UPC/KY alliance also sowed seeds of discord
The alliance between Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) and Kabaka Yekka (KY) enabled UPC to win the elections of April, 1962 and form the first independent government.
The alliance between Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) and Kabaka Yekka (KY) enabled UPC to win the elections of April, 1962 and form the first independent government.
But the same alliance brought with it new seeds of discord, which marred the first three years of independence and ended up in the crisis of 1966.
Both UPC and KY were desperate groups without a common philosophy apart from the desire to win the elections and exclude DP from power.
Again, both parties suffered from the issue of ownership as new entrants tried to wrestle leadership from the historicals. These problems set the platform of what happened in 1966.
Contrary to what is generally believed to be the case, KY was not a Mengo outfit although in the end Mengo tried hard to control it.
The group’s formation had a lot to do with the return of the then Kabaka of Buganda from London in July, 1961 where he had gone to attend the independence conference at Marlborough House.
When the date of the kabaka’s return was announced, a little known politician Masembe Kabali mobilised people to welcome back their king and in the result perhaps one of the largest multitudes turned up on that Saturday morning to line all roads from Entebbe to Kampala shouting joyously the slogan ‘Kabaka Yekka’ (only the Kabaka).
Masembe knew that he was a winner and to keep the excitement going he baptised his group “KYâ€.
The group became a rag-bag of all political interests and Masembe became its Secretary General, the only office which was created. Almost all political leaders in Buganda with the exception of DP joined KY.
For the second time in a period of two years Mengo lost the monopoly of using the kabaka’s name for political ends and an uneasy relationship between the two was created. Conflict ensued because Mengo continued to be the mouthy-piece of the kingdom while KY controlled the masses.
More importantly KY included in its membership politicians who had been at logger-heads with Mengo since 1956.
In this confused atmosphere Mengo negotiated the alliance with UPC while KY was a mere by-stander a fact which led to strains.
Many people held the view that Mengo’s insistence on indirect elections of Buganda’s representatives to parliament was intended to control the KY MPs. This back-fired for as early as March, 1963 MPs from Buganda were crossing over to UPC something Mengo saw as a breach of the alliance on the part of UPC.
By 1964 the conflict between KY and Mengo had reached a crescendo and clumsily Mengo created its own ‘New Kabaka Yekka’ with the Katikkiro, Michael Kintu as the chairman. Responding to this development Masembe retorted that he did not set up KY only to hand it over to people who had all along been fighting political parties.
Kintu’s efforts to regain the initiative failed miserably and he was forced to resign in 1964. In the election which ensued Masembe faced off with Mayanja Nkangi who won convincingly because people felt that there was a need to have a Katikkiro who would have a good working relationship with the central government.
But although Nkangi became an effective Katikkiro the political direction of the kingdom remained in the hands of what was known as the ‘Mengo clique’.
Meanwhile UPC was having its own internal wrangles. The party had been formed out of a merger between Uganda People’s Party (UPP) and Obote’s faction of UNC.
Naturally UPP due to numbers was the senior partner in the union but soon its members discovered that they were being side-lined by new comers.
UPP was formed by district representatives in the Legco who continued to be the political titans in their areas.
The new party’s presence in the districts was vicariously through these representatives while the leadership at headquarters was usurped by two young politicians, John Kakonge and Grace Ibingira.
The wrangles between the two young turks dominated the political scene between 1962 and 1964 when Ibingira finally replaced Kakonge as secretary general in the elections held at the party’s annual general meeting at Gulu. After the election UPC was characterised by three factions namely, Obote’s, Ibingira’s and Kakonge’s.
In these wrangles Obote was perhaps the most quiet and seemed to act through surrogates who included his cousin and one of the most intelligent members of the leadership to fight his wars.
After Kakonge lost office, he went on a campaign to promote the virtues of communism while Nekyon and Akena Adoko became his most prominent nemesis. The party youth wing also divided along these lines and since the party was almost alive through its MPs, the leadership of the country was reduced to cliques.
When all the KY MPs except two crossed over to UPC in 1965 they added fire to what was already a smouldering situation. All of them sided with the Ibingira faction and at this time Ibingira controlled the majority in the house.
With this confidence of a majority in the house the leader of the parliamentary group, Daudi Ochieng, on February 5, 1966 moved the famous ‘gold scandal’ motion in the house which triggered a sequence of events.
The Prime Minister, Dr. Obote must have been aware of the possible outcome of the motion and strategically left the capital for a two weeks’ tour of “government projects†in northern Uganda.
By this time serious strains had emerged between Mengo and the central government over the issue of withholding funds which government was using to straighten up Mengo. By mid-1965, the situation had become so bad that Mengo went to court and lost its case. It later announced it would not cooperate with the central government until its issues were settled.
These developments put the president in a dilemma. As president of the country, he had to side with the central government.
