worked out proposals which opened the door for the Kabaka’s return as well as set the country on the road to its independence.
The Hancock report which was published three months after it started its work formed the basis for a new constitution for Buganda and a new agreement with the British government which replaced the 1900 agreement.
This agreement set the pace for Uganda’s advancement towards self-government through constitutional changes in the legislative council (Legco) along the path Ghana had developed but it was specifically provided that no major constitutional changes would take place until 1961.
The reference to 1961 as the next stage for major constitutional changes suggested that self-government would be attained in that year but it also set in train a series of conflicts which unfortunately set the tone for our fractious independence. It was a condition of the agreement that Buganda would hold direct elections to the Legco before 1961 but other districts also campaigned for the right to directly elect their own representatives which was agreed to in the case of those districts which expressed the desire.
When nationwide elections were organised in 1958, the Buganda Lukiiko balked and contended that the government had breached the agreement by replacing the Governor with the Speaker as Chairman of the proceedings in the Legco. In an application to the High Court, the Katikkiro asked for a declaration that the current Legco was not the one referred to in the 1955 agreement since a speaker had been appointed to preside over it instead of the governor. The High Court dismissed the application with costs against the Katikkiro. In his judgement the judge emphasised that “the legislative council in existence at the date of filing the suit is the council referred to in the second schedule to the Buganda agreement, 1955, and was the council which was in the contemplation of the partiesâ€.
Although Buganda did not participate, the elections went ahead in 10 districts and five of the 10 seats were won by supporters of the Uganda National Congress (UNC) with Milton Obote winning his Lango district seat with an all-time record of 40,081 votes. The significance of the elections of 1958 was that they marked the shift from political leadership of the country from Buganda to elsewhere. Till then all political parties had been formed in Buganda but now as the centre of political activity moved to the Legco the 10 directly elected members became the official spokesmen for the Africans.
Secondly, by virtue of the fact that the UNC of which he was president general won 50 per cent of the seats, Obote became the person to watch as the new national leader, a fact the British took note of and started to nurture him.
In the end all the 10 representatives from the districts who were elected became major players in the period preceding independence and after. Meanwhile, Buganda got itself entangled in a political confusion as Mengo pursued an isolationist policy while most of the Baganda political leaders joined the Uganda National Movement which declared a trade boycott.
The boycott of non-African trade, declared by a little known Kampala businessman, Augustine Kamya, quickly gained support and attracted the leaders of all the political parties with the exception of DP and Obote’s faction. Obote’s UNC and in a very short time the government estimated the loss of revenue by the end of 1958 to be almost half a million pounds.
The period of two years which followed were very momentous for our political development but was at the same time most unfortunate because the Africans spoke with three voices instead of one as represented by the African members of the Legco, the UNM and DP as political parties and Mengo.
The Uganda Argus on October 8, 1958, editorialised that the “situation in Uganda was chaotic and confusedâ€. The future of independent Uganda seems to have been shaped by the events of this period and as we try to chart a new future for our country it is imperative that we study the mistakes of this period.
It is a sobering experience to think that as we entered our independence we were not one country.
Peter Mulira
When the idea of an East African Federation was first mooted by the British government in the late 1920s, it received strong opposition in Uganda where Africans feared that white settlers would take their land as had happened in Kenya.
As a result of this opposition the then Kabaka of Buganda, Sir Daudi Chwa II, sent a delegation to London in 1931 led by Mr. Serwano Kulubya to present the Africans’ case to a House of Commons select committee dealing with the issue.
Kulubya’s delegation seems to have been successful in its mission for the federation idea was shelved for a number of years and in its place the East African High Commission to run common services between Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika was established in 1948 with headquarters in Nairobi.
However, five years later in 1953 the then Colonial Secretary, Mr. Oliver Lyttleton, made a speech in London in which he outlined new plans for the closer union of the three east African territories of Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika. The speech which was widely reported in the East African Standard immediately caused excitement here especially since it came during the height of the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya.
