1966 Crisis was a bubble bound to burst

On May 24, 1966, government soldiers, commanded by Idi Amin, marched on the Buganda Kingdom palace at Mengo.

Forty-four years later, the events of that rainy Monday, are still ingrained in the memory and history of Buganda.

The attack, ostensibly carried out on orders of Apollo Milton Obote, saw century-old treasures and royal regalia of Buganda Kingdom reduced to ashes.

The soldiers are also accused of killing thousands of defenseless civilians, carrying out lootings, rapes and torture. Scores of kingdom royalists and loyalists were arrested and jailed without trial as Obote, using recently-acquired executive powers of the presidency, declared a state-of-emergency in Buganda.

As smoke rose over the Lubiri Palace, so did hatred for Obote among the Baganda.

The greater impact of that attack is the injury it would cause to the pride and reverence the kingdom wielded in Uganda.

Historian S. R Karugire in his book-A Political History of Uganda, describes the attack thus: “In the early hours of 24 May 1966, central government troops, on the orders of Obote and commanded by Col. Idi Amin, stormed the Kabaka’s palace (Lubiri) at Mengo. ‘The effects of the events of that Monday,’ as Josef Muwanga has noted, ‘from various points of view, culminated into a watershed in the history of the Kingdom and the entire country’.”

Unfolding events
The events of that day, which has come to be referred to as the 1966 Buganda/Mengo Crisis, was a culmination of a series of factors, differently explained and argued by Buganda and Obote enthusiasts.

Some historians have tagged the causes of that Crisis on Obote, accusing him of, from the onset, having a guided determination to suppress the kingdom.

As earlier seen, the Obote-engineered referendum that saw Buganda’s ‘token counties’ of Buyaga and Bugangaizi reverted to Bunyoro, was, according to several historians, the first attempt at stifling Buganda’s survival interests.

That political embarrassment and territorial deprivation, set the stage for a tussle between Buganda and Central government and unclothed the simmering acrimony between the two leaders.

As historian Samwiri Karugire notes in his book - Roots of Instability in Uganda, the knife that cut the lone thread that was holding KY and UPC parties was the referendum for the ‘lost counties’.

“The occasion, rather than the cause of the rapture of the alliance between the KY and UPC was the referendum which was carried out in Bunyoro’s “lost counties” of Buyaga and Bungangaizi on 4th November 1964,” he argues.

However, Obote’s supporters, have argued that Buganda’s persistent quest for a ‘favoured’ status in Uganda, is to blame for the kingdom’s woes and the ultimate attack on Lubiri.

For instance, in December 1965, Kabaka Muteesa reportedly made an order for arms –amidst rumours of a coup against Obote’s government.

In his pamphlet Myths and Realities—Obote writes about how the arms supplier expressed worry over the order for arms by Muteesa on behalf of the army and yet it was Buganda to pay for the weapons.

This development sharpened the Prime Minister’s political antenna – who put on alert, soldiers to quiet any emerging dissent.

Amidst the tension and dislike, Obote worked to harvest statistical forte for his party in the 1965 regional party polls. However, as expected, his UPC faction would win only in northern Uganda while the Grace Ibingira-led group won in the west, east and Buganda. The political battle had turned ethnic.

“As UPC whittled down numerical strength of its opponents in Parliament, by allurement or coercion, it turned upon itself so that its political in-fighting and the ruling party assumed crisis dimensions and Ugandans watched the unfolding events with increasing apprehension,” historian Karugire notes.

Another key event that added up to the 1966 Crisis is the February 4, 1966 motion by Daudi Ocheng, that sought the suspension of deputy army Commander Idi Amin to allow for investigations into his alleged gold and ivory smuggling from Congo.

The integrity of Obote, who had gone on a tour of northern Uganda and that of his two senior ministers, were also brought under scrutiny during debate on the Congo Gold Scandal.

“It was alleged that the Prime Minister himself and two of his senior cabinet colleagues (Felix Onama and Adoko Nekyon) had received large financial benefits from gold and ivory belonging to the Congolese government,” Karugire explains.

Ocheng’s motion was passed with only one opposing voice, with accusations that they were seeking to topple the government in the absence of the Prime Minister.

The anti-Amin/Obote group, however, delighted in a double win—of defeating Obote (in the regional party elections) and passing a motion that endorsed the suspension of Amin.

However, when Obote returned from his trip up north, he suspended Kabaka Muteesa as President and vice president William Nadiope, arrested five of his cabinet ministers and appointed himself President with executive powers.

“Obote achieved all these with what appeared to be relative ease by the blatant use of his Northern dominated army and this is how he ensured the success of what he called the “revolution” of 1966,” argues Karugire.

“In fact, the commander of the army (Brig. Shaban Opolot) was dismissed and detained, and Amin, the subject of parliamentary motion, assumed control of the Ugandan army to ensure the successful conclusion of the “revolution” presumably,” he adds.

Failed test
As seen yesterday, the most atypical of Obote’s actions would be the suspension of the 1962 Constitution –which he ‘formally’ abrogated on April 15, 1966 to the nervous cheer of his parliamentarians.

When an announcement was made to Ugandans about the adoption that day, of a new constitution, the Lukiiko issued an ultimatum for the central government to vacate Buganda by May 30—a declaration viewed as a move by the kingdom to disaffiliate from Uganda.

In a final ‘defeat’ of the Baganda faction, Obote declared a state of emergency and ordered his troops to march on Mengo.

The Kabaka’s palace was turned into a military barracks and Bulange -the seat of Buganda and Parliament—was turned into the headquarters of the Ministry of Defence, as historian Karugira chronicles.

For king Muteesa, luck was on his side as he eluded his attackers by climbing the wall of his palace to escape to exile in England.

For whatever arguments advanced about the 1966 Buganda Crisis--one issue sticks out clearly; that the foundation upon which Uganda was built, was wobbly; the raw material of selfishness used by both Muteesa and Obote when they entered the political marriage of convenience, was too dry to withstand the fire that would test the country’s readiness for nationhood.

Continues Monday.

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