Passing of Dr Kenneth Kaunda and end of Mulungushi Club of leaders

I watched you, you were right my son. It was all my fault,” he lamented as tears rolled down his cheeks.

Dr Kenneth Kaunda had come to pay his last respects to his friend, Dr Milton Obote, then lying-in-residence in Lusaka, Zambia, in October 2005.

Representing the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) party at the repatriation of the remains of the president in South Africa, I had a few days earlier been hosted by South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) prime time programme ‘Ambassadors’ and I had exclusively discussed the key role of the Mulungushi Club of leaders (Julius Nyerere, Milton Obote and Kenneth Kaunda), the central committee – if you like – of the ‘Front Line’ states in the liberation of Southern Africa.

Obote death
That Obote, who had died on October 10, 2005, in Johannesburg, had effectively been the spokesperson of the group and more so, the one whose country had been impacted with a foreign-backed coup as a result, that ushered in Idi Amin. Kaunda had watched it.

I had come from Mama Miria Obote’s room upstairs and, with my own bulk of tears, was totally focused on the casket. But amid the full room, Dr Kaunda had just arrived (I was not aware) and here he was; emotional, alert, more tears and almost as if guilty-with-humility.

Shaking his head while looking me in the eyes, he repeated his ‘confession’, “it was my fault…” A great statesman of age, so I told myself, amid my own battles with the reality as his friend lay, lifeless.
At the state funeral attended by former Zambian presidents Levi Mwanawasa and Fredrick Chiluba in Lusaka main Cathedral days later, he sobbed as he narrated his ‘fault’.

In a discusion involving Nyerere, Obote, former African National Congress president Oliver Tambo and himself, reports of a possible coup against Obote was ripe.

But the leaders had campaigned for months leading to the Singapore Commonwealth Summit and according to him, they needed Obote there; their voice, the ‘big gun’ if you like as the conference was a decisive one: to give the British an ultimatum that unless they stopped military support to apartheid South Africa and, broke off diplomatic and material support to (apartheid) Ian Smith’s regime in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia), they would (with the majority of other member states they had mobilised), pull out of the Commonwealth.
 
During the pre-conference discussion whether Obote could attend or not, he had insisted that Obote must and now, believed that his insistence was what tipped the balance for Obote to go to Singapore hence, the coup and its resultant effects.
I first met Dr Kaunda in Westminster Hall in London, a year or so after he had lost elections to Chiluba.

In a meeting chaired by Zainab Baddawi, then of Channel 4, Dr Kaunda then came across to most of us as one who had not only accepted defeat but, recognised that it had been a privilege to serve as president, a rare trait among African leaders and yet, he was to suffer a mixture of persecutions by his opponent Chiluba, including imprisonment, denial of retirement privileges, claims and revocation of citizenship.

As years went by, his opponents in Zambia and around Africa rallied around and warmed up as he increasingly became the apparent elder statesman that he was, until a few days ago.
Indeed, had Obote not died in 2005 and was to return to Uganda alive, opinion suggests, he could possibly have joined his old friend in the same aircraft possibly, back to Bushenyi or Entebbe.

Yet from a distance, I recall his state visit to Uganda in 1984 and the mammoth crowds that received and welcomed him, particularly in Soroti and Gulu districts.
He told the people of Gulu that he had brought them ‘love from fellow freedom fighters from Zambia’ before going on to castigate ‘those who kept quiet when Amin was killing’ Ugandans and adding that those people had no ‘moral authority to point fingers at apartheid’.
 

At this, you could see the tone, posture and body language of a man driven by justice and convictions.
As if music to Obote’s ears as he listened, Kaunda encouraged the people to work hard, saying: “The lazy must take holiday from eating… we shall see how they survive!”

Famous Gulu visit
Appropriately, it was during that visit that a sprawling open ground where he addressed a mammoth crowd was named in his honour, Kenneth Kaunda Liberation Ground.
In context, while Amin killed Ugandans from all walks of life, he particularly targeted Acholi and Lango peoples.  

From these nationalities, most of their peoples escaped – some via Sudan (Owiny Kibul) – into exile and mainly to Tanzania to constitute the core fighting force that eventually got rid of Amin in April 1979.
In response, Kenneth Kaunda and Julius Nyerere substantially supported Ugandan exiles and liberation efforts just as they did for other African nations as already stated.

In a Facebook response, Prof Isaac Ojok (former minister of Education) wrote how Kaunda gave them a second home and provided him with an opportunity to lecturer at the University of Zambia.

Kaunda hosted the largest number of liberation forces ever, from African National Congress of South Africa, People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola, FRELIMO of Mozambique, South-West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) of Namibia and of course UPC members, (some twice) and Dr Milton Obote’s second exile. Hundreds of Ugandans remain in Zambia today.

Lindiwe Sisulu of South Africa, for instance, twitted of how he provided them with a true second home.
A friend from SWAPO not so long ago told of how she knew no other home except Lusaka – until a few years ago – when they returned to Namibia.

A Kenyan journalist sent me a note immediately after getting the news.
“As far as I know, he is only second to Mandela. Someone who organised multiparty elections. He did not rig. He lost and went home,” the journalist wrote.

“KK has passed away,” was the WhatsApp message I got from a friend, a Zambian and daughter of one of Kaunda’s earliest allies in the independence struggles and government.
Dr Kaunda had been ‘killed’ many times by social media but from this source, my veins suggested it was true. The man had lived yet, seemingly we still needed him after all; the struggle is seemingly more complicated today than at their time.

I immediately placed a call but all she said was, “Yes, about 30 minutes ago, but Joseph, I will have to call you back.”
While he banned political parties between 1974 and 1991, claiming it would have interfered with their struggles for African liberation and, whereas many Zambians accuse him of dogmatic socialism, humanism he called it, which grossly impacted on the economy and equally did not do enough to diversify the economy away from copper and tourism and whereas he disappointed me by embracing Mr Museveni’s dictatorship after the fall of UPC government, this African giant was very much among men in their own league as indeed, they were.

With Milton Obote, they were the earliest two leaders in the continent to deeply discuss and raise the issues of HIV /Aids and in his case, had the opportunity to do more (as Obote was overthrown earlier) and provide leadership, including publicly stating that his son had died of the same disease.

I planned a pitch for a special TV (Al Jazeera) programme that would have featured him as the only surviving member of Mulungushi Club but, thanks to many issues, including family bureaucracy, the project never was. What a pity, a lost opportunity for a would-be-last live insights on tape.

A man of faith, manifested by his white handkerchief and, blessed with streets, buildings, airports and institutions across Africa named after him he has left behind something else; Kaunda suits, a signature set of clothing that leaves African gentlemen smart and off Western-tied suits.

I will lead in the revival with a special order in respect of the passing of an icon – sadly – an end to a generation yet, what a re-union – in heaven – it must be.
RIP, Father of Zambia, Africa’s eldest till the other day.

Mr Ochieno is a former UPC
spokesman and commentator
on African affairs