[UAH] Uganda: What can we learn from the 1960s?

At its Boston conference in October 2011, UDU mandated civic discussions because very little, if any, is known about Uganda history or it is distorted by those that have attempted to write it. The period shortly before independence and the 1960s is the most confusing and highly controversial.

Last Sunday, June 30, 2013, I talked about this history. I have since been asked to summarize what I said for easy reference. Here it is.

1.     Uganda National Congress (UNC) was the first political party to be established in Uganda in 1952 by Ignatius Musazi and Abu Mayanja. It was basically a Protestant Party.

2.     Progressive Party (PP) basically a Muslim-based party was founded by Mulira in 1955.

3.     Democratic Party was established in 1956 with Matayo Mugwanya as the first President-General. It was basically a Catholic party.

4.     UPC was formed in 1960 by merging Uganda People's Union (UPU) and a breakaway branch of UNC with Obote as president. It was basically a Protestant party.

5.     Kabaka Yekka (KY) movement was formed in 1961 under the championship of Masembe-Kabali.

6.     In 1961 UPC and KY formed a coalition with the primary goal of defeating DP that had won the 1961 elections and formed self-government with Ben Kiwanuka as the first prime minister.

7.     In the 1962 elections the UPC/KY coalition won and Obote became the prime minister leading into independence on October 9, 1962.

The UPC/KY coalition brought strange bed fellows together: the radicals and commoners in UPC and the conservatives and neo-traditionalists in KY. Before the coalition was formed Obote had met with Kabaka Mutesa II through the assistance of Pumula Kisokonkole then a member of Legislative Council (LEGCO) and Abu Mayanja. The negotiations leading to UPC/KY coalition were conducted by Ibingira and Kirya on the UPC side and Lumu and Sempa on the KY side. Ibingira also played a critical role in the preparation of the independence constitution of 1962.

Because there wasn't enough time before independence some thorny issues including the head of state, the official name of the new state and the 'Lost Counties" were not resolved. All they wanted was to defeat DP and form the first independence government and the pending issues would be sorted out later. Both parties knew that the road ahead was going to be difficult. Ambitious individuals, those afraid of others as well as those who had an axe to grind began to position themselves.

The first challenge was election of the head of state. In 1963 the constitution was amended with the help of Ibingira who was minister of justice to enable the election of a president to replace the Governor-General. Kabaka Mutesa II was elected the first president of Uganda in 1963. He also remained the king of Buganda. This arrangement created a problem that could force the Kabaka of Buganda to decline to sign bills or other papers as president of Uganda.

To overcome that, Ibingira who was the minister of justice and youngest cabinet member again helped to amend the 1962 constitution in such a manner that if the president was unable to sign bills into law, the prime minister would do so.

The issue of lost counties was not resolved before independence. To avoid a deadlock at the constitutional conference in London, Obote promised that "everything would be ironed out to the mutual satisfaction of all once independence was achieved"(T. V. Sathyamurthy 1986). The mutual satisfaction was not achieved and Buganda lost the referendum, leading to bitterness on the part of Baganda and political difficulties for Obote thereafter. Largely as a result, the UPC/KY marriage of convenience fell apart.

Ibingira, an ambitious young man saw an opening in this conflict between Baganda and Obote and began to drive a wedge between the two.

However, he needed to make one move first: to contest for a UPC leadership post. Ibingira replaced Kakonge as secretary-general in 1964 in a bitterly contested campaign in which Kakonge was supported by the youth that Ibingira later expelled from UPC, the group that is now governing Uganda under Museveni.  

Ibingira then decided to conduct UPC elections in Buganda. Dr. Lumu, a friend of Ibingira, defeated and replaced Binaisa as chairman then a friend of Obote.  

Ibingira supported Mayanja-Kangi for the post of Katikiro of Buganda over Masembe-Kabali. Mayanja-Nkangi got the job.

Ibingira as minister of state in the office of the prime minister was in charge of public service. He witnessed how Obote refused Daudi Ochieng to become the chairman of Uganda Development Corporation (UDC) and even forced Madhivan to terminate Daudi Ochieng appointment because according to Ibingira Obote feared Ochieng who came from a strong Acholi family. Daudi Ochieng, a very close friend of the Kabaka became secretary general of KY and replaced Mayanja-Nkangi in parliament and became a friend of Ibingira.

Ibingira then looked for someone in the military whom he could use should it become necessary. He found Shaban Opolot, from Teso. He was the army commander and had married a Muganda, the daughter of a former Katikiro.

Ibingira began scheming and ended up dividing UPC and parliament into two groups: The Ibingira Group and the Obote Group. There was never the Kabaka Group. Ibingira painted the Obote group communist or socialist. Ibingira Group was dubbed capitalist by the Obote group.

Ibingira later began to advise the Kabaka that things weren't too good and possibly indicated (needs confirmation) that the Kabaka might need to seek outside military help which he did after consulting with Chief Justice Sir Udo Udoma from Nigeria and army commander Shaban Opolot. Opolot went along with Ibingira and even privately campaigned against Amin in the gold scandal because he was afraid of Amin as deputy army commander and Brigadier Okoya, both of them close to Obote.

With majority in parliament and while Obote was away in the north of Uganda, Ibingira was ready to go. He called on Daudi Ochieng, who had a grudge against Obote as noted above to introduce a motion in parliament regarding the gold scandal implicating Amin, Obote and two other senior officials in the government. The motion passed by all MPs except one, calling for the suspension of Amin.

There were troop movements and Obote got wind of it. Obote needed a good reason to strike without condemnation at home and abroad.   

He had one card in his pocket: the ceremonial president had sought foreign troops which was not his job. It was the executive prime minster that had the power to do so as Obote did during the mutiny in 1964 when he invited British troops into Uganda, not the president.

Sensing that his days as prime minister were numbered, Obote used this card and arrested five ministers, suspended the independence constitution and became executive president of Uganda, leading into the 1966/67 political and constitutional crisis. The 1967 constitution drafted under supervision of Binaisa abolished kingdoms, adding fuel to fire that had been lit by the results of the lost counties referendum.

Obote won but only temporarily. Amin replaced Opolot as the army commander and the struggle between Amin and Obote began soon after because Amin feared that Obote was scheming to replace him. Amin started using defense money to train Sudanese and Congolese that helped him to carry out a successful coup in 1971. Amin (mis)governed the country with semi-illiterate mercenaries until he was thrown out in 1979 by Tanzanian troops and Uganda rebels.

Summing up, the 1960s political feud was between Ibingira and Obote. Ibingira had played politics democratically and Obote would have found it difficult to get rid of him. Obote used the only card he had. And here is how Ibingira helped Obote to obtain that card.

"I [Ibingira] had some meetings with Mutesa at this time; he was entitled to consult his ministers. The position he took was that should there be an actual upheaval or rebellion in the army when any faction moved to seize power, it should be stopped so as to uphold the constitution, and if necessary a precautionary request should be sent to the British asking them to provide military assistance to overcome the disorder…. As stated earlier, in January 1964 British troops had been called in by Obote to quell a mutiny in the first battalion. The only difference this time was that Mutesa, the ceremonial president, and not Obote, the executive head of government was to make the request. Technically therefore Obote was right that Mutesa had no legal power to make the request… Mutesa plainly and openly stated that he had made the request in good faith as a responsible head of state. But the supreme moment for which Obote had long planned was at hand and the politicized army under Idi Amin was on top" (Ibingira African Upheavals since independence 1980).

Eric Kashambuzi

July 4, 2013