Radio Rhino
THE ROLE OF THE UPC IN UGANDA'S INDEPENDENCE
PAPER BY A. MILTON OBOTE
I take this singular and most important occasion to greet all UPC members and to wish every member a HAPPY BIRTHDAY.
The Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) is today 42 years old and is in shackles. The number one motive for the founding of the UPC was FREEDOM - freedom of the people of Uganda to enjoy and exercise the inalienable, God given human rights in the same way the air is breathed by every human being.
In Uganda today and since 26 January, 1986 the charlatans who now rule the country have nefariously and with great profanity removed the God given human rights and freedoms of every citizen of Uganda from the politics and governance of Uganda.
The Independence of Uganda consisting of the enjoyment and exercise by every citizen of Uganda of his/her human rights and freedoms have, therefore been nullified by the charlatans.
To nullify the God given human rights and freedoms of a people is to declare and to prescribe that the people concerned and not part of the human race.
The UPC, though in shackles and severely gagged now for 16 years, can never join in the blasphemous chorus that the people of Uganda are not part of the human race.
The UPC was a vanguard Party in the struggle for Uganda's Independence. The UPC shall again be a vanguard Party struggling together with the other Parties and multipartyists in the nullification of the profanity and the blaspheme of the charlatans that the people of Uganda are not part of the human race.The history of our Party on that score is clear and undisputed.
1. It was the Uganda National Congress (UNC), the father of the UPC who made the first call for the Independence of Uganda. The call was a declaration of a political campaign. A political campaign is like an athletic race and team members who overlap are one. What or the part which the UNC did in the campaign also constitute what the UPC did. The overlapping UNC and UPC members make the campaign which was waged by the UNC and UPC to be one and the same until the finishing line on 9 October, 1962.
2. It was also the UNC and the UPC who waged vigorous and unrelenting Independence struggle until Uganda became Independent.
3. After Independence, the UPC from May 1962 to January, 1971 and again from December, 1980 to July, 1985, acquitted itself most admirably as the son of a great father.
4. It has become politics in Uganda over the years, for impostors to claim the deeds and ideas of the UPC as their own. When they are not claiming the deeds and ideas of the UPC, they are often deriding them. The only political matter belonging to the UPC, because it was the idea of the father of the UPC which impostors have not claimed as their own idea, is the first call for the Independence of Uganda. The charlatans have surpassed all impostors in claiming the ideas of the UPC as their own.
5. When in 1988, for instance, faced with an increasingly depressing economy in a situation where their mentors abroad had suspended their aid to Uganda for absence of acceptable economic policies, the charlatans, as a matter of desperation, plagiarised the Recovery Programme of the UPC first published in 1982 and revised in 1983 and published the entire UPC programme as their own under a new title of Rehabilitation and Development Plan.
6. When the UNC called for the Independence of Uganda, the Party also, at the same time, in 1952 prescribed the Governors and the protectors of the Independent Uganda. The UNC demanded ONE MAN (including woman) ONE VOTE" and 2SELF GOVERNMENT NOW".
7. In plain language, the father of the UPC prescribed that the fountain of the powers of the Government of Uganda be reposed always and at all time in the people of Uganda who are to elect, from time to time, for instance, members of Parliament from amongst whom Ministers may be appointed. That is the meaning of One Man or One Citizen, One Vote.
8. The model of public elections such as the elections of members of Parliament which the UNC envisaged and which the UPC supports very strongly, differs greatly from the model which the dictatorship of the charlatans has imposed. In the model which the UPC supports, the voter must be free at all times to form or join associations popularly known as political Parties as vehicles to popularise and sell to all the people his/her broad ideas for the governance of Uganda.
9. At election times, the voters' broad views for the governance of Uganda are articulated in a document normally known as Manifesto or Policy Statement. The Manifesto or Policy statement of every political Party participating in an election must also be submitted to the electorate. It means that every such Party must be free to arrange or convene public meetings or rallies at which it can expose the contents of its elections Manifesto to the electorate.
10. The foremost component in the model of public elections which the UPC strongly supports, is the competition in the public arena of the policies for the governance of Uganda of different political Parties participating in an election.
11. Under the model of elections imposed by the military one-Party dictatorship of the charlatans, policies for the governance of Uganda do not feature and are not presented to the electorate as a whole throughout the country at elections times. The model also debars competition of the policies of different Parties in the public arena between elections. The model, instead, emphasises competition during an election by candidates of its political Party and Independents who are not and must not be supported by any Uganda wide political Party.
12. The elections model imposed by the dictatorship of the charlatans, is a demeaning conspiracy which removes the powers of the Government of Uganda from being reposed in the people as a whole and places it in the dictatorship.
13. Uganda, like any other Country, is composed of its territory, its land and its people. The territory or land does not belong to the dictatorship; it belongs to the people. To oust the people from governing their territory or being in control of the affairs of the territory is to remove them from being part of the human race and is also a conspiracy which deters the building of the Uganda Nation which can compete with the other Nations in the Global arena.
14. The UNC's call and demand for one man (now one citizen) one vote, and Self-Government Now, was the first Ugandan voice and intent to replace the British Protectorate so as to enable the various Uganda ethnic Nationalities to embark on the task of building the Uganda Nation.
15. The British Protectorate existed without a single Uganda citizen and without a political institution controlled by the people of Uganda but with a hotchpotch of Kingdoms, Districts and ethnic nationalities all controlled from London through a resident Governor.
16. The British Government in London and the resident Governor did not take kindly the demand of the UNC for the Independence of Uganda. Like the charlatans of today, London pronounced and maintained that Uganda or the people of Uganda were not ready for Independence; not ready for democracy and therefore not ready to embark on the task of nation Building.
17. The UNC responded to the London position with a vigorous Uganda wide campaigns programme. The very, very large attendances at UNC rallies, made the Colonial government to seek for ways and means to destroy the UNC. The number one instrument which the Colonialists found for the destruction of the UNC was splits where some leaders without disagreeing with the basic policy or demands of the Party, resigned while propagating that the leadership of the Party was not fit to lead an Independent Uganda.
18. The above ground for splits and resignations became a curse which distracted the attention of the leaders from united efforts to confront the adversary to internecine warfare in the Party for positions in the Party. In the history of political parties in Uganda, the curse has been, perhaps because of their nationalist stands on various national issues, most pronounced in the UNC and UPC.
19. There was a mild split in the UNC in 1955 and a serious one in 1956 and with another serious one in 1957. All the splits occurred during the Annual Delegates Conference each held in Kampala.
20. The Colonial Government became an opportunist scavenger following the split of 1957 and the Buganda Lukiiko also chipped in. The Colonial Government rusticated some leaders of the UNC to various parts of the country; none was charged with any crime. The Lukiiko, without in anyway, supporting the actions of the Colonial Government, passed a resolution which asserted that it had withdrawn its recognition of the Legislative Council (LEGICO) and would only do so after the position of the Kabaka in an Independent Uganda had been made clear.
21. The Resolution of the Lukiiko was to occupy the minds of the UPC leaders from December until September 1962 but the UNC interpreted the Resolution both as positive and negative to its basic demands and campaigns for Independence. The Resolution was regarded as positive because it signalled that the Party's campaigns for Independence which was overwhelmingly supported in Buganda as well as elsewhere in the country, made the Lukiiko to come out with only one matter to be accommodated in the Constitution of Independent Uganda.
22. The UNC interpreted the Lukiiko Resolution as negative because the Lukiiko sought to have the veto power of what national institutions the people of Uganda should have.
23. The veto power which the Lukiiko's Resolution of 1957 sought, was seized by the Colonial Government. While accepting the UNC demands of one man, one vote, the Colonial Government also undermined it when it enacted in 1958 that elections to the Legislative Council would be held in October of the same year in areas whose Councils want elections. The Buganda Lukiiko promptly rejected the elections and was followed by the District Councils of Ankole and Bugisu.
24. The UNC platform which had been that one man, one vote would empower every man and every woman voter in Uganda to be the repository of the powers of the Government of Uganda, was shattered when the Colonial Government imposed the Buganda Lukiiko and the District Councils to veto the essence of that platform.
25. The October, 1958 elections were held in Busoga - two seats; Bukedi one seat, Teso one seat, Lango one seat, Acholi one seat, West Nile and Madi one seat, Bunyoro one seat, Toro one seat and Kigezi one seat. A total of ten (10) seats. One seat meant the entire District was one Constituency.
26. The UNC won one seat in Busoga, and one each in Bukedi, Teso, Lango and Acholi. A total of 5. The Independents won in Bunyoro, Toro and Kigezi, with the other Busoga seat. A total of 4. DP won in west Nile and Madi, one seat.
27. There was another split in the UNC in November 1958 at the Annual Delegates Conference held for the first time since the Party was formed in 1952 outside Kampala, in Mbale. Very early on the third day of the Conference at about 4 a.m., two Congressmen came to my house at Ntinda in Kampala. They were Paul Ssengendo, the then Personal Assistant to Jolly Joe Kiwanuka, the UNC Chairman and Ndugga Musaazi, a very active Congressman in Luwero. Ndugga had a house in Luwero Town where Congress members from the North used to routinely stop before proceeding to Kampala. I knew both men and they knew me very well.
28. I was not at the Conference but in Kampala because my late father who was to be murdered by the soldiery of the charlatans in 1987 at the age of 89 years and totally blind, was very sick in Mulago Hospital. After visiting my father in Hospital, I decided to go to Mbale. I had been elected by the Lango District Council in May, 1957 but took my seat in August of the same year. The Legico was dissolved by the Governor in 1958 to allow for elections in October of 1958. There was no Congress member from the North in that Legico except myself.
29. We proceeded to Mbale in two vehicles with Ssengendo and Musaazi leading in one vehicle. In Mbale we went to the Elgon Hotel where Jolly Joe was staying. Although I had stayed in the same Hotel a number of times, I had also abandoned it because I did not consider it a suitable place for Nationalist politicians to stay because ordinary people could not go there for a meal or drink. My place in Mbale, therefore, became always Maluku Bar, which served African meals and also had accommodation.
30. On entering Jolly Joe's hotel room, he greeted me jovially with the words: "Good morning Mr. President." I was puzzled and he saw it in my face. He was jovially laughing as he seated me and proceeded to explain the meaning of his curious greeting. Jolly Joe told me that on the evening of the second day, the Conference elected me to be Party President after a full day of debate which began in the afternoon of the first day. At that point, the Secretary General of the Party Dr. B. N. Kununka, entered the room. Of the two Party leaders, I was very close to the Secretary General.
31. After the Secretary General and I had exchanged greetings in Lwo (he spoke Lwo fluently because after qualifying from Makerere Medical School, he served in Lira Hospital for many years.), Jolly Joe then proceeded to say that he had adjourned the Conference for him and the Secretary General to come to the Hotel, wait for my arrival and then take me to the Conference to deliver my acceptance speech. During the same innocuous exchanges, I asked how they knew that I would come or expected me to accept the election. Jolly Joe answered that Paul Ssengendo had instructions to ring Mbale and report only if I could not go to Mbale; and as for acceptance of the election, he said that the Conference had made a decision, would continue with the remaining business and then stand adjourned sine die leaving me to wrestle with the problem of whether or not to accept the Conference decision.
32. The fait accompli uttered by Jolly Joe, made me there and then to take a firm decision. I told the Party Chairman and Party Secretary General that unless I meet first my Conference delegation from Lango District and also the Party's founder President, I. K. Musaazi, also the father of Uganda nationalism, I was not going to the Conference and I was not going to make any acceptance speech. Instead, I was returning to Kampala. That made Jolly Joe to send Paul Ssengendo and Ndugga Musaazi to go the Conference place and tell the Lango District delegation to go to Maluku Bar for a meeting with me.
33. When the Conference resumed (I was later told) the leader of the Kigezi District Delegation, moved a motion that the Conference be adjourned to allow for Delegations which wanted to meet me to do so. The motion was seconded by the leader of the Teso District Delegation and carried unanimously. In those days, the UNC Branches except in Buganda were the Districts. In Buganda, each of the 20 counties was a Branch and each Branch sent a Delegation to the Annual Delegates Conference.
34. At Maluku Bar, I met briefly each of the Delegations. I learnt that there was a nasty bad blood between the Party President Musaazi and party Chairman, Jolly Joe Kiwanuka and that the Delegates did not know the cause of the friction between the two men. I also learnt that the Chairman having been a better campaigner and speaker, managed to persuade the Delegates to remove the President from office.
35. I had a lengthy meeting with Musaazi. It was a very sad meeting on both sides. Musaazi told me that Jolly Joe was a thief who was using the Party for personal enrichment and glorification. He explained that the Egyptian Government had donated a sum of money to the Party which Jolly Joe received from the Egyptian Embassy in London and pocketed. The information about the donation, he said was first given to him by the Egyptian Water Engineers in Jinja who were monitoring the flow of the Nile under the Dam. It was also the same Egyptians who had given Jolly Joe information about the donation.
36. Upon that report, Musaazi said, he went to London and to the Egyptian Embassy. At the Embassy Musaazi told me that he obtained information that Jolly Joe had collected the donation. On return to Uganda, Musaazi said that he asked Jolly Joe to hand over the donation to the Party and that Jolly Joe denied not only receiving the donation but also any knowledge of it. That was, according to Musaazi, the case of the very serious conflict between two of them.
37. Musaazi asked me to accept my election as Party president and also asked me to give what he had told me to the Delegates Conference. He said that the veracity of his story could be seen in the facts that Jolly Joe had refurbished and restocked his White Nile Night Club as Katwe and had also bought new machinery for his newspaper, the Uganda Express. Musaazi emphasised that Jolly Joe never respected nor regarded him as Party leader and that unless I tell the Delegates Conference what he told me, Jolly Joe would treat me as his puppet and would not accept my leadership.
38. Although I never doubted the veracity of what Musaazi had told me, I also felt that I should not begin my leadership of the Party by telling the Delegates Conference of what Musaazi had told me. My acceptance speech which was delivered at about 0 o'clock in the evening, therefore excluded it and concentrated on vigorous campaigns for the realisation of the goals of the Party's programmes of one man one vote and Self-Government Now.
