Lessons from our political history

The Cabinet ministers  in the picture above of Idi Amin’s cabinet  resigned, were axed or summarily killed except for a few well placed ones. The honeymoon enjoyed by the Cabinet after the coup of January 1971 did not last long.

On that Cabinet list above, my quick review indicates that only Edward Rugumayo is alive. Rugumayo was one of the few who sent a resignation telegram to  Amin from Nairobi, which was candid to the dot. By the end of January 1972,  it is recorded that Rugumayo wrote (in part):

“I found it increasingly difficult to fulfill my duties in the atmosphere that prevails in my country. I wish you the courage to preserve life; the wisdom to know that man cannot create himself at will; the knowledge to understand that man’s mission here on earth (including yours) is to preserve, and prolong life; and to understand that what we do today will determine the destiny of the nation tomorrow, and posterity will judge us by our actions of today”.

By 1973, most ministers were not regular at their offices.  This led Amin to make a public announcement that he had sent all the ministers on forced leave so that they could take holiday from the stressful government offices. When there was little hope of most of them returning to work, Amin announced further extension of the forced leave.

During the forced leave, Amin discovered that he could function - as a dictator - without the Cabinet whose roles had been  reduced to adopting the president’s decisions.

Without Parliament, and the reduced role of the Cabinet, the decrees made in 1972 and 1973 increased powers of the armed forces, to search and arrest without liability of government in the name of maintaining public authority, defence, or law and order. This was when we saw the botched elections of chiefs who converged for nation training and briefing by the President in Makerere University, Kampala. They returned with Khaki uniforms - green for the village chiefs and khaki colour for the parish chiefs.

The narratives above are just but part of what the1995 Constitution refers to as our difficult political history - in which some arms of government were absent and there was no respect for boundaries of and accountability to each arm of government - on the contrary, all the powers were consolidated in the presidency.

As we swear in the newly elected president, Members of Parliament and cabinet ministers to be appointed this month, we must recall our difficult political history and defend the Constitution.

Henry Nickson Ogwal,