\n
by Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (March 7<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> 2015)<\/span><\/p>\n Consolidation<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The defeat of the Kabaka (ruler of the Kingdom of Buganda) Mutesa II neutralised both him and also his party Kabaka Yekka. Defections from it to the Uganda People\u02bcs Congress ended Mutesa\u02bcs influence and the relevance of his party at least for the time being. The Democratic Party also suffered defections. Uganda was on its way to becoming a one-party state, but Ugandan Prime Minister Milton Obote was still a long way from ultimate power, as divisions in the Uganda People\u02bcs Congress reappeared.<\/span><\/p>\n Obote still had some way to go to see off all the threats. His political astuteness had outmanoeuvred Mutesa II in 1966. The Democratic Party was no longer a threat to win elections, but dissenters in the ruling Uganda People\u02bcs Congress were the new threat, or rather they were an old threat emboldened to take on Obote. They were gifted an opportunity in early 1966 through the carelessness of Obote\u02bcs military prot\u00e9g\u00e9, a then Colonel Idi Amin Dada.<\/span><\/p>\n An African Tyrant <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The outstanding leader of the Congo\u02bcs liberation struggle from Belgium Patrice Lumumba had been murdered on January 17th<\/sup> 1961 after being delivered to Katangan secessionists by his former prot\u00e9g\u00e9 turned aspiring tyant through control of the military, Joseph D\u00e9sir\u00e9 Mobutu. Shorn of its gifted leader the Congo-L\u00e9<\/span>opoldville, as it then was, soon descended into chaos, which was exploited by Mobutu to seize power through a coup d\u02bc\u00e9<\/span>tat.<\/span><\/p>\n Mobutu\u02bcs coup had the tacit support of the Western powers due to Cold War politics. That decision left the Congolese people suffering the tender mercies of the despot for three decades. Armed opposition included Pierre Mulele, Nicholas Olenga and future President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Laurent-D\u00e9sir\u00e9 Kabila. <\/span><\/p>\n Opposition to Mobutu was organised in Africa, if that is the right word, as it was incredibly disorganised. Che Guevara despaired of the lack of organisation by Kabila. Nevertheless, African leaders, including Obote quickly saw the danger Mobutu posed and conspired with Congolese opposition to oust him forcibly. Amin\u02bcs carelessness gave Obote\u02bcs opponents in the Uganda People\u02bcs Congress their chance.<\/span><\/p>\n No Confidence<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Congo was rich in resources. It was soon plundered by both sides. Mobutu\u02bcs corrupt and brutal kleptocracy all but ruined the country. Kabila, like other armed opponents, trafficked ivory and gold \u2013 they had little choice to fund their struggle. Obote chose to support Olenga, but it soon backfired.<\/span><\/p>\n Amin deposited a gold bar stamped by the Congolese government into his personal account in 1966. It was brazen. The account was credited with $17,000. Obote\u02bcs opponents had their opportunity.<\/span><\/p>\n They discovered that Obote had used the Ugandan army, especially Colonel Amin to interfere in the crisis in the Congo. Amin claimed that the money had been used to purchase weapons from the Chinese for General Olenga, but Olenga said that he never received them. That enabled Obote\u02bcs opponents to accuse Amin and Obote, among others, of corruption, aided and abetted by Olenga\u02bcs claims. Amin said the weapons had been bought, but were intercepted in Kenya.<\/span><\/p>\n Obote\u02bcs Coups<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Obote\u02bcs opponents in the Uganda People\u02bcs Congress took advantage while he was away from Kampala. The vote of no confidence was near unanimous, but Obote outmanoeuvred the party\u02bcs General Secretary Grace Iginbira and her allies by staging a coup against his own government, arrested his party opponents and imposed a new constitution without debate or a vote. He concentrated powers in the Prime Minister\u02bcs Office and took away the autonomy of the regional kingdoms.<\/span><\/p>\n Faced with dissent in Buganda from the Kabaka, Obote sent in troops under Amin\u02bcs command to subdue the opposition, which Amin did once Obote lost patience and demanded results. Mutesa II escaped and fled into exile. The Constitution, dividing Buganda into four districts, imposed martial law. Obote had outmanoeuvred his opponents again \u2013 now he had to deliver without opponents to out-muscle or blame if things went wrong. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (March 7th 2015) Consolidation The defeat of the Kabaka (ruler of the Kingdom of [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,19,18],"tags":[777,771,221,204,255,778,779,209,233,217],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1005"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1005"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2485,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1005\/revisions\/2485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}