39. On 17 November, 1958, the Governor announced the appointment of a Constitutional Committee with the following terms of reference: -
"To consider and to recommend to the Governor the form of direct elections on a common roll for representative members of the Legislative Council to be introduced in 1961, the number of representative seats to be filled under the above system, their allocation among the different areas of the Protectorate and the method of ensuring that there will be adequate representation on the legislative Council for non-Africans."
40. When the Central Executive Committee of the UNC met to consider the appointment of the Committee, particularly its terms of reference and whether or not Party members should serve on the Constitutional Committee, the Party's Central Executive Committee immediately ran into a very serious division of opinion.
41. In the Central Executive Committee, Jolly Joe did not even allow me, as Chairman and leader of the Party to open the debate on the item of the Agenda namely, the Constitutional Committee, its terms of reference and whether or not Party members should serve on the Constitutional Committee. Jolly Joe asked permission to speak first on the Agenda item and I agreed because I knew the breadth of what he was going to say. The thrust of Jolly Joe's argument which was strongly supported by the Party's Secretary General, Dr. B. N. Kununka and a section of the Executive was that the "common roll" was against the interests of the Africans and that there was another way outside the common roll which could accommodate the interests of the non-Africans.
42. Previous to the debate in the Central Executive, whenever Jolly Joe made the same argument I grilled him to share with me that other way outside the common roll. He never did. I therefore formed the opinion that Jolly Joe was purveying Mengo's opinion which turned out to be correct. In the debate, members of the Executive repeatedly asked Jolly Joe to state that other way but never got it. Because the Governor had asked four members of the Party to serve on the Constitutional Committee and because I wanted them to serve with the approval of the Party, I decided to refer the Agenda of the Executive to the National Council.
43. The meeting of the National Council was tricky because Jolly Joe as the Party Chairman, was in the Chair. I had asked him before the meeting to call me, as Party President, to speak first but he refused. He therefore opened the debate on the Constitutional Committee but I raised a point of order and he yielded and asked me to state the point of order. I told the Council that the meeting was to discuss a national matter referred to the Council by the Central Executive. I went on to say that under the Constitution of the Party, national matters were the responsibilities of the Party President and not of the Party Chairman. Second, I told the Council that under Party Regulations, it was the Chairman of a Committee who reported the deliberations of his/her Committee to next higher organ of the Party. I was the party President and Chairman of the Central Executive Committee and therefore the only person with authority to report to the Council the deliberations of the Central Executive Committee.
44. On the terms of reference of the Constitutional Committee, I tied them to the Party's demands and programmes of one man one vote and Self-Government Now and said that the Colonial Government had accepted one man one vote and that 1961 could be the year of Self-Government Now provided that the people of Uganda accepted the common voters roll or Register. I emphasised to the Council that the name of the Party was "National Congress" which carried no racial connotations and therefore that the Party should not go into Independence carrying a racial luggage. I told the Council that the immediate task of the Party was to get all or many of its organs and individuals to make representations to the Constitutional Committee for one man one vote and for Self-Government Now.
45. The UNC National Council voted overwhelmingly for the Party to give evidence to the Constitutional Committee; for common roll and for the UNC members namely, B. K. Kirya, W. W. Kajumbula - Nadiope, C. J. Obwangor and myself to be members of the Constitutional Committee. Jolly Joe, Dr. B. N. Kununka and a handful of Council member walked out.
46. Soon thereafter, Abu Mayanja, the UNC founder Secretary General, returned to Uganda from Cambridge. He was strongly in support of the UNC giving evidence to the Constitutional Committee. The National Council appointed him to be the Secretary General in place of Dr. Kununka. From there until the 1962 elections, there existed Obote-Mayanja UNC and Kiwanuka-Kununka UNC. That was so although Mayanja had left Party politics when he became Minister of Education in the Kabaka's Government in 1959.
47. The Obote-Mayanja UNC embarked in earnest to craft the strategic pillars of the evidence which was to be given to the Constitutional Committee.
48. It was considered that the Party's demands for one man one vote and for Self-Government Now, could be met by many Party organs and individuals presenting these demands to the Constitutional Committee. The Party felt it very crucial to devise a system of the distribution of seats in the Legislature in a manner that would be acceptable to all parts of the country. The most difficult aspect of the distribution of seats to all parts of the country on a common formula, was how best to accommodate in a common formula the provision of Article 7 of the Buganda Agreement of 1955 which provided as follows: -
(1) At all times when provision has been made for at least three-fifths of all the representative members of the Legislative Council of the Uganda Protectorate to be Africans and for such number of Africans to be appointed as Nominated Members of the Council as will bring the total number of Africans who are members of the Council up to at least one-half of all the members of the Council, excluding the President of the Council, then Buganda shall be represented in the Legislative Council of the Uganda Protectorate, and for that purpose at least one-quarter of the Representative Members of the Council who are Africans shall be persons who represent Buganda.
(2) The Katikkiro shall submit to Her majesty's Representative, that is to say, the Governor, the names of the candidates for appointment as the Representative members of the Legislative Council to represent Buganda, that is to say, the persons who have been elected for that purpose in accordance with the provisions of the Second Schedule to the Agreement.
(3) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph (2) of this article a system of direct elections for the Representative members of the legislative Council who represent Buganda shall be introduced in the year 1961 if such system has not been introduced earlier.
(4) Her Majesty's Government shall during the year 1957 arrange for a review by representatives of the Protectorate Government and of the Kabaka's Government of the system of election of Representative members of the Legislative Council who represent Buganda. In such review consideration will be given to any scheme submitted by the Kabaka's Government for the election of such Representative Members based upon the recommendation contained in the Sixth Schedule to this Agreement. Every effort will be made to give effect to the recommendations resulting from such review in time for the election of the representative members of the Legislative Council who represent Buganda when the Legislative Council is generally reconstituted after the general vacation of seats in the Council next following the coming into force of this Agreement.
49. To gauge the position of the Kabaka's Government and the Lukiiko to the potential Constitutional advancement offered by the Constitutional Committee, the Obote-Mayanja UNC floated 130 elected members of the Legislature each representing 50,000 people of which there would be 32 elected members representing Constituencies in Buganda. The float was taken up by other Parties and individuals and became more or less a very common demand. It was however, not the intention of the Obote-Mayanja UNC to have Constituencies demarcated in such an artificial manner. The Party adopted the District (the ethnic base of the people of Uganda) to provide Constituencies and therefore considered the square miles of each District and population density in each District as well as terrain. Detailed considerations of such factors produced a 82 elected members each representing Constituencies ranging from 70,000 to 90,000 people depending on terrain and population density. In the Party's calculations, a constituency was to have a population of 90,000 except in Districts with population density of 50 people per square mile or less were to have constituencies with population of 70,000. The number of elected seats, their distribution and the basis of their demarcations were presented to the Constitutional Committee by the Central Executive Committee, which the Constitutional Committee accepted. The provision of Article 7 of the Buganda Agreement of 1955 quoted in the above paragraph was met because Buganda was to have 21 of the 82 elected members.
50. On the matter of one man one vote and Self-Government Now, the Obote-Mayanja UNC prepared and sent to its District organs, appropriate demands which each of the District organs presented to the Constitutional Committee.
51. In February, 1959, the suspicion I had in November of the previous year that Jolly Joe was purveying the Mengo position on the Constitutional Committee, was proved to be correct. The Ministers of the Kabaka's Government wrote a letter to the Governor in February after the appointment by the Governor of members of the Constitutional Committee, early in the month. The Governor provided a copy of the letter to each member of the Constitutional Committee. The letter was in the following terms: -
"We have the honour to submit to Your Excellency the views of the Kabaka's Council of Ministers, on the appointment of the Legislative Council Constitutional Committee, the main purpose of which is to assess public opinion on the question of the Common Electoral Roll for Uganda. We would like to refer to our past representations to Your Excellency on this matter. When the introduction of Direct Election was put up for debate in the Legislative Council, its acceptance by Government was conditional to the unqualified acceptance of the idea of a common electoral roll and on giving adequate and effective representation to non-African on the Legislative Council. It should be remembered that all African representative members of the Legislative Council objected to and voted against that motion.
Your Excellency, we still hold the view that as the question of the Common Electoral Roll is tied up with the question of citizenship, and in all fairness, the right time to consider this matter is after the Uganda Africans have attained independence for Uganda, for this is not a matter which can be decided by the British who are in a position of Trustees to Uganda Africans. We fail to see, Your Excellency, what useful purposes will be served by the appointed Committee. Furthermore, in the recent memorandum from the Lukiiko it was clearly stated how Buganda would deal with such questions as the recent Committee is empowered to discuss. We, therefore, propose to call a Lukiiko Session to look into these matter."
52. While the Constitutional Committee continued with its work outside Buganda, the National Movement was formed in Buganda and it distracted public opinion from the Constitution debate to boycott of Asian owned shops. The National Movement was very violent. Leading politicians in Buganda such as I. K. Musaazi, Eridadi Mulira, the President of the Progressive Party, Godfrey Binaisa and many others became members or supporters of the National Movement. The one politician who took a leading and open opposition to the National Movement, was Jolly Joe Kiwanuka. In the Obote-Mayanja UNC, we regarded the National Movement as a nuisance. The DP leaders seem to have taken the same attitude. In our case, however, the leader of the National Movement Augustine Kamya, sought us and was frequently holding secret meetings with me in the Uganda Club.
53. During 1959, we lost the Secretary General, Abu Mayanja who accepted appointment as minister of Education in the Kabaka's Government. I as President of the UNC made with the approval of the Central Executive Committee, two appointments which were to be of the greatest importance when Uganda became Independent. I appointed John Kale, a brilliant young Congressman from Kinkizi to establish a UNC office in Cairo and to be the Party's liaison officer with the Headquarters of the Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee in Cairo. The Solidarity Committee was very active in the decolonisation campaigns. The second appointment was that of Charles Onyutta, an official of the Party from Nebbi District to be the Party's Ambassador to the Party of Patrice Lumumba. I had met an Alur from Congo who was a member of Lumumba's Party in West Nile in 1957. From that meeting, relations developed between me and Lumumba. Onyutta was in Leopoldville in 1960 and very close to Prime Minister Lumumba when problems began in that country.
54. The Constitutional Committee (which had taken the name of the Wild Committee after the name of its Chairman), completed its work in October 1959 and its report was submitted to the Governor in early December. In the same month, the Buganda Lukiiko in a resolution, declared Buganda an Independent State. I was due to visit countries in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and China on invitations arranged by John Kale.
55. The Central Executive Committee met, discussed the Lukiiko's declaration and decided that I leave the country immediately for the British Government to deal with the declaration of Independence.
56. My journey of less than three weeks, took me to East Germany, Prague, Moscow and Peking. In each country, I asked only for scholarships but I was also given gifts of typewriters, duplicating machines and cameras all of which on reaching Uganda were confiscated by the Government.
57. On return home, I was greeted with the report that the Governor wanted to see me immediately. Two days later, I went to Entebbe to meet the Governor. I suspected and it turned out to be correct, that he was going to take me to task for going to communist countries. The Governor did not mince his words or hide his displeasure when I entered his office. He asked me straight away to explain why I went to communist countries. I pulled out my Passport and gave it to him while I explained that I had gone to Paris to consult with the African members of the French Parliament after which I went to London. The passport showed that I had landed at a Paris airport from Lisbon and that I had left France through a border town to Osend from where I took the train ferry to Dover ad then to London.
58. The entries in the Passport and my explanation ameliorated the Governor and we were soon discussing the declaration of Buganda as an Independent State. I told the Governor that it was my opinion that he should ignore the Lukiiko's resolution and instead see whether he could convince London to accept the recommendations of the Wild Committee. As we conversed, the lies I had told suddenly overwhelmed me and I began to sweat and fainted. When I recovered, it was with much effort that I did not confess to the Governor about the lies. To a very large extent, the Governor ignored the resolution.
59. In 1959, I had started a project which was very dear to me. It started when the Independent members of the Legico, elected in October, 1958, together with C. B. Kititi who was elected by Ankole District Council also in October formed a political Party, the Uganda Peoples Union (UPU). I wondered how and why such very capable politicians were not members of the UNC when the UNC was extremely popular in their Districts. I decided to form a small secret Committee to find out. Soon after making that decision and after I had appointed and briefed two members of the secret Committee, a young man I did not know came to see me in the Headquarters of the UNC. He introduced himself and told me that he had been to India where he studied Economics at Delhi University. He greatly impressed me with his nationalism and support for the UNC (Obote wing). He was, however, not a member of the UNC. So, I arranged for him to be a member of the Party, Headquarters Branch. In those days, ten members could form a Branch and we had more than ten members at the Headquarters, all voluntary workers and none was paid. I asked the young man to start work at the Headquarters. He was John Kakonge.
60. I found a third member of the secret Committee and I appointed Kakonge to be the Secretary of the Committee. I gave the Committee one moth in which to submit their Report. After the receipt of that report, I decided I should myself approach each of the Independent members of the Legico.
61. My objective was not to recruit the Independent members into the UNC but to convince each of them to believe that with the very strong representations the UNC organs were presenting to the Wild Committee for one man one vote which I knew, all of them and particularly their two members on the Wild Committee were supporting, one man one vote would come in 1961 and Self-Government, soon thereafter. I argued that it was their national duty to promote the Independence of Uganda.
62. I was on a very strong ground because my secret Committee had found that the independents had been members of the UNC and that the majority left the UNC after the split of 1957.
63. The two Independents on the Wild Committee were George Magezi, who was also the Secretary General of the UPU and C. B. Katiti. I concentrated on the two and particularly on George Magezi. My proposal to the Independents was that they consider either to disband their Party or merging it with the UNC.
64. That was the project to which I returned after my visits to Eastern countries. I gave in confidence, an overview of the Independence strategy on which I was working to Serwano Kulubya who was a nominated member of the Legico and not a Party politician or even a politician. A day or so later Senteza Kajubi visited me at Mengo Social centre where I was staying. I think Kajubi had left the UNC in 1957 and was not in the early months of 1960, a member of the DP, Kajubi asked questions about the Independence Strategy but his interest was whether I would resign from the leadership of the UNC. My answer was in the positive.
A few days later I got an invitation to go in the evening to the house of Yusuf Lule on the outskirts of Kampala. I went and George Magezi was also there. The DP and the Progressive Party leaders were not there. Nothing of substance was discussed and it was agreed to hold another meeting, at the same place, two evenings later.
66. At the second meeting in Lule's house, the DP leader was there alone but not the leader of the Progressive Party. The UPU had the largest attendance followed by the UNC. Before the meeting began, people spoke about a rumour that Apolo Kironde, Mayanja Nkangi and Lamek Lubowa were in the process of forming a Party.
67. Lule opened the meeting with one theme. It was that his reading of the Wild Report, had convinced him that it would be very difficult for the British government to reject the increase in the number of elected members of the Legislative Council from ten to 82. He said he was also of the opinion that the Governor would not nominate a greater number than 82 to the Government side. There was therefore a real possibility of Internal Government by Ugandans in 1961. But, he said, what was lacking, was a strong country wide political Party whose absence the British Government could seize upon to postpone internal Government beyond 1961. Lule proposed either the merger of the existing Parties or their disbandment and formation of a new Party with the leaders of the existing Parties being the founder members.
68. The second speaker, was the leader of the democratic Party. He said that he disagreed with Lule's proposals. The DP leader said that there was already a party which could run the Government of Uganda and it was called DP. He invited everyone to singly join the DP. He ended by saying that there was no necessity for the kind of meeting Lule had convened. After that, the DP leader begged to be excused and then walked out of the meeting.
69. After the departure of the DP leader, someone proposed that instead of discussing mergers or disbandments of Parties, those who had the ears of Mengo, should offer to talk to Mengo because it was more likely that the British Government would seize on Mengo's opposition to the Legislative Council to delay independence than on what Lule had said. The proposal received much support but there was no offer. The meeting lost decorum and direction and was terminated amidst some chaos.
70. From the third week of January, 1960 and throughout February, members of the Central Executive Committee and National Council of the UNC were meeting in Kampala daily in the morning but they all went before the end of February to their Districts and returned to Kampala on or about 5 March. I and a team were also meeting leaders of the UPU daily in the afternoon and evenings and reporting to the two UNC organs daily in the morning. Accommodation and meals for members of the two UNC organs were paid by the five UNC members of the Legislative Council.
71. After the second meeting in the house of Yusuf Lule, the UPU leaders made very strong representations that the disbandment of the UPU wuld be counter productive when elections to the Legico were due in 1961. There main argument was that disbandment would result in the UNC recruiting UPU members individually and that whatever goodwill, big or small which the UPU had in the Districts which the Independents won in the October, 1958 elections may be lost or may not be gained by the UNC.
72. The two UNC organs discussed the representations of the UPU leaders on the disbandment of their Party. The decision reached was that as a Party, the UPU was more viable at the top and particularly in the Legislative Council but not on the ground. It was further concluded that the UNC would gain more by a merger than by disbandment of the UPU.
73. It was proposed by the UNC and agreed by the UPU that for the merger, each party should bring to Kampala 10 of its members from each District.
74. The two UNC organs decided that for the UNC alone, Branches were by then at sub-county levels be informed that after the merger, the Delegates Conference would be held to approve the merger. When the decision was put to the UPU leaders as a matter of goodwill, they proposed the amendment which was agreed by the UNC that each party would send 5 delegates from each of its sub-county Branches to the Delegates Conference in two months after the merger but to approve the new Constitution of the UNC and not the merger.
75. On 9th March, 10 members of the UNC from each District and 10 members of the UPU from each District, met at the Uganda Club in Kampala and formed the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC).
76. The first UPC Delegates Conference was held in Kampala at the Indian Women's Association Hall.
77. On the eve of the Conference, I had food poisoning and was admitted in Mulago Hospital. I never attended the Conference but was elected in absentia, President of the party, John Kakonge was elected Secretary General replacing Interim George Magezi.
THELAST LAP TO INDEPENDENCE.
78. In April, 1960, the Governor announced in the Legislative Council acceptance by the British Government of 82 directly elected members in the Legislative Council. The British Government also rejected a Cabinet (Self-Government) formed by the largest Party in the Council.
79. Some members of the Legislative Council were highly agitated and demanded going to London to argue the case for Self-Government to which I succumbed. My personal opinion however was that so long as the Buganda Lukiiko remained opposed to people in Buganda being represented in the Central Legislature, nothing except nationalism within Uganda will change that opposition.
80. In London, the Legico delegation obtained the services of a member of the House of Lords to help prepare its case. The delegation had separate meetings with two junior ministers and with the Secretary of State for the Colonies. The case which the delegation presented was that by not accepting the largest Party in the Legislative Council, returned after the 1961 elections, to form a Cabinet, the British Government was effectively giving one part of the country to veto the desires of the rest of the country and was also making the elections to be held in 1961 a lame exercise not designed to meet the desires of the voters. The delegation did not expect a straight forward response and did not get it. The strategy of the delegation was to make the British Government to resolve the dilemma which the Indirect System of Colonial rule had created in favour of the people of Uganda who wanted Independence.
81. The April announcement by the Governor, created much distraction from the campaigns for Independence. Politicians in Toro, Ankole, Bunyoro and Busoga, joined by Town dwellers mostly lawyers left the campaigns and turned their efforts in demanding for the respective status of the Omukama of Bunyoro, Omukama of Toro, Omugabe and the Kyabazinga in Independent Uganda.
82. The Central Executive Committee and the National Council of the UPC adopted, under the generic strategy of increased political activities and campaigns for Independence, two strategic responses on the matter of the status of each of the Traditional Rulers in Independent Uganda. First, was a public Statement which was amended and updated from time to time which stated that the UPC would respect and preserve the position of each of the Traditional Rulers. The second response was the ban on Party leaders at all levels, except the Party leader, not to engage in public debate on the status of the Traditional Rulers.
83. During 1960, the UPC President addressed many meetings at which the matter of the status of the Traditional Rulers was raised. At each meeting, the Party President emphasised the paramountcy of the voice of all parts of the country being in the Central Legislature, as the surest guarantor of the status, dignity and position of each Traditional Ruler.
84. The matter of the status of the Traditional Rulers was a distraction which strengthened the stand of the Lukiiko and the Kabaka's Government but to which some politicians and some lawyers were dragging the other Kingdoms into at a time when, unlike the Lukiiko and the Kabaka's Government, the other Kingdoms had already lost due to nationalist campaigns since 1952, the power of vetoing the march of the people to Independence.
85. The loss of the power of veto became very clear in June, 1960, when the Legislative Council passed an Ordinance for holding direct elections to the Legislative Council in the year 1961 in 82 Constituencies. The ordinance did not make any provision, like in 1958, that a Kingdom Legislature could elect representatives to the Central Legislature. The ordinance also gave Notice to the Lukiiko and the Kabaka's Government - the outcome of the representations by the Legico delegation in London - that their veto power was temporary.
86. June and July, 1960 were glorious months for the UPC because one man one vote had been accepted not only by the people of Uganda, but also by the Colonial power - Britain and had become the law of the land.
87. When the registration of voters began, the UPC leaders and members went full blast to get many people and particularly known members of the Party to register. The number of people who registered as voters outside Buganda was 1,300,433. In Buganda, due to intimidations caused by the opposition of the Lukiiko and the Kabaka's Government, only 36,006 people registered as voters.
88. At the May, 1960 Delegates Conference because the UNC had had no Regulations (because there were no elections) for adopting the Party's parliamentary candidates, the Conference, by resolution, authorised the District Executives to adopt candidates for the 1961 elections. The decision caused some problems for the UPC. In one District, two good and strong Party members stood against each other in one Constituency which also had a DP candidate. In another District, a candidate adopted by the District Executive was also adopted by two other Parties and on Nomination Day, he was returned unopposed. In another District, three candidates adopted by their District Executive did not turn up for nomination.
89. The 1961 elections to the Legislative Council, was contested by five political Parties namely:-
Democratic Party (DP)
Uganda African Union (UAU)
Uganda Hereditary Chieftainship Party (UHCP)
Uganda National Congress (UNC) - Jolly Joe and Dr. Kununka
Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC)
90. In the latter months of 1960, the Central Executive Committee and National Council of the UPC discussed and approved the party's election Policy Statement (Manifesto). The printing of posters for each candidate was also approved. After the candidates had been adopted, each submitted to Headquarters details of his poster. There was, however a very serious disagreement on distributing in each Constituency the photograph and Message from the party President.
91. It soon came to light that the above disagreement was rooted in a clandestine campaign by the DP in Western Uganda that the UPC President was a communist. The Party candidates in the West, therefore, refused to have in their Constituencies the photograph and Message from the Party President. However, when those candidates found that the electorate wanted some message from the Party President, they rushed to the Party Headquarters and took to their Constituencies the posters in Lwo with the photograph of the Party President for his Constituency in Lango North.
92. A photograph of the UPC President with the Bishops in East Germany was distributed in western Uganda by the DP. The dirty campaign, if it did, helped the DP to win 9 out of 18 seats in the West.
93. The UPC Party President was returned unopposed in his Constituency. He was therefore in the Party headquarters in the evening when the elections results were being broadcast by Radio Uganda. The DP was winning seat after seat in Buganda but the UPC was also doing the same in the East and North.
94. About midnight, a telephone call was received in the UPC Headquarters. It was from Lincoln Ndawula the brother of the Kabaka who also was a friend of the UPC President. Lincoln told the Party President that the Kabaka wanted a word with him. The conversation between the Kabaka and the UPC President was very short. The Kabaka asked the Party President to defeat the DP. The short answer was; "We are waiting for the results." Soon thereafter, food arrived at the UPC Headquarters from Mengo Palace.
95. The full 1961 elections results of the seats were as follows: -
DP 44
UPC 35
UNC 1 (Jolly Joe and Dr. Kununka)
Independents 2
96. The DP won 20 out of 21 seats in Buganda and lost only one to the UPC. In the East, North and West, where in today's parlance, the elections were free and fair, the UPC won 34 to 24 won by the DP.
97. The boycott of the elections in Buganda, made the entire exercise in Buganda a farce. In Bugerere Constituency, for instance, 133 voters elected a legislator with a majority of 11, whereas in Busoga West 22,923 voters elected the UPC Vice-President with a majority of 21,295. That majority in only one Constituency in Busoga was even more than all the people who voted in Buganda in 21 Constituencies which was 13,297.
98. The Central Executive Committee and the National Council of the UPC met and considered the elections results. It was decided that the majority of seats in the Legislative Council won by the DP and the very effective boycott of the elections in Buganda, were very serious factors which would work to dampen unimpeded march to Independence and despite the boycott, the UPC should accept the results of the elections which was done. It was resolved that on the strength of the popular votes which showed the UPC to have the confidence of the electorate more than any other Party, programmes for the march to independence be deepened and updated. The popular votes were as follows: -
UPC 494,959
DP 415,718
UNC 31,712
UAU 1,172
UHCP 6,559
INDEPENDENTS 48,457
99. There was a provision for the Legislative Council to elect 9 specially elected members. One of 3 members specially elected by the UPC members of the Council, was Miss Joyce Masembe (Later Mrs Mpanga) and when she went to America for studies, the UPC elected in her place Mrs Eseza Makumbi. This was the first time any Party had introduced women into high politics and elected them to the Legislature.
100. An old issue arose with a vengeance after the 1961 elections. The issue was called "Lost Counties". The Kingdom of Bunyoro waged a vigorous campaign in the Districts in the West, East and North and sought the support of the political Parties for the return, before Independence, of its Counties which the British ceded to the Buganda Kingdom in or before the year 1900. The Bunyoro campaign had been going on intermittently for decades but this time, it had elements which impacted adversely on a united country marching towards Independence.
101. The UPC issued Statements which called for the issue of the Lost Counties to be resolved through a Referendum. Nothing was done.
102. The UPC campaigns for Independence was invigorated by public rallies and also representations to the Governor by the Central Executive Committee for the British Government to resolve Buganda Lukiiko's opposition to the Legislative Council. The Central Executive Committee proposed elections to the Legislative Council in which the Colonial Government would provide sufficient security to the people in Buganda to register as voters and to cast their votes.
103. Alternatively, the Central Executive Committee proposed (to the Governor) that since under the Buganda Agreement 1955, it was provided that Buganda was always to be represented in the Legislative Council, the Lukiiko and the Kabaka's Government had broken that Agreement and should, therefore not be recognised by the British Government.
104. The UPC campaigns, made the British Government to appoint what was called Relations Commission. When a Committee of members of the Legislative Council (including the UPC President) met the Commission, the Commission's Chairman asked the question which contained what was to be Mengo's flagship for an honourable climb down. The question was: What would be the stand of the Legico members if Buganda's representatives in the Legico were elected by the Lukiiko and not direct elections? There was no answer because the matter had not been considered.
105. It turned soon thereafter that the Commission had already discussed with Mengo the matter it put to the Legico members and that Mengo had agreed to the Lukiiko electing Buganda's representatives. The Commission was in Uganda at a time when the UPC, DP, the Kingdoms and the District Councils were busy preparing themselves for the Constitutional Conference which was to begin in London at the end of September.
106. Out of the blue, the UPC President was invited to meet the Kabaka and the invitation was accepted. Nothing of substance was discussed but the Kabaka said that he and his Government and the Lukiiko were not against Independence and suggested that if the Party President met the Katikiro, Michael Kintu, he would find the truth.
107. There was no immediate reaction to what the Kabaka had said. Instead, an urgent meeting of the Central Executive Committee was called. The predominant opinion at the meeting was against any meeting with the Katikiro. It was argued very strongly that any meeting with the Katikiro would be leaked to the Press and would be relished with outrageous claims such that the UPC had agreed to the Kabaka being the Head of State at Independence which, if made would damage the UPC throughout the country because every Traditional Ruler wanted to be the Head of State at Independence whereas the Districts did not want any Traditional Ruler to be the Head of State at Independence. I did, however, manage to get the meeting to agree to my meeting the Katikiro.
108. The first meeting with the Katikiro, turned into a series of meetings. In the series, the Ministers in the Kabaka's Government disclosed that they had discussed with the Relations Commission the British proposal that the Lukiiko should elect Buganda's representatives in the Legislative Council and that they liked the proposal. I argued most strongly that since representatives from the other Kingdoms and from the Districts had been elected directly, Buganda's representatives would bear the stigma of puppets of the Lukiiko, if elected by the Lukiiko. The Ministers told me that the Lukiiko would support indirect election because the Lukiiko of 1955 supported it when they approved the Handcock Report under which the British Government restored the Kabaka to his throne.
109. When I reported the Handcock Report provisions on Buganda's representatives to the Central Executive Committee, the exchange of views led to the discovery that both the Lukiiko of 1955 and 1961 were not elected bodies. The Central Executive Committee felt very strongly that the position of unelected bodies should not be allowed to "pollute" the Legico which had an overwhelming number of directly elected members. It was decided that since the indirect election was a British proposal, a letter be written to the Governor. The letter was written and the response was that the Secretary of State for the Colonies would put further proposals to the Kabaka's Government.
110. Before the UPC delegation left for the Constitutional Conference, the Central Executive Committee and National Council gave the delegation two very firm objectives. They were: -
(i) Date of Independence to be announced during or at the end of the Conference.
(ii) Another election to the Central Legislature before Independence.
111. In London, the UPC delegation engaged the District and Kingdom delegations in discussing the two UPC objectives. A general agreement was obtained from all those delegations to support the two objectives.
112. The British Government singled out the UPC, Buganda and DP delegations as difficult delegations and decided to hold side meetings with their leaders.
113. The first to go to the side meeting was the Kabaka. His delegation had two matters namely, Federal agreements for Buganda and the Lukiiko to elect Buganda's representatives to the Legico. The British Government rejected the first saying that it could only be discussed when an Independence Constitution was being considered which was not the task of this Conference. On the second matter, the British Government proposed that provided the Lukiiko was directly elected, they would undertake to get the UPC and DP to agree to indirect elections.
114. The second delegation leader to go to the side meeting was the DP leader. He had only one matter namely, that instead of Uganda having a Chief minister, the British order in Council be amended for Uganda to have a Prime Minister. The request was accepted. He rejected the indirect election for the Buganda representatives when it was put to him.
115. The UPC leader was the last to go to the side meeting. He had two matters as given in para 110 above. The first point put to him was the indirect elections. The Secretary of State thanked the UPC for its letter to the Governor which opposed the unelected Lukiiko to elect Buganda's representatives and thereby pollute the Legico. The Secretary of State said that he had put to the Kabaka who agreed that indirect elections be decided by a Lukiiko elected on the same suffrage as members of the Legico and asked for the position of the UPC. The UPC leader responded that provided many people registered as voters without intimidation and the Lukiiko election was free and fair, the UPC would reluctantly support indirect elections.
116. On the first UPC matter, the Secretary of State said that the British Government needed time to consider Uganda's performance after the Conference before they considered the date for Independence. The UPC leader responded that his two points (which had been sent to the Secretary of State) were intimately related and wanted the two discussed together. He went on to argue that had the March, 1961 general elections not been seriously flawed by an effective boycott in one province, he would have expected this very Conference to write the Constitution of Independent Uganda. Since the Conference was not going to write that Constitution, the UPC leaders argued, he was proposing the next logical step which, in his view, was announcement of the date of Independence followed by another election and another Conference to write the Constitution of Independent Uganda. The Secretary of State responded that the argument was powerful but Independence was a matter for the British Government to decide and not the Conference. The response of the UPC leader was that delegations from Uganda were in London and so was the British Government.
117. As the UPC leader was leaving the room, the Secretary of State said that the other two leaders also did not get everything they wanted and everyone should be happy because no one got everything he wanted. The UPC leader responded that he had got nothing but the Secretary of State said "that is not true".
118. On the last day of the Conference (9 October, 1961) the Secretary of State announced what he called decisions he had made. He announced that the Federal arrangements which Buganda wanted would be discussed in detail at a future Constitutional Conference which would write the Constitution of Independent Uganda.
119. The secretary of State then announced that the Buganda delegation had agreed to Buganda being represented in the Legico; the elections of the Buganda representatives would be by the Lukiiko after the Lukiiko itself had been directly elected. This announcement made the DP delegation to walk out and the Conference was adjourned.
120. The third announcement after resumption was that Uganda was to have a Prime Minister in March of the following year. It was the matter which the DP delegation sought the most and which made them to return to the Conference.
121. As the Secretary of State prepared to close the Conference, the UPC leader raised a point of order and made a speech demanding another general election in the following year and also demanded the date of Independence to be announced. The District delegations applauded loudly and five of them spoke in support of the two UPC demands.
122. The Secretary of State adjourned the Conference arguing that Independence date was a matter for the British Government and not the Conference to decide. After the third adjournment and as he began to argue in the same vein as twice before, the UPC leader on a point of order said: "Mr Secretary Sir, if that is the only reason for delaying the people of Uganda's natural request, then do not close the Conference; instead, let us all discuss the request for another fortnight." There was much applause by the District Delegations.
123. After the fourth adjournment, the Secretary of State said that he had consulted the Prime Minister and was pleased to announce that "Uganda shall be Independent on 9 October, 1962 provided all arrangements can be made in time." He said nothing about another general election but it was clear that another general elections was part of the arrangements to be made in time.
124. The Congress got the Independence date and was determined not to allow another Party to get the Instruments of independence just as the DP had in March, 1961 "stolen" the fruits of the Congress campaigns for one man one vote.
125. At the end of the Constitutional Conference, the Buganda delegation sent a Team of 3 to return home that same night of 9 October. They arrived home on the morning of 10 October and immediately reported to the Lukiiko which was in session that Buganda had got all that was in demand. That afternoon, a public Rally was organised at Katwe where Kabaka Yekka was formed.
126. On return home, the UPC delegation reported to the Central Executive Committee and National Council. The meeting resolved without knowing if or whether or when a general elections would be held, to start work for it without delay.
127. The elections to the Lukiiko was discussed. The meeting reaffirmed the earlier decision taken which the party president had put to the secretary of State. On the matter of the UPC contesting the Lukiiko elections, the meeting decided that Buganda's volte-face on representation in the Central Legislature was not complete so long as there was the option of indirect elections to which the Party was opposed. It was decided therefore that the party would not contest elections to the Lukiiko.
128. When the Uganda (Electoral Provisions) Order in Council 1961 of the British Government was published in early November, the strategy of the UPC for an election in early part of 1962 was already in place. The Order dealt mainly with elections to the Lukiiko. According to the Order, the Legislative Council was to be known as the "National Assembly". By the end of December, all UPC preparations, except Policy Statement (Manifesto) were in place. The manifesto was awaiting the outcome of the Lukiiko elections and whether or not the elected members of the Lukiiko would opt for direct or indirect elections to the National Assembly.
129. Registrations of voters in Buganda including Kampala Municipality began on 27 November, 1961. Unlike in 1960, there were no intimidations and large numbers of people turned up everywhere to be registered; 805,647 registered as voters.
130. Buganda was divided into 68 Lukiiko Constituencies, the DP contested all the 68 seats and won 1 (returned unopposed in the Lost counties). On 22 February, 1962, elections were held in 67 of the Constituencies (one Constituency had returned a candidate unopposed).
