54 Years Since Obote Raided Mutesa

By Kiyimba Joseph

Kampala, Uganda (RTN) - In the 1966, Buganda Kingdom's King who was then the president of Uganda got involved in a terrible miss understanding with his Prime Minister Milton which led to the   Crisis known as the 1966 Buganda Crisis.

Here, RTN brings you the Sequence Of Events In The 1966 Crisis:

January 31, 1966 

Obote left Kampala for a two-week tour of his home area in northern Uganda.

February 4, 1966

KY Member of Parliament Daudi Ochieng an Acholi presented a Bill in Parliament, seeking to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate the Congo gold scandal. He alleged that Obote, Amin, Nekyon and Onama were party to trafficking in gold obtained from Congolese rebels and that they divided up 350,000 Pounds in proceeds. Ochieng brandished copies of Colonel Amin's bank statement for February 1965 that showed that 17,000 Pounds had been deposited in a 24-day period.

February 7, 1966

Parliament passed a motion to suspended Colonel Idi Amin from duty pending the investigation into his bank account.

February 22, 1966

During a cabinet meeting, five ministers Grace Ibingira, Balaki Kirya, Mathias Ngobi, G.B.K Magezi and Dr. Emmanuel Lumu were arrested on charges of plotting against the government. The police burst into the meeting and dragged the ministers into waiting Land Rovers and whisked them off to confinement in northern Uganda. Obote then issued a statement that he was temporarily assuming all powers. He said " In the interest of national stability and public security and tranquility, I have today taken over all powers of the Government of Uganda". (The ministers were held without trial until, Obote's government was was overthrown in 1971. They were released on January 28, 1971).

February 26, 1966

Obote promoted Colonel Idi Amin to Commander to replace Brigadier General Shaban Opolot. Opolot was a long-serving professional and Sandhurst-trainedmilitary officer. He had resisted the involvement of the Uganda Army with the Congolese rebels in 1965.

March 2, 1966 

Obote suspended the constitution and announced he was taking over powers of the presidency an office held by the Kabaka Sir Edward Mutesa II.

April 15, 1966 

Obote announced a new constitution in parliament and declared himself the Executive President under the new constitution, ending Buganda's autonomy. The offices Prime Minister, President, and Vice President – held respectively by Obote; Sir Edward Mutesa II, Kabaka (King) of Buganda; and Sir Wilberforce Nadiope, Kyabazinga of Busoga and national vice president and chairman of the Busoga branch of the UPC – are all abolished. All executive powers are vested in an Executive President. The right of appeal to the Privy Council in London is eliminated. The status of traditional rulers in Buganda, Ankole, Toro and Bunyoro is recognized, but are forbidden to hold public office.

May 20, 1966

Buganda Lukiiko (Parliament) passed a resolution calling on Obote’s government to vacate Buganda territory by May 30, 1966.

May 23, 1966

Obote’s government arrested three Buganda county chiefs who were the prime movers of the May 20 motion, and encircled the Kabaka’s palace with troops. Much of Buganda rose in revolt against the central government: villagers armed with pangas blocked the roads leading to Kampala, cut telephone lines, and overran police posts in the countryside.

May 24, 1966

Obote ordered the Uganda Army led by Colonel Idi Amin to launch an attack on the Kabaka’s palace in Mengo. After 12 hours of bitter combat costing several hundreds of lives, Obote’s troops fought their way into the palace and seized a large stock of old weapons. The Kabaka escaped from the palace by jumping over the palace perimeter wall during a rainstorm.

May 25, 1966

Obote's troops bombed and totally destroyed Kabaka's palace in Mengo,  Kampala.

October 7, 1966

The chief of Uganda defense staff Brig. Shaban Opolot was dismissed from the Army and arrested.

Sir Edward Mutesa II, had formed an alliance to demand self-rule, (independence from Britain) eventually winning power in the 1962 election. Kabaka Mutesa II become president of Uganda, and Milton Obote become prime minister but later because of Obote's selfish Interests, the cordiality between him and Kabaka Mutesa II started deteriorating leading to the events above!

Ssekabaka Sir Edward Mutesa II:

Father died : November 21, 1939

Born:  November 21, 1924

Coronation: November 21, 1942

Died: November 21, 1969

Ssekabaka Mutesa II was the thirty- fifth Kabaka (King) of Buganda from 1939 until his death on November 21, 1969 at London in Britain. He was the first President of the post independent Uganda from 1962 to 1966, till he was deposed and forced into exile by the then Prime Minister, Apollo Milton Obote.

He became the King of Buganda on November 21, 1939 following the death of his father, King Sir Daudi Chwa II.

Major General Sir Edward Mutesa II had eleven sons and six daughters, including Prince Ronald Frederick Kimera Muwenda Mutebi, Princess Dorothy Namukabya Nassolo, Princess Anne Sarah Kagere, Prince Kintu Wasajja, Prince Ssuuna, Prince Ndawula, Princess Catherine Nabaloga, Prince Masamba, Prince Golooba and Lieutenant Prince Frederick Wampamba who was slaughtered by Idi Amin in 1972.

On 31/07/1993, Kabaka Mutesa’s biological son, His Majesty Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II became the thirty- sixth Kabaka of Buganda, at a colourful coronation function at Naggalabi, Buddo, a suburb of Kampala in Uganda.

Curiously, Milton Obote was overthrown in a military coup by none other than his own army commander and trusted ally, General Iddi Amin Dada, on January 25, 1971.

Kabaka Mutesa II was allegedily ssassinated by Apollo Milton Obote at his London Palace on November 21, 1969 at the age of 45. His death was identified by British police as death by poisoning. 

“We got warning, people used to write and say somebody has been sent, be aware, take care,” one family friend, another Ugandan exile living in London, told the BBC in 2009, four decades after King Mutesa II’s death.

According to JM Kavuma-Kaggwa, an elder from Kyaggwe, Mukono District: “There were rumours that Obote was spending Shs 250,000 per week (a lot of money then) to track down the Kabaka. Their mission had completely failed until luck struck when the late Oscar Kambona of Tanzania who fell out with President Julius Nyerere and fled into exile in London, organised a birthday party in November 1969 in Sir Edward Mutesa’s honour.

“Also in attendance was a beautiful Muganda girl from Najjanankumbi in Kampala who had been recruited by Obote to go to London, in UK, befriend Sir Edward Muteesa II, be close to him and poison him. She came close to the Kabaka during the party. It was reported that the Kabaka invited the girl to this birthday party and that was the time she managed to poison Kabaka because she was the one in charge of the Kabaka’s drinks that evening".

The body of Kabaka Mutesa II was returned to Uganda in 1971 after the overthrow of Obote and given a state funeral by the new President Idi Amin, who, as Army Commander, had led the bloody military assault on Kabaka Mutesa’s palace on 24/05/1966 in Mengo, Kampala.

Kabaka Muteesa II had the honour of serving as his nation’s first president, serving as a symbol of culture and head of a well-established polity. He was also an icon and a symbol of peace and unity for a united Uganda.

The Kingdom was restored in 1993, upon the coronation of  His Royal Majesty Ronald Frederick Muwenda Mutebi II, the current Kabaka (King) of Buganda Kingdom. 

At the end, Apollo Milton Obote who allegedly assassinated King Mutesa in exile in London also died in the exile in Lusaka, Zambia on October 10, 2005!! Tetulyeerabira ate tetulisonyiwa Omuttemu Milton Obote.