The final stages to the Independence (1959 – 1962)
In 1959, the governor, Sir Fredrick Crawford appointed a constitutional
committee that was chaired by Mr. J V Wild. This committee was to draw
plans for the 1961 general elections. Buganda refused to nominate
members to the committee.
The Wild report was presented in February 1960 and proposed direct
elections to LEGICO based on adult suffrage of one-man one vote. Uganda
was to be granted her self-rule after the 1961 elections.
Buganda leaders opposed the recommendations from the Wild report and
the King left for London. He wanted to postpone the direct elections to
the Legico. and also to separate Buganda from the rest of Uganda. The
Kings of Ankole, Toro and Bunyoro supported him but their councils did
not support them.
The king's mission to London was a failure and when he came back he
demanded for Buganda's separate independence and threatened to have it
on 31st December 1960. Buganda decided to boycott the 1961 elections.
The 1961 Elections: The colonial administrators demanded countrywide
elections, which were held in 1961. However, the Buganda Lukiiko, which
was against direct elections for fear of a Catholic victory, boycotted
the elections
The boycott was carried through by intimidation and harassment of
all those who turned up for voter registration. Consequently, voter
turn-up in Buganda was very low. The Democratic Party won 19 seats in
Buganda and a further 24 seats outside Buganda. UPC won 35 seats
outside Buganda. As a result, Benedicto Kiwanuka of the DP became the
first Chief Minister of Uganda.
The elections were organized in Uganda under the Umbrella of the
British colonial government. DP won with 43 seats against UPC's 35.
Kiwanuka became Uganda's chief minister and on 1st March 1962, he was
declared the first Prime minister.
The fear of the catholic dominated government which people thought
would revenge against the Protestants for their past frustrations led
to some changes such that DP was not allowed to lead Uganda after
independence. This drew the attention of the protectorate government,
which set up a special committee to consider the future of Uganda.
In order to defeat DP in the next elections, there was an alliance
between the UPC, a republican anti monarchy party and KY, a
traditionalist feudalist party.
The alliance was a temporally arrangement to enable both sides come
to power. This was facilitated by the fact that both parties were for
Protestants; KