Nadiope flees as Obote locks up five ministers

Coup plotter. An illustration of prime minister Milton Obote watching as his Cabinet minister is being arrested. ILLUSTRATIONS BY IVAN SENYONJO

What you need to know:

Part III. As Kyabazinga Nadiope left his residence in Kololo, he announced that he was travelling to the headquarters of the Ministry of Lands in Entebbe. But little did he know that dramatic scenes were unfolding at the prime minister’s offices in Entebbe.

Despite the fact that prime minister Milton Obote had scolded him a few weeks earlier, Sir William Wilberforce Kadhumbula Nadiope carried on with his duties in Busoga, the ruling UPC party and the central government without any signs of fear.
He had also continued to attend to his personal business in Kamuli, especially along the road to Namasagali where he operated a wood workshop and timber business.
A few months earlier he had acquired a residential house in Nalufenya Parish, along what is today known as Clive Road West, which leads out of Jinja Town towards Amber Court, the Owen Falls Dams and towards Kampala.
Late on the morning of February 22, 1966, he returned to his official residence in Kololo to pick documents related to the said house.

Patrick Miyingo, a confidant of Kyabazinga Nadiope at the time, had not gone to the Radio Uganda studios on that day, thanks to an eye infection.
“So what is going on around town today?” Nadiope asked him.
The young Lusoga programmes’ presenter and newscaster could not possibly know what had taken place elsewhere,
“Nothing so far. All is well my Isebantu Kyabazinga,” he replied.
Nadiope announced that he was travelling to the headquarters of the Ministry of Lands in Entebbe to complete the transfer of his Jinja Town house’s title into his name.
Unknown to them, very dramatic scenes were unfolding at the prime minister’s offices in Entebbe.

Arrests
Obote was by then staying in the prime minister’s lodge next to the Entebbe Zoo (Uganda Wildlife Centre. According to Mr Henry Kyemba, who was his Principle Private Secretary (PPS), it was unusual for the prime minister to work from home. He would usually walk or drive across the pier to the office where Cabinet meetings would also be held.
On that day, Cabinet was in session. Between 11am and midday, men of the Special Forces, a paramilitary police force that was responsible for the security of the prime minister and other government officials, drove in and camped at the premier’s lodge.
Their arrival was not unusual; but that Kyemba had not been informed of their impending arrival was a little unusual. No trip, at least to his knowledge, had been planned, but he also knew that the prime minister could abruptly decide to travel.

He would stay close by the meeting room whenever cabinet would be in session just in case he was needed to pass on an urgent message to the prime minister or secretary to the Cabinet, but not on this day.
He later saw the Special Forces men under the command of one Odongkara leave the lodge and drive towards the office, but this was not unusual. These were areas which security men were free to prowl.
About 30 minutes later, Obote arrived back at the lodge to make a startling revelation.

“They have arrested five ministers,” he said as he moved into his offices.
The arrests had been carried out with the aid of one of Obote’s bodyguards, one Ochaya. At some point there had been confusion when a “wrong man” was arrested only to be released and the “right person” arrested.

The ministers, Grace Ibingira, Dr Emmanuel Lumu, George Magezi, Balaki Kirya and Mathias Ngobi were bundled into waiting cars and driven out to different locations before Obote left for the lodge. Moments after his arrival, the surviving ministers started arriving at the lodge.
“Many came in I think to touch base with the prime minister and for them to get reassurances that they were safe,” Mr Kyemba says.
Looking back now, Miyingo says he had seen four of the five ministers at Nadiope’s home where they used to hold meetings at ungodly hours.
“The only person among those five ministers who I did not see was Dr Lumu,” he says.

Within less than an hour of having told Miyingo about his journey to Entebbe, Nadiope drove back into his Kololo compound.

Nadiope and his daughter lock themselves in a room after news broke of Obote arresting five ministers.


“Patrick, I asked you what was going on in Kampala, but you didn’t tell me that Obote has arrested Mathias Ngobi and other ministers,” Nadiope said as he stomped into the house.
The panic and discomfort were understandable. Mathias Ngobi and Nadiope had been very close. They both came from Kamuli District and had been elected at the same time as Busoga’s representatives to the Legislative Council.

