Daudi Ochieng motion and the Congo gold ‘loot’

One of the ills that beset post-colonial Uganda was corruption—its effects spread fast and vast. By 1966, key government ministers and officials, including Prime Minister Milton Obote, Deputy Army Commander Idi Amin Dada, and other government ministers, were on the spot for smuggling and corruption allegations.

The most notable graft accusation arose out of the involvement of the Ugandan army in the fight against rebels in Congo. Prime Minister Obote had entrusted Idi Amin with leading the battle against Moise Tshombe’s fighters.

After that operation, money from smuggled gold and ivory reportedly ended up in personal bank accounts of government officials. “The substance of the accusations against Amin was that on his account with the Ottoman Bank in Kampala, he had deposited a sum of Shs340,000/= in a period of 24 days, and that this money must have been obtained by means contrary to army regulations,” says historian Samwiri Karugire in Roots of Instability in Uganda.

Other than Amin, his boss Obote and two other ministers were also implicated in benefiting from the Congo ‘loot’. “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,” Samwiri adds.

Against that background, KY Member of Parliament Daudi Ochieng on February 4, 1966, presented a Bill in Parliament, seeking to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate the officials named in the gold scandal.
The Bill also recommended the suspension of Amin from duty until inquiries were complete.

“This House do urge Government to suspend Col. Idi Amin of the Ugandan army, forthwith, pending the conclusion of police investigations into the allegations regarding his bank account which should then be passed on to the appropriate authority whose final decision on the matter shall be made public,” the motion, quoted in Roots of Instability in Uganda, states.

Importantly, Grace Ibingira, who was head of a break-away faction of Obote’s UPC party, secured full support of DP members to back the motion against Obote and his clique.

“The message was clear to all: it was possible for Obote to be overthrown by his opponents,” says Phares Mutibwa in his book The Buganda Factor in Uganda Politics.
Since Prime Minister Obote was touring northern Uganda, Defence Minister Felix Onama accepted the motion on government’s behalf, but he would later during the debate, also be implicated in the scandal.

Although majority of government ministers and MPs welcomed the motion, the minister of planning John Kakonge voted against it and accused his colleagues of seeking to overthrow the government.

“Mr Kakonge wondered why, if the intentions of some ministers were above board, the debate was being conducted in the absence of their leader. It appeared to him he said, that there were a group of ministers who wanted to use the army commander (Shaban Opolot) to carry out a coup ‘and establish a pro-American government’ but that it was Amin who was in their way and that is why they wanted him removed,” Samwiri notes.

Some historians have sided with Kakonge’s argument, saying there was a ploy to oust Obote’s government. “There occurred, first of all, the joining of hands between Mengo and Ibingira’s wing of UPC; and, secondly, an open attempt on the part of this group to challenge Obote’s leadership and remove him and his faction of UPC from power,” argues historian Mutibwa.

However, other historians believe Obote’s government had registered sufficient political and economic rebuffs to warrant such opposition.
For instance, Mutibwa, quoting Kirunda Kivenjinja’s diary, says Kakonge was a ‘very naïve’ politician, who could hardly ‘tell a lie even to save his skin’ or see beyond Obote’s manipulations.

And true to Kakonge’s critics, when Obote returned from northern Uganda and a cabinet convened to discuss the gold smuggling claims and also set up a commission of inquiry, Obote wielded the axe against supporters of the motion.

Prof. Mahmood Mamdani in his book –Politics and Class Formation in Uganda, sums up the Prime Minister’s action thus: “The plan was to appoint a parliamentary commission of inquiry and compel the government to resign. But when the cabinet met formally to appoint the proposed commission and study the charges, five of its members were arrested, including Grace Ibingira. The backbone of the ‘right,’ it seemed, was crushed.”

Obote’s action dealt a blow to his opponents who were critical of growing suppression of critics, and corruption in the Obote government. Therefore, with support from Buganda and sympathy from army commander Opolot, the Ibingira group sought to trim Obote’s wings and his right-hand man Amin using the Daudi Ochieng motion.

However, Obote would prove too crafty for his opponents. Since general elections were around the corner in 1967, Obote moved fast to forestall any deterrent to his victory, especially in the delegates conference that was even nearer.

Obote’s faction of UPC party had monumentally lost in regional party elections in 1965, with Ibingira’s faction winning in the east, west and Buganda. With that poll defeat in mind, as well as growing opposition from Buganda following a struggling coalition government with Kabaka Muteesa, Obote played the political game.
Therefore, amidst the smuggling and corruption scandal, the ‘right’ were punished and the ‘wrong’ rewarded by Obote.

“..the army commander (Opolot) was dismissed and detained, and Amin, the subject of the parliamentary motion, assumed control of the Uganda army to ensure the successful conclusion of the “revolution” presumably,” says Prof. Karugire.

As Obote and his enthusiasts revelled in victory, Buganda, on whose soil the central government was seated, would move to claim its space, but not before the former could overthrow the Independence Constitution.

Continues tomorrow.

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