Of course it does. It is only that your brain is too little to make the
connections.
From: "Edward Mulindwa" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: ugandanet@kym.net
To: <ugandanet@kym.net>
Subject: Re: [Ugnet] Mutesa's last days in UK Date: Tue, 24 May 2005
19:19:51 -0400
Kasangwawo
This article has actually nothing to do with what I posted.
Em
Toronto
The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"
Groupe de communication Mulindwas
"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie"
----- Original Message ----- From: "jonah kasangwawo"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <ugandanet@kym.net>
Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 7:33 AM
Subject: [Ugnet] Mutesa's last days in UK
Netters,
here's the article about Muteesa II's time in exile. I'd rather believe
this well-researched information than the fables one netter has been
imposing on the public about his hero remitting funds to the exiled King.
In fact, as you will see, the opposite was the case.
What would be interesting to know is how much was on the accounts frozen
by Obote and what happened to the money, as well as the confiscated
property.
Kasangwawo
May 24, 2005
Mutesa's last days in UK
By Esther Nakkazi
When he had arrived in London, Mutesa had been accorded VIP protection.
But upon pressure from Kampala, the British government had the security
withdrawn.
Ugandan journalist Esther Nakkazi recently travelled to the UK and went to
the National archives with a vie to finding out the truth about the life
of Sir Edward Mutesa who was overthrown as Kabaka and President of Uganda
on May 23, 1966. Below, she recounts her findings:
It is a cold Saturday morning at the National Archives, one of the largest
archival collections in the world with a collection of records dating as
far back as the 11th century. With the Freedom of Information Act passed
in November 2000, which came into effect in 2005, one can access any type
of information held by public bodies upon registration, free of charge.
Mutesa
After logging in, using my ticket number, searching the catalogue which
contains 9.5 million searchable descriptions of records of central
governments, courts of law and other UK national bodies, my interest was
the Foreign Office where you will find all the correspondences between the
colonial government and the British government.
Under the current legislation in the UK, most public records that were
held and labelled confidential/secret are open 30 years after they were
filed by government departments.
For a start my search word was Mutesa, then demarcation of Uganda's
borders, East African Railway and all had interesting revelations.
With a list of over 40 entries, I settled for Mutesa in exile, since this
year makes 39 years since he went into exile in London.
According to the files I accessed - mainly letters, correspondences and
minutes of meetings that took place in London about Uganda - while in
London, Sir Edward Mutesa was literally starving and perpetually broke,
unable to pay his rent and living off donations from friends.
He was not even allowed to keep his own money for fear that he would spend
it on luxuries like beer.
So any donations he got were controlled by his solicitor Mr. Martin Flegg
who paid his rent and Mutesa's cook.
Although Mutesa was living in a "deplorable flat" near the Bayswater road
paying rent of only £25 (about Shs80,000), the rent was increasingly
becoming unaffordable ten months after getting to London and he was
progressively becoming a burden to his friends.
Already, his friend Lord Boyd had collected from among Mutesa's friends a
sum amounting to £1,400 (Shs4.6m) including £100 (Shs330,000) from the
solicitor-general Sir-Dingle Foot and it was in the custody of his
solicitor Mr. Flegg.
They had also collected £400 (Shs1.3m) for his travel to England and Lord
Boyd did not want to ask them for any more money.
Meanwhile his creditors were being kept at bay but he was always on the
verge of being declared destitute. Senior British politicians found it
deplorable that a whole president of a commonwealth country would be in
this state.
But fears of damaging relations between UK and the new regime in Kampala
kept the government from assisting the fallen king.
Sir Edward Mutesa and one of his followers were admitted to the UK after
escaping from Uganda following the May 1966 coup in which Mutesa at that
time Kabaka of Buganda was deposed from his position as constitutional
president.
Both of them were admitted to the UK as Commonwealth immigrants upon
undertakings given by Mutesa's British friends- Lord Montagu of Beaulieu
and Hon. Colin Tennant that they would accept full responsibility for
their maintenance but with time, they could not sustain the donations as
the contributions soon ran out.
So his friends decided to seek audience with Minister of State, Mr. George
Thomas on February 28, 1976.
In the meeting, Lord Boyd told the minister that Sir Edward Mutesa was
suffering great hardship and lacked financial support but felt that there
was a moral obligation on Her Majesty's Government to give Mutesa
financial support even if the treaty relationship that was supposed to
effect this was "submerged" after independence.
Mr Thomas asked about the possibility of Mutesa earning his own living and
was informed that employment for him had been searched in the army, at an
institution dealing with Colonial Records at Oxford University, United
Nations (UN) but all was fruitless.