Ngobi represented Busoga South, which was comprised of, among other counties, Butembe, Bunya, Kigulu and Bukooli, while Nadiope represented Busoga North which was comprised of Bugabula, Luuka, Bulamogi and Busiki counties.
While Nadiope had laughed off the manner in which Obote had rebuked him, it would now appear that the arrests had served to drive home the message that he was not all bark and no bite.

Nadiope, who was visibly in a state of panic, summoned his daughter Wanyana who was working as a community development officer in the Ministry of Culture. They locked themselves up in the house for several hours, most probably debating what options were open to him. At about 6pm, they started loading some of Nadiope’s personal belongings into Wanyana’s car, a Peugeot 303. The vice president sat in the back seat and ordered Miyingo to join him.
“Come sit here besides me,” he ordered.

Miyingo has never established why Nadiope seemed so desperate not to leave him behind. Was he afraid that the young man had seen too much? Was he afraid that Miyingo could easily reveal details of what he had confided in him? Those are questions to which he has never found answers.
The vice president’s bodyguards, official and private cars were left behind. The party drove out of Kololo and hit the Kampala-Jinja Highway in silence. No one talked except when it was vitally important to do so.
Nadiope loved talking and was a great orator who employed Lusoga language proverbs to spice up his speeches. He also enjoyed jokes and a hearty laugh, but none of that was on display as the vehicle made its way towards Jinja.

At Kitigoma trading centre, about 10 miles from Jinja Town, they came across a security checkpoint.
“Do not stop!” Nadiope bellowed at the driver.
The man behind the wheel was driving at a high speed, but the Kyabazinga seemed convinced that he was not doing enough to get him to the safety of his home in Jinja and pushed him to drive even faster.

“If you cannot drive the vehicle fast, give it to me and I will drive myself,” Nadiope said as he pushed the man with his walking stick.
Miyingo had never seen his Kyabazinga is such a state of panic, but in his own state of nerves, he did not stop to ask where they were headed.
At around 8pm, the team arrived at the house in Nalufenya. Nadiope immediately started working the phone. By around 9pm he had closed himself off in the sitting room with some three Asians.

News of the arrest of the five ministers had by then been broadcast on the radios and the television, but no mention had been made of Nadiope. There had also been no mention of the Kabaka of Buganda, Sir Fredrick Edward Muteesa who was also linked to the suspected coup plot.
When he eventually emerged from the sitting room, it was to offer his counsel on how he thought Miyingo could proceed.
“I am going out somewhere, but I am coming back. I would, however, advise you to stay here until tomorrow morning, but if you want to go back to Kampala, let this vehicle take you back,” he said as he went out with the Asians.

Miyingo returned to Kampala that night, but for three weeks, neither he nor a host of people with whom they had developed close ties with Nadiope knew where their idol was.
Mr Kyemba says Nadiope was driven from Jinja into neighbouring Kenya by Samson Lukalu, a member of the royal family of Bugabula who was at the time employed as an executive officer in the accounts department of the Busoga government.
Mr Samson Lukalu’s son, Patrick Lukalu, confirms that his father drove Nadiope into exile in Kenya in their Peugeot 404, registration number KAX 725.

“The troubles broke out when the old man had just bought the car from an Asian in Kampala. We had only had it for about a week when my father was called upon to drive Nadiope out of Uganda,” he says.
Uncertainty about where Nadiope’s whereabouts led to speculation about the extent of his involvement in the alleged attempted coup.
“Obviously his fleeing gave Obote the feeling that he for sure must have had something to do with it because otherwise why run away if you know you are innocent?” Kyemba wonders.

His detractors in the Busoga Lukiiko latched onto his absence to move a motion of vote of no confidence in his person, but Obote had earlier suspended the constitution and the minister of Local Government, Mr James Ochora, had also gotten Parliament to enact a law that provided that all resolutions of lower governments were subject to the approval of the minister of Local Government.
As a result, the Busoga Lukiiko’s resolution was never approved and Nadiope who returned from self-imposed exile stayed on as the Kyabazinga of Busoga and vice president of Uganda until a republican Constitution was adopted.

In the final article next week we look at the arrest of Nadiope until 1971 when he was freed by Idi Amin.