1986: Untold story of Museveni takeover
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Sunday, 27 January 2013 22:56 Written by Peter Mwayi 1 Comments Museveni
during the bush days Lutwa was in the dark about NRA capture of power
Museveni struck names off cabinet list as ministers were swearing in
As the National Resistance Movement celebrates 27 years since it captured
state power, officially on 26 January 1986, Edward Ochwo, 77, the retired
secretary to Cabinet and clerk to Parliament, gives a personal account of
the events surrounding the swearing-in of the then NRM rebel leader, Yoweri
Museveni, as president of Uganda.
Ochwo was appointed Secretary to Cabinet in 1980 after President Godfrey
Lukongwa Binaisa was toppled by Paulo Muwanga. He doubled as clerk to the
National Council/Parliament between 1980 and 1988 under Paulo Muwanga,
Milton Obote, Tito Okello and Yoweri Museveni.
In an interview with Peter Mwayi, at his home on Mutungo hill, Ochwo
remembers how President Tito Okello Lutwa showed up for work oblivious to
the fact that his government had been overthrown.
When Tito Okello took over, I was transferred to cabinet as the Secretary to
Cabinet and I served for the six months that Okello was head of state. But I
soon started to see cracks in cabinet, because this was a collection of
different people from different political parties and different ideologies.
I could see that they were disoriented, each had their own ideas.
Cabinet was torn in spirit, and even the two Okellos [President Tito Okello
and the de facto number two Bazilio Okello] had different ideas. Bazilio
wanted DP to gain the upper hand yet Tito could not hear of that. So they
were already quarrelling about key appointments and promotions in the army.
I remember one Acholi, Ojok Mulozi, then minister for Information, telling
me: Now Tito has turned this thing into UPC again.
By the time Museveni came, things were about to erupt within the cabinet.
Andrew Kayiira [leader of the Uganda Freedom Movement] was holding one part
of Kampala, and [a UNLF faction] was holding the other part, so the Okellos
were just in the centre, they had no control over Kampala.
There was going to be another showdown, which Museveni, thank God, nipped in
the bud. Musevenis takeover saved this country from another bloodletting
which was going to be so bad because the Bazilios were ruthless men. They
were holding and expressing anti-Baganda sentiments.
The takeover
The [week] before Musevenis soldiers marched into Kampala, Tito Okello
adjourned a cabinet meeting and Bidandi Ssali whispered to me that there
would be no other meeting since the men were around the corner.
The following morning, I dutifully reported to office and found just a few
junior officers. All the staff who had connections with the NRA [National
Resistance Army] did not report for duty. All the men from western Uganda
did not turn up for duty. At 11 oclock, Okello comes into office, calls me,
and asks if the ministers are ready. I tell him Sir, there is no one in
office. He asks why, and I say I have no idea, so he tells me to ring all
of them.
Of course, at that time, communication was not as modern but I managed to
talk to most of them. They told me they were not coming to cabinet that day.
I told him that no minister was coming. At about midday, Bazilio Okello and
a host of other smartly-dressed soldiers came in, walked into Titos office,
and sat for an hour.
Tito called me and said since there was no one around, the meeting should be
postponed to the following week. By this time, he had changed into his full
generals military uniform. He walked out of the International Conference
Centre, boarded one of the jeeps in the waiting fleet and off they drove
eastwards.
[Shortly afterwards,] Yoweri Museveni announced a takeover.
Drama at swear-in
I was not involved in anything, as soon as the guns went silent, I reported
for duty at the cabinet secretariat and that is where some soldiers
approached me, the only one I remember is [now major general] Kahinda
Otafiire. I could recognise him because he had been a Foreign service
officer, so I knew him.
President Museveni takes oath in 1986
We have to swear in the new president, can you come and organise the
ceremony? We want it on the steps of Parliament House, Otafiire [asked me].
I was a bit disorganised and went back into my office to recollect myself.
Otafiire came in and said, Now the president is about to arrive, can we do
this faster? I walked out and hundreds of soldiers had surrounded the
building. I was the only civilian walking among them. We then proceeded to
Parliament and Justice David Potter presided over the ceremony [on January
29, 1986] on behalf of the then acting Chief Justice George Masika, together
with Chief Registrar Serwano Kulubya.
The list of the new cabinet was worked out and given to me to present after
Museveni was sworn in. As I read out the names, I came to the name of Mwene
Mushanga. The president exclaimed, and asked if I was swearing in my own
cabinet, to which I responded that this was the list given to me.
The president then said that the name I had read was not on his cabinet
list, so he asked who had given me the name. I told him my duty was simply
to present the list, so we had to briefly stop the [ceremony].
They went inside to refine the list, and when they came back, three names
had been removed. We proceeded and swore in the cabinet. I could read in
that, that obviously some people wanted to be in cabinet yet the president
was not keen on having them there and indeed they were struck off. I recall
someone calling me and saying: You man, you have had a brush with the
president already!
After the swearing-in ceremony, which was followed by no jubilations, I
waited for the president to greet him and he said Oh, Bwana Ochwo, you are
still here? We shall work together.
He knew me because [we worked together] while Museveni was minister of
Defence in the UNLF government.
Museveni style
What I marked right from the start was that everything had to be done the
way Museveni wanted it done. Cabinet would sit from nine Oclock, discuss,
make resolutions and so on. Because the president was not there all the
time, it was always [Prime Minister] Dr Samson Kisekka chairing cabinet.
Then Museveni would arrive almost at the time we were breaking off for lunch
and ask for a brief of what had transpired.
On being briefed on the resolutions, he would sit and say, No, it cant be
like that! He would then go over the whole thing, changing this and that.
You would notice people scratching [their] heads wondering why their time
had been wasted. This continued for all the time, especially when there was
something important to be passed.
He would dictate to the secretary what was to be adopted and he would cause
the resolutions to suit what he wanted to happen. That control over the
cabinet is one of the things I marked about Musevenis ways of procedure.
Obote was different because he tried to persuade cabinet to see things his
way.
Corruption
Ochwo blames the corruption in government on the interference of ministers
in ministry operations. He recalls a time when he was asked to provide a
million US dollars to a certain Indian who had played a role in the NRA
bush war. He says he could not refuse the request but demanded a written
request from the president.
He refuses to give details of what followed, characterising the matter as
confidential government business. He also recalls being ordered to provide
280,000 British Pounds, ostensibly to buy books.
These incidents, he says, were early indications that the government was
beginning to go astray. Ochwo believes recent threats of a military takeover
should not be taken lightly. He says there is a
crisis: the country has no money, yet there is a need to justify the
incessant government extravagance.
77-year-old Edward Ochwo
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"
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