Apparently all institutions asked for experience, skill and particular
academic qualifications, which Mutesa reportedly did not have.
Mr Thomas said he had nothing encouraging to tell them saying and that the
British government would not take over this responsibility. But they
suggested that Her Majesty's government should talk to Dr. Milton Obote,
then President of Uganda so that Mutesa would be allowed to get money
remitted into his UK account from revenue from his private lands in
Uganda.
The revenue from Mutesa's land was paid in an account in Kampala and some
of it was remitted to the UK before he was overthrown but the account was
now frozen.
Before it was frozen, money from the account was being remitted to the
Kabaka's UK account to pay for Mutesa's children's school fees but after
that, Lord Boyd committed himself to paying school fees for two years for
the children.
Sir Edward Mutesa was also unhappy that he would not be reunited with his
wife lady Damalie and his sister Nalinya Mpologoma who had been detained
but later released and taken to Bishop Dunstan Nsubuga's residence at
Namirembe.
Although the press at the time reported that the Nabagereka wanted to
travel to London to her husband, she was only free to travel around Uganda
but not outside the country.
Bishop Nsubuga said by sheltering the Nabagereka under his roof, he was
doing what was required of him as a Christian.
He told the press that although she had not complained, the Nabagereka was
obviously uncomfortable, since she had been living in a palace and life in
a "small house" could not be suitable for someone of her status.
Mutesa's friends in London were concerned that Her Majesty's Government
was not acting and were asking Mr. Thomas to intervene.
However, Mr. Thomas told them that there was already sharp and negative
resistance on the subject when someone from his office - Ms. Hart spoke to
Dr. Obote.
He said when Ms Hart spoke about Sir Edward Mutesa's finances on September
20 to Milton Obote when he was in London for the Commonwealth Prime
Minister's conference, Obote showed extreme sensitivity on Sir Mutesa's
position, indicating that he would prefer not to discuss it.
Mr. Thomas also informed them that he had spoken to the Foreign Affairs
minister, Sam Odaka in a meeting on 28 June and asked him whether there
was any possibility of the ladies joining the Kabaka.
In response, Odaka asked on what terms the Kabaka had been allowed in
Britain and further still what terms the ladies would be allowed in
Britain.
Mr Thomas said he would however speak to the head of Immigration
department home Office, knowing well that the ladies could demonstrate
their commonwealth relationship.
Captain Owen, another of the Kabaka's friends said he would be their
financial guarantor and the minister was hopeful that they would get
certificates for entry into Britain.
The political ping-pong about Muteesa's welfare dragged on until he died
destitute and lonely in 1969. All along, Kampala's linkman with the
British government was Foreign Minister Sam Odaka.
His position was firm that the Uganda government had to be convinced that
Mutesa would not use his funds once they were released to him from Kampala
to destabilise the Obote government.
Very concerned about annoying Obote, the British officials used the same
excuse to deny Mutesa any financial assistance.
Through the Commonwealth Office, they even obstructed attempts by his
sympathisers to find him work in his old regiment and in other places. The
officials set conditions that Mutesa could not fulfil - including
renouncing his Kabakaship.
When he had arrived in London in June 1966, Mutesa had been accorded VIP
protection provided by the Police Special Branch.
But upon pressure from Kampala, the British government made consultations
and established that the king's life "was not in danger" and the security
was withdrawn.
The British Government also rejected calls by Mutesa's friends to review
their aid package to Uganda, then standing at 6 million pounds, saying it
was based on long-term considerations.
There were many attempts by friends to secure some finance which they
strongly believed Mutesa was entitled to from Her Majesty's government.
Not only had he been king of a British colony, he had also served in Her
Majesty's forces as an officer. (During his first exile in the UK, the
government used to pay Mutesa a stipend of £8,000 a year.)
They adduced evidence that Mutesa had not stashed away any fortune in
Switzerland, contrary to some malicious rumours. They cited the example of
the Sultan of Zanzibar, who had been given 100,000 pounds on arrival in
Britain when he was overthrown.
But the British government argued that the Sultan had relinquished a strip
of Zanzibari territory on the Kenyan coast which became part of
independent Kenya, and the money was compensation for this.
Her Majesty's Government successfully resisted demands from Mutesa's
friends to do anything about his condition, citing the "sensitivity" of
Obote's government to the issue, and finally rested the matter with a
vague promise in the middle of 1967 thus: "The Commonwealth Office will
watch for the appropriate time to raise issue again with the Ugandan
Government to ask them to allow the transfer of Mutesa's private funds to
the UK."
The appropriate time apparently never came.
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