In a recent article in the New Vision, a writer said that my views that religion did not contribute to the country’s problems were revisionist. My challenge to him is he should show the hand of religion in the events which led to the crisis of 1966. There is none and the danger is that by concentrating on irrelevancies we shall fail to solve our real problems.
But the same alliance brought with it new seeds of discord, which marred the first three years of independence and ended up in the crisis of 1966.
Both UPC and KY were desperate groups without a common philosophy apart from the desire to win the elections and exclude DP from power.
Again, both parties suffered from the issue of ownership as new entrants tried to wrestle leadership from the historicals. These problems set the platform of what happened in 1966.
Contrary to what is generally believed to be the case, KY was not a Mengo outfit although in the end Mengo tried hard to control it.
The group’s formation had a lot to do with the return of the then Kabaka of Buganda from London in July, 1961 where he had gone to attend the independence conference at Marlborough House.
When the date of the kabaka’s return was announced, a little known politician Masembe Kabali mobilised people to welcome back their king and in the result perhaps one of the largest multitudes turned up on that Saturday morning to line all roads from Entebbe to Kampala shouting joyously the slogan ‘Kabaka Yekka’ (only the Kabaka).
Masembe knew that he was a winner and to keep the excitement going he baptised his group “KYâ€.
The group became a rag-bag of all political interests and Masembe became its Secretary General, the only office which was created. Almost all political leaders in Buganda with the exception of DP joined KY.
For the second time in a period of two years Mengo lost the monopoly of using the kabaka’s name for political ends and an uneasy relationship between the two was created. Conflict ensued because Mengo continued to be the mouthy-piece of the kingdom while KY controlled the masses.
More importantly KY included in its membership politicians who had been at logger-heads with Mengo since 1956.
In this confused atmosphere Mengo negotiated the alliance with UPC while KY was a mere by-stander a fact which led to strains.
Many people held the view that Mengo’s insistence on indirect elections of Buganda’s representatives to parliament was intended to control the KY MPs. This back-fired for as early as March, 1963 MPs from Buganda were crossing over to UPC something Mengo saw as a breach of the alliance on the part of UPC.
By 1964 the conflict between KY and Mengo had reached a crescendo and clumsily Mengo created its own ‘New Kabaka Yekka’ with the Katikkiro, Michael Kintu as the chairman. Responding to this development Masembe retorted that he did not set up KY only to hand it over to people who had all along been fighting political parties.
Kintu’s efforts to regain the initiative failed miserably and he was forced to resign in 1964. In the election which ensued Masembe faced off with Mayanja Nkangi who won convincingly because people felt that there was a need to have a Katikkiro who would have a good working relationship with the central government.
But although Nkangi became an effective Katikkiro the political direction of the kingdom remained in the hands of what was known as the ‘Mengo clique’.
Meanwhile UPC was having its own internal wrangles. The party had been formed out of a merger between Uganda People’s Party (UPP) and Obote’s faction of UNC.
Naturally UPP due to numbers was the senior partner in the union but soon its members discovered that they were being side-lined by new comers.
UPP was formed by district representatives in the Legco who continued to be the political titans in their areas.
The new party’s presence in the districts was vicariously through these representatives while the leadership at headquarters was usurped by two young politicians, John Kakonge and Grace Ibingira.
The wrangles between the two young turks dominated the political scene between 1962 and 1964 when Ibingira finally replaced Kakonge as secretary general in the elections held at the party’s annual general meeting at Gulu. After the election UPC was characterised by three factions namely, Obote’s, Ibingira’s and Kakonge’s.
In these wrangles Obote was perhaps the most quiet and seemed to act through surrogates who included his cousin and one of the most intelligent members of the leadership to fight his wars.
After Kakonge lost office, he went on a campaign to promote the virtues of communism while Nekyon and Akena Adoko became his most prominent nemesis. The party youth wing also divided along these lines and since the party was almost alive through its MPs, the leadership of the country was reduced to cliques.
When all the KY MPs except two crossed over to UPC in 1965 they added fire to what was already a smouldering situation. All of them sided with the Ibingira faction and at this time Ibingira controlled the majority in the house.
With this confidence of a majority in the house the leader of the parliamentary group, Daudi Ochieng, on February 5, 1966 moved the famous ‘gold scandal’ motion in the house which triggered a sequence of events.
The Prime Minister, Dr. Obote must have been aware of the possible outcome of the motion and strategically left the capital for a two weeks’ tour of “government projects†in northern Uganda.
By this time serious strains had emerged between Mengo and the central government over the issue of withholding funds which government was using to straighten up Mengo. By mid-1965, the situation had become so bad that Mengo went to court and lost its case. It later announced it would not cooperate with the central government until its issues were settled.
These developments put the president in a dilemma. As president of the country, he had to side with the central government.
In a recent article in the New Vision, a writer said that my views that religion did not contribute to the country’s problems were revisionist. My challenge to him is he should show the hand of religion in the events which led to the crisis of 1966. There is none and the danger is that by concentrating on irrelevancies we shall fail to solve our real problems.