Mitayo,
You definitely know a lot that many of us don't. Why pick and choose your ways
and words, when indeed Ugandans need nothing but the whole truths? Please go
all the way and let the people know what happened in the country. You are
picking and choosing your words too much in this one.
Ocii
--- On Sun, 10/26/08, Mitayo Potosi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
From: Mitayo Potosi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Ugnet] Origins of gun politics in a free Uganda
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], "The First Virtual Network for
friends of Uganda" <[email protected]>
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED], "Anne Mugisha" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Received: Sunday, October 26, 2008, 4:14 PM
Re: Origins of gun politics in a free Uganda
Comrade Ochieno,
I am sorry but your narrative as to when violence was introduced into our
body-politic, is disingenuously flawed, and incoherent.
You talk about a pre-independence period, and then jump to the fall-out between
KY and Obote, and subsequent intrigues.
As to how KY came to be, and later, how it became so emboldened to take on, in
a quasi-military confrontation, the Central Govt., you don't say.
Please note that Ben Kiwanuka was the first Prime Minister for the period
before independence.
For some reason the British never wanted to leave Uganda with Kiwanuka at the
head.
It was then that Kabaka Yekka was formed, for the purposes of divide and rule.
But it soon emerged that spreading Kabaka Yekka into Masaka District,
Kiwanuka's home district and a predominantly Catholic area (as compared to the
more Anglican rest of Buganda), was going to be a difficult task.
Comrade Ochieno, I remember very well the political violence that the Kabaka
Yekka goons unleashed on our people in Masaka District, to force KY down our
throats.
Banana plantations were erased.
People's houses were set on fire.
Innocents were murdered/assassinated.
Fascistic KY militants were marauding everywhere with 'jambiyas', cutting
Achilles tendons of our herds of cattle.
Those were very traumatic times in Masaka District.
The rest of Uganda didn't even seem to care or notice!!
We were accused by Mengo of being a fifth column of traitors against the King.
UPC was in a love-fest with KY and they never cared since most of those that
were dying were assumed to be Kiwanuka's DP's.
Of course the British imperialists (who were the primary architects of the
mayhem) never batted an eye lid.
Arch Bishop Monsignor Joseph Kiwanuka at Lubaga condemned this oppression and
violence and cautioned Kabaka Mutesa to cease this sectarian politics.
Kabak Yekka had been so emboldened by the inaction and silence of the British
and UPC, that they marched to Lubaga to arrest the Arch Bishop for daring to
disagree with Muteesa.
They arrested his private Secretary Father Joseph Ssebayigga (he passed away
about two years ago).
No wonder then that when, in later years, Kabaka Yekka fell out with Obote they
attempted to take him on, violently.
That is where you Ochieno now start your narrative.
Please call your narrative 'The second wave of violence', by an emboldened KY.
You reap what you sow !!
Obote had nurtured the rabid dogs against us from Masaka, and now they were
coming to bite him.
There is another and similar hollow narrative.
That the genocide in Rwanda started on the day after the downing of
the Habyalimana plane.
Hey hey, it seems we are perfecting the game of the 'Big Lie' .
When we were dying in Masaka, those in Luweero never cared !!
Who is now caring when our brothers and sisters in Acholi are dying?
Who is going to be next?
How come we don't seem to learn?
Why are so many intent on distorting our history?
Some say Obote introduced violence into our body-politic, in 1966; and now this
Ochieno twists the lie; that violence was introduced in 1966, but by others and
not Obote !!
Why all this twist to cover up the real truth ?
Mitayo Potosi.
==========================================
Origins of gun politics in a free Uganda
Joseph Ochieno
Uganda Peoples Congress has a new member. She is a 42-year-old middle class
Muganda born in 1966. The first time we discussed Uganda politics she told me
that anybody who will unite Uganda as one country would have her vote.
I told her that in fact her wishes were enshrined under 'Objective One' of the
Uganda Peoeples Congress (UPC) constitution: "To build the Republic of Uganda
as one country with one people, one parliament and one government".
My friend's mother, a former Kabaka Yekka (KY) member, almost certainly voted
for Mama Miria in the 2006 elections while her father supports the Democratic
Party (DP). Our discussions recently touched on whether Uganda's independence
is '46 wasted years' of self rule.
Our experiences since independence have made us so apathetic that we blame
everyone else but our sometimes-collective and individual-selves.
In the last 23 years, those who have been ruling us by proxy or otherwise,
without our mandate, never waste a moment to blame it all on those who ruled
and governed in the earlier 23. The narrative is so entrenched that even the
political, media and intellectual elite, who should be in a better position to
dissect the issues, seem to have bought into it. But when did it really go
wrong for us? Uganda attained her independence following a negotiated
settlement in London in 1961. The key players were DP, UPC, Mengo/ Buganda
(Kabaka Yekka was born after the London agreement) and Bunyoro.
In April 1962, fresh elections were held which UPC easily won. UPC sought to
form a government but DP declined. It was after that refusal that UPC and KY
agreed to form a coalition with Milton Obote as the executive prime minister.
Absolutely nothing wrong with that.
In 1963, UPC sought a constitutional amendment that saw the removal of the
British office of governor general and replacing it with a symbolic president
elected by parliament. Sir Edward Mutesa was elected to that position and the
office of governor general was erased.
In 1964, a referendum was held, as agreed at Lancaster House, to resolve the
impasse over the disputed (Buganda vs Bunyoro) 'lost counties'. When this was
agreed to in 1961, no one knew which party would be in government. So Obote as
the executive prime minister only executed what had been agreed by all. Nothing
wrong with that, except that some people did not like the results and opted to
target the messenger - only!
Tension brewed from this turned into mistrust and with it, arrived the politics
of behind-the-scenes-manoeuvres. A new political re-alignment now started and
by 1965, only three years into our independence, there were already plots to
assassinate the prime minister and overthrow the government. The plots and the
actors were real. They actually tried it but failed.
Dr Obote wrote that the deputy army commander was the military chief of the
operation which he was to execute on behalf of others. According to Obote, this
was the first time that the gun was introduced into the politics of Uganda, in
1965.
But if only some people could own up. They did not, hence the arrest of key
players, including some ministers. If some of these events led to the 1966
crisis, neither subsequent attempts nor the initial plots have helped resolve
Uganda's pre-independence problems. Now, 46 years after independence, 23 years
after UPC and Obote were forced off the political centre stage, the same old
problems are glaring in our faces, unresolved. But why?
Like then, nobody wants to own up but instead, continue to blame the same old
messenger, long since retired. UPC worked extremely hard to ensure we had one
independent country in 1962. It is extraordinary that those who should help
younger Ugandans through this reality are so disingenuous dishonest to
themselves and our country.
Mr Ochieno is UPC's special presidential envoy to the UK & Ireland [EMAIL
PROTECTED]
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