The Nakulabye Massacre - 1964

The political knot between Milton Obote’s UPC and Kabaka Muteesa’s KY party, had two years after the union, been untied. This ‘divorce’ could not have been so heart wrenching for Buganda, if their desire for autonomy from Uganda, was guaranteed.

Instead, when ballots were cast in regard to Buganda’s ‘token’ counties of Buyaga and Bugangaizi, vast votes from the Banyoro, saw the two territories reverted to Bunyoro.

That political humiliation was a bitter pill for Buganda to swallow. Many historians have argued that the Obote-engineered Bill that saw Buganda lose the ‘lost counties’, marked the genesis of open resentment between Obote’s government and Buganda and a chaotic start for Uganda’s growth .

Aware of the challenge his government was faced with, Obote, who had at independence avowed to uphold Uganda’s unity as a nation above ethnic comforts, resolved to crack the whip against dissent.

The army inherited at independence, was, by the making of the colonialist, dominated by northerners. Coming from the north himself, historians have argued, Obote found it easy to entrust the army with subduing antipathy against his government. This move was regardless of the fact that Obote, had in 1962 undertaken to undercut tribalism for the sake of national unity. At that crunch time, he needed to make use of the tribal army to survive.

Therefore, when in November 10, 1964, security agents killed civilians at Nakulabye, a Kampala suburb, it was understood as a message by the new government that no unruliness would be allowed to thrive.

Historian A.B.K Kasozi has argued that four days before the massacre, Prime Minister Milton Obote had indicated that his government would not tolerate any form of lawlessness.

“On 6 November 1964, Prime Minister Obote had given a very stern warning to what he termed lawless elements: ‘I have therefore today issued very firm instructions to the Army Commander and Inspector-General of Police, to use such powers as they have to protect the lives and properties of the public’,” he says in his book - The Social Origins of Violence in Uganda -1964-1985.

Prof. Kasozi argues that the killing of six unarmed civilians-- in what has become to be known as the Nakalabye Massacre--were therefore, not a result of opposition or lawlessness as government officials later argued.

He explains that a Ugandan woman called Night, had a disagreement with her Congolese husband which resulted into a fight. Even when she sought refuge at the neighbour’s house, the man continued battering Night, prompting the neighbour to call the police.

Arriving at Nakulabye a few minutes later, the gun-wielding officers, without inquiring what the cause or nature of the disagreement was, descended on residents, beating and shooting to kill. At the end of the 6pm to 7pm operation, six residents were killed, including children returning from school.

“The debate in Parliament and the Press that followed the tragedy indicates that the violence at Nakulabye was politically motivated. According to Mr Latim, MP, the security branch followed orders emanating from the highest levels of government,” Prof. Kasozi writes.

Ugandans, some of whom were still sobering up from the actuality of independence, were awakened to the harsh reality of the first political violence in post-independent Uganda.

“It was also the first time since independence that government security men opened fire on unarmed crowds who were not in riotous moods; the first time that the authorities were seen openly to be party to violence aimed at civilians,” Prof. Kasozi notes.

When no culprits were brought to book after the Nakulabye incident, the government, that on October 1962, vowed to uphold unity and orderliness, was seen as the endorser of lawlessness.

Prof. Kasozi explains that the Assistant Superintendent of Police, Mr Ezama, who directed the operation, gave contradictory accounts of the incident, while the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Alex Onama denied accusations that the police acted brutally.

Another account of the Nakulabye Massacre, according to a witness, Shelton Mazowe, quoted by a local newspaper, involved a soldier named Ezama. Ezama had, after taking several bottles of alcohol from a local bar in Nakulabye, started fondling the bar owner’s daughter. The girl’s boyfriend in anger slapped the soldier, who then rushed back to the barracks and mobilised his colleagues, claiming the Baganda had beaten him.

The soldiers descended on Nakulabye and started shooting at civilians randomly.

The relationship between Buganda and central government was at the time strained and tension was high especially following the recent loss of Buyaga and Bugangaizi counties by Buganda. This, according to historians, could have flamed the attack.

However, even after civilians were killed, Prof. Kasozi explains that “…none of the security men was charged with murder or misuse of power. Neither did the government apologise or compensate the victims’ relatives”.

Those arrested at Nakulabye that day were released the next day without charge, fomenting the belief that the Obote-led government was out to stifle dissent regardless of the cost.

“[It was] the first time that civilians in Uganda perceived that the violence was politically motivated, aimed at a specific section of society,” Prof. Kasozi says.

The events of the Nakulabye Massacre could have caught dust in the shelves of history, but the underlying message, sheds light on the shaky foundation upon which Uganda as a nation was built; as well as the inability/reluctance of its leaders to strengthen that foundation to date.

It’s doubtful that the proponents of the UPC/KY alliance plotted to paint Uganda red with blood a few years after it attained independence, but it can also not be ignored that the mated selfishness that founded the coalition government, would soon surface to torment the new nation.

Both KY and UPC entered the political kitchen in 1962 with naivety and appetite—with Buganda, for instance, seeking to defeat DP and gain ground to advocate its federal status after a failed declaration of independence from in 1960.

Institutionalised violence
Historian Phares Mutibwa explains Buganda’s status in his book Uganda Since Independence thus; “The Baganda, smarting from the non-recognition of their unilateral declaration of independence of December 1960, entered an independent Uganda like a proud, well-dressed gentleman entering a semi-dark room full of hostile workers already angered by their employers.”

Prime Minister Obote, a partner in the coalition, was however, silently plotting to neutralise Buganda’s privileged status. When the political meal—inform of a coalition government was prepared, it would take only two years for its tasteless ingredients to start tormenting its chefs and diners.

The killings in Nakulabye were, therefore, just one manifestation of institutionalised violence for political survival. “Nakulabye inaugurated the use of the gun by government agents, who have been pointing it at civilians ever since,” notes Prof. Kasozi.

Continues Tomorrow.

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1.Kalungi -a taxi driver. He was pulled out of his car as he approached the Nakulabye round-about from Wandegeya. He was shot at point-blank with a 303-calibre rifle.
2.Fabian Masika. The 60-year-old man was speaking to his neighbour when he saw security forces approach. He ran into his house but came out to empty water from a basin. When security men saw him, they fired at him but the bullet missed him. They followed him in his house and killed him in his bedroom.
3. Mayanja. A Munyoro by tribe, Mayanja was having a meal in their one-roomed house with his wife Erina Bangisibanno. The police burst in, dragged Mayanja out and shot him dead.
4.Charles Kaita. The 17-year-old student of Aga Khan High School had just returned home from school and was helping his mother carry the baby. The police ordered him to come out of the house, they beat him when he did and shot at his stomach when his mother begged for mercy. He died later in the night after his mother tried in vain to push his bowels back in.
5.Silas Matovu. A Muganda tailor, he was in the house when his son came home. The son forgot a pound of sugar in his wheelbarrow, went out to pick it and was shot at and wounded. He struggled back into the house, but as Matovu tried to nurse his son, shots were fired through the window, one of them killed him.
6.Ezama. The student of Muhamood High School was killed by stray bullets as he picked up his books and run.
[Source: The Social Origins of Violence in Uganda, 1964- 1985 by A.B.K Kasozi]

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