{UAH} INDEPENDENCE NEXT YEAR' Possible if Conference is success-- MR. KIWANUKA

INDEPENDENCE NEXT YEAR'
Possible if Conference is success-- MR. KIWANUKA

UGANDA'S first Chief Minister, Mr. Benedicto Kiwanuka, forecast on his return to the Protectorate from London yesterday that independence will be granted next year if the September Constitutional Conference in London goes well.

Though the B.O.A.C. Britannia bringing him back from London was over five hours late in reaching Entebbe, thousands of Democratic Party members and supporters waited for him and he was given a hero's welcome.

From dawn onwards, buses and lorries from all parts of Uganda-- including remote places in Northern Province began to converge on the airport. Throughout the morning, a steady stream of packed cars moved along the Entebbe Road from Kampala.

Mr. Kiwanuka acknowledged the cheers of the crowd thronging the airport buildings as he stood at the top of the steps leading from the aircraft. Most of the morning it had rained heavily but the sun came out for his arrival. He waved an umbrella in the air in answer to the cheers.

At the foot of the steps, Mr. Kiwanuka was greeted by the Acting Governor, Mr. G.B. Cartland. He handed Mr. Kiwanuka his letter of appointment as Uganda's Chief Minister. The two men shook hands warmly.

Most of the Protectorate Government Ministers were at the airport to welcome Mr. Kiwanuka back from London, where he had been attending talks on the future set-up of the East Africa High Commission. Each of the African Ministers received a traditional Kiganda embrace from the Chief Minister.

Next, Mr. Kiwanuka greeted his wife, his mother and one of his sons who had gone to the airport to welcome him back. Senior officials of the Democratic Party, of which Mr. Kiwanuka is president, congratulated him on his appointment.

Addressing an impromptu Press Conference near the airport buildings, Mr. Kiwanuka said the London Conference on the future of the High Commission had been very successful and he thought that the agreement reached at it would be endorsed by people in Uganda.

Federation

Mr. Kiwanuka revealed that the Government intended shortly to publish a White Paper on the outcome of the Conference, embodying the proposals which had been agreed.

Mr. Kiwanuka was asked by a reporter whether, now he was Chief Minister, he could foreshadow any early constitutional changes in Uganda.

He replied there would be none in advance of the London Constitutional Conference arranged for mid-September.

"After that," he added, "there will be swift progress towards independence. If the London Conference is successful, Independence will come next year."

He urged all the people of Uganda to co-operate with the Government so that rapid progress would be made towards this goal.

One reporter asked the Chief Minister what his Government intended to do about Buganda in view of its expressed opposition to the High Commission and to any question of political federation of the three East African territories.

He replied that the High Commission services had been in operation for a long time and during the whole of that period Buganda had been an integral part of the Protectorate.

A reporter suggested that the topics discussed at the London meetings in which Mr. Kiwanuka took part had had a bearing on the question of federation and that federation had virtually been achieved already.

The Chief Minister denied that political federation of the East African territories had figured among the topics discussed in London.

Carried by crowd

He denied a statement attributed to him by a Luganda newspaper that a federated East Africa would have Jomo Kenyatta as its President and Julius Nyerere as its Prime Minister.

If federation came about, Mr. Kiwanuka added, the posts would be filled by popular election.

As Mr. Kiwanuka emerged from the airport buildings, a section of the huge crowd surged forward and lifting him shoulder high, carried him to a vehicle on the car park. Standing on the roof of the vehicle, he addressed the crowd in both English and Luganda.

He congratulated those who had taken part in the elections and who were responsible for Uganda's constitutional advance which had resulted in the territory getting a Chief Minister.

"Self-government for which we have been waiting so long, has come now," he told them.

At service

Waving his letter of appointment, Mr. Kiwanuka said: "With this, I am now the head of the Government. Had it not been Sunday today, I would have sat in my seat at Entebbe to demonstrate this to you."

Then, driving past the thousands of cheering people who lined the roadside, Mr. Kiwanuka went to Bugonga Mission Church to attend a service.

Afterwards, he drove to his home where a public reception had been arranged for him in the grounds.

SOURCE: "Uganda Argus", Monday, July 3, 1961, p. 1.

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Rehema
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