131. On 17 March, 1962, the 68 elected members of the Lukiiko, 6 Kabaka's Ministers and 6 nominees of the Kabaka met and decided on Buganda being represented in the National Assembly through indirect elections. Three days later, the UPC published its elections Policy Statement (Manifesto).
132. 2 April, 1962 was Nomination Day in the 61 National Assembly Constituencies outside Buganda. The elections were contested by five political Parties and 10 (ten) independents as follows: -
Bataka party of Busoga
Democratic Party
Uganda African Union
Uganda National Congress
Uganda Peoples Congress
133. During the campaign, the UPC leaders and candidates sought for a copy or copies of the DP elections Manifesto but never succeeded to get one. The fear that the DP which had been in Government for a year would produce a startling manifesto, evaporated into thin air.
134. The results of the 1962 elections held on 25 April, 1962 gave the UPC not only increased popular votes from 494,959 in 1961 to 537,598 in 1962 but also increased the number of seats in the Central Legislature from 35 in 1961 to 37 in 1962. Outside Buganda the increase was from 34 to 37.
135. Except for the amorphous KY which existed only in Buganda, the 1962 elections erased fringe Parties from Uganda's body politic. The Party which suffered the greatest loss in the 1962 elections was the DP. Whereas the DP won 44 seats to the Legico in 1961 (20 of them in Buganda), the Party won only 22 seats to the National Assembly in 1962 and even lost 2 seats it won in 1961 outside Buganda.
136. Since 1962 the rationale of the DP for its 1962 great loss, has been that the indirect elections for Buganda's representatives was a conspiracy by the British Government and the UPC to remove the DP Government. The rationale carry the undemocratic meaning that the DP accepted and accept as a very good event the impact of the 1961 boycott of elections in Buganda caused by much intimidations which enabled less that 14,000 voters to elect 21 members to the Central Legislature. To accept intimidations and election boycotts caused by intimidations as good or even very good events is to assassinate democracy.
137. The UPC election Manifesto of 1962 dealt with the DP rationale. I quote at length what the Manifesto said:
"Without foresight, drive and leadership of the U.P.C. the bulk of the people in Buganda would still be opposed to the Central Authority covering the whole country. There is no doubt that in such a situation no one today would be speaking of celebrating Independence day on 9th October 1962. Apart from this important achievement there is the pride which is now being expressed openly throughout the country of belonging to Uganda. This again has become possible through the activities of this dynamic party.
The opposition which has been directed against us in our activities to unite the country is centered on the mode of electing Buganda members of the National Assembly. The whole country knows that Buganda boycotted the elections held in March 1961 and that government by consent is an essential characteristic of a democratic government. The government set up after the last elections was to Buganda with 21 seats in the National Assembly not a government by consent and therefore not a democratic government. The U.P.C. believes in elections which are real and do show the mandate of the people. The March elections were not real and did not show the mandate of the people in Buganda because the majority of the people registered against it an effective opposition. The whole of Buganda has now had an election on universal adult franchise to elect the Buganda Lukiiko members. The results of this Lukiiko elections has proved to all that those 21 members who were elected from Buganda constituencies in March 1961 had no support and mandate from the people who live in Buganda. The best policy would be for our opponents to accept with grace the voice of the people. The people in Buganda have spoken and spoken for indirect elections to the National Assembly, and that should end the dispute as it is completely democratic to accept the decision of the majority."
138. On 26 April as I was preparing to leave Lira for Kampala, a convoy of KY members arrived at my house. We travelled to Soroti, Mbale, Tororo, Iganga and Jinja and addressed huge meetings in each Town. We arrived in Kampala when it was already dark. I did not therefore address a meeting the UPC had organised at Clock Tower.
139. The UPC and KY had agreed during the elections campaign to form a coalition Government after the 25 April elections to the National Assembly. The basis of the agreement was the acceptance by KY of matters in the UPC Manifesto. There were no other conditions by either Party. I therefore went to meet the Kabaka who was the behind the scene leader of the KY, in the morning, on 27 April to tell him that the Governor had asked me to form a Government. The Kabaka gave me a free hand to decide on which KY member should be in the Government.
140. After the elections on 25 April, the UPC Government deliberately took office on 1 May, Labour Day, 1962. The UPC Government embarked immediately to implement the Manifesto promises and to produce a 5 year Development Plan. The UPC Government also wasted no time in researching and analysing matters which were to be considered in the second Constitutional conference in London.
141. The second Constitutional Conference which began in late August, was essentially to write the Constitution of Independent Uganda. Kingdoms, and District delegations were at the Conference. The UPC delegation at the Conference was also the Government of Uganda. The research and analyses which the UPC Government had done, helped greatly to speed up the deliberations of the Conference.
142. Although the Lukiiko and the Kabaka's Government had been demanding, for years, for Federal arrangements, it turned out at the Conference that the demand had no meat and bones on it. Because the UPC had formed a coalition Government with KY, the UPC delegation (in London) provided meat and bones in the Buganda demand on the basis of the research and analyses done by the Central Executive Committee and National Council before the Conference.
143. The issue of the Lost Counties was on the Agenda and the kingdom of Bunyoro was greatly being supported by the other Kingdoms and the Districts on its demand that the Counties be returned before Independence. The UPC delegation, that is, Uganda Government proposed to the secretary of State that with only weeks remaining before Independence day, the Government could not even implement the UPC proposal for a referendum and therefore that the Secretary of State, Bunyoro and Buganda should discuss the issue in a side meeting.
144. Side meetings were held whose outcome was that the British government, Bunyoro and Buganda delegations agreed that it be written in the Constitution of Uganda that a referendum be held two years after Independence for the people in four Counties to decide being part of Buganda or part of Bunyoro or form new Districts.
145. The federal arrangements for Bunyoro, Toro, Ankole and Busoga were also dealt with in side meetings between their respective delegations and the Prime Minister of Uganda (also UPC leader). Complete agreements were reached with each of them.
146. The second Constitutional Conference ended in a most harmonious and euphoric spirit. The delegations returned to Uganda to be witnesses to the achievement of the Congress call in 1952 for one man one vote and Self-Government Now. It took 10 years.
147. I very nearly missed Uganda's Independence. I went to the Dam in Jinja on 8 October to receive Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta. While on the bridge, a lorry heavily loaded with goods travelling from Jinja direction, nearly crashed into me.
148. On 9 October, the Duke of Kent representing his cousin, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, handed the Instruments of Independence to me - the UPC President.
149. Our Congress led the people of Uganda to do what the people of Uganda must never be called upon again to do; to remove foreign rule from the soil of Uganda.
150. The rule of the charlatans which has already heavily mortgaged the country and sold the peoples' heirlooms at give away prices, may again bring the humiliation of being ruled by foreigners.
151. I pay humble Tribute to the nationalists who sacrificed their lives for the people of Uganda to be free. I call upon the Youth to pick up the baton and to continue with the struggle until every citizen of Uganda is free to enjoy and exercise his/her inalienable, God given, human rights and freedom.
I have written and now present this Paper in the spirit of our National Motto: