{UAH} Why the UPC/KY coalition could not last

UPC and KY were strange bedfellows from the beginning. They came together simply to defeat a predominantly Catholic-based DP under a Muganda Catholic and commoner. Thorny issues between UPC and KY were swept under the carpet.

One of them was the issue of precedence between the Kabaka and the Prime Minister. Baganda delegates to the constitutional conference in London were criticized upon return for failing "to secure acceptance and acknowledgement of the superiority of Kabaka of Buganda over all Ugandans from other members of delegates at the conference, who were representing the various tribes at the conference".

Members of Kabaka Yekka"… particularly wanted the new constitution to spell out clearly that the Kabaka was above the Prime Minister of Uganda". They issued a statement which read in part "We of the Kabaka Yekka cannot hesitate to state that if Uganda is ever to be a prosperous and peaceful country, the Prime Minister must always be subordinate to the Kabaka and other hereditary rulers as shown by Kabaka Yekka in the picture opposite".

According to Kenneth Ingham "The survival of the alliance in these circumstances was due more to a continued refusal to clash than to any fundamental unity of outlook between the two groups" (Onyango Odongo 1993).

When the clash of UPC and KY occurred over the "lost counties' issue, the alliance was over in 1964.

Can we draw a lesson from this experience as we prepare for post-NRM Uganda?

Eric

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