In a series of letters exchanged between the Kabaka of Buganda and the governor, Sir Andrew Cohen, the African viewpoint was forcefully put forward and in the end the two leaders held a number of inconclusive meetings culminating in the fateful one on November 30, 1953. At this meeting the Kabaka was given an ultimatum to support the British policy or else have his recognition as Kabaka withdrawn in a confrontation which in a way predetermined the future course of Uganda’s history.
Upon Mutesa’s refusal to sign the undertaking before consulting the Buganda Lukiiko the Kabaka was arrested and put on a plane which had been specially hired for the purpose and taken to London to begin his exile. A strong campaign which was mounted in London for Mutesa’s return resulted in the appointment of Professor Keith Hancock to come to Uganda and with a committee of 12 local members worked out proposals which opened the door for the Kabaka’s return as well as set the country on the road to its independence.
The Hancock report which was published three months after it started its work formed the basis for a new constitution for Buganda and a new agreement with the British government which replaced the 1900 agreement.
This agreement set the pace for Uganda’s advancement towards self-government through constitutional changes in the legislative council (Legco) along the path Ghana had developed but it was specifically provided that no major constitutional changes would take place until 1961.
The reference to 1961 as the next stage for major constitutional changes suggested that self-government would be attained in that year but it also set in train a series of conflicts which unfortunately set the tone for our fractious independence. It was a condition of the agreement that Buganda would hold direct elections to the Legco before 1961 but other districts also campaigned for the right to directly elect their own representatives which was agreed to in the case of those districts which expressed the desire.
When nationwide elections were organised in 1958, the Buganda Lukiiko balked and contended that the government had breached the agreement by replacing the Governor with the Speaker as Chairman of the proceedings in the Legco. In an application to the High Court, the Katikkiro asked for a declaration that the current Legco was not the one referred to in the 1955 agreement since a speaker had been appointed to preside over it instead of the governor. The High Court dismissed the application with costs against the Katikkiro. In his judgement the judge emphasised that “the legislative council in existence at the date of filing the suit is the council referred to in the second schedule to the Buganda agreement, 1955, and was the council which was in the contemplation of the partiesâ€.
Although Buganda did not participate, the elections went ahead in 10 districts and five of the 10 seats were won by supporters of the Uganda National Congress (UNC) with Milton Obote winning his Lango district seat with an all-time record of 40,081 votes. The significance of the elections of 1958 was that they marked the shift from political leadership of the country from Buganda to elsewhere. Till then all political parties had been formed in Buganda but now as the centre of political activity moved to the Legco the 10 directly elected members became the official spokesmen for the Africans.
Secondly, by virtue of the fact that the UNC of which he was president general won 50 per cent of the seats, Obote became the person to watch as the new national leader, a fact the British took note of and started to nurture him.
In the end all the 10 representatives from the districts who were elected became major players in the period preceding independence and after. Meanwhile, Buganda got itself entangled in a political confusion as Mengo pursued an isolationist policy while most of the Baganda political leaders joined the Uganda National Movement which declared a trade boycott.
The boycott of non-African trade, declared by a little known Kampala businessman, Augustine Kamya, quickly gained support and attracted the leaders of all the political parties with the exception of DP and Obote’s faction. Obote’s UNC and in a very short time the government estimated the loss of revenue by the end of 1958 to be almost half a million pounds.
The period of two years which followed were very momentous for our political development but was at the same time most unfortunate because the Africans spoke with three voices instead of one as represented by the African members of the Legco, the UNM and DP as political parties and Mengo.
The Uganda Argus on October 8, 1958, editorialised that the “situation in Uganda was chaotic and confusedâ€. The future of independent Uganda seems to have been shaped by the events of this period and as we try to chart a new future for our country it is imperative that we study the mistakes of this period.
It is a sobering experience to think that as we entered our independence we were not one country.