{UAH} Allan/Pojim/WBK: Former first ladies call for closer unity in EA - News | The Citizen
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Former first ladies call for closer unity in EA - News
Arusha. Former First Ladies of Kenya and Uganda yesterday charmed the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) with pleas for unity and brotherhood among East Africans, recalling glorious days of the 1960s.
Ms Miria Obote, 79, the widow of first Ugandan President Milton Obote, joyfully called for a more vibrant East African Community bloc that will make people united.
"For us in Uganda, we need to improve our Kiswahili through our Tanzanian brothers (and sisters). Ours is poor Kiswahili that we confuse "kupika chakula'' (cooking food) with ''kupiga chakula'' (hit food)," she said to Eala members and the EAC staff working at the EAC headquarters.
Speaking in fluent English, Ms Obote hinted that the success of the former EAC collapsed in 1977 at the time Zambia was considering joining the bloc in 1971. At that time the European Economic Commission (EEC) copied the EAC model to develop and expand.
The foremost Ugandan First Lady, sounded clearly nostalgic as she recalled a few EAC institutions such as the once famous carrier on the continent, the East African Airways (EAA), the East African Court of Appeal, the East African Examinations Board and the East African Challenge Cup, an annual soccer competition during the 1950s and 1960s.
But unlike Mama Ngina Kenyatta, who took the floor later, Ms Obote attributed the break up of the former EAC to the coming into power by Idi Amin, who toppled her husband's government in January 1971, when Dr Obote was attending a Commonwealth Summit in Singapore.
At one time in her nearly one-hour address to the House, she briefly shed tears, when she recalled the many years the Obote family was forced to spend in exile due to political instability in her home country.
She specifically recounted how her family was well treated in Tanzania during the struggle to remove Amin from power in 1979 through the support of TPDF and Ugandan rebels in exile, who included President Yoweri Museveni.
Mr Obote served as Ugandan leader twice from 1962, when the country attained independence to 1971 and later from 1980 to 1985, when he was ousted for the second time by the military and was forced into exile again.
Ms Obote lauded Tanzania for hosting many Ugandan refugees during the 1970s and 1980s and facilitating peaceful talks among Uganda groups that united to remove Amin, who also posed security threats to Tanzania.
She specifically mentioned the Moshi Conference of March 1979 during, which Ugandans in exile and elsewhere in the world laid down a strategy to remove Amin from power in less than a month. Amin was forced into exile by Tanzania forces and Ugandan exiles.
Mama Ngina Kenyatta, who was accompanied by a large delegation from her country, said she felt quite happy to be in Arusha, being the first time in more than 50 years.
Speaking in Kiswahili, the widow of Kenya's founding President Jomo Kenyatta said she was last in Arusha in the mid-1960s during a regional summit, which had EAC presidents and Ethiopian Emperor Haile Sellassie.
"My memories are still fresh. They met to discuss unity and I guess that was one of the meetings that laid ground for the founding of EAC in 1967," she told the House.
She challenged current leaders in the region to emulate the spirit of the founding fathers, who she said had visions and plans to integrate the region.
Mama Maria Nyerere, the widow of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, was not present to address the Eala, as had been anticipated. According to Eala Speaker Daniel Kidega, Mama Maria was indisposed and recently lost a close relative.
However, her son Charles Makongoro Nyerere, who is one of the nine Eala members from Tanzania, was formally introduced to the congregation. Mr Kidega said after recovering Mama Maria had promised to address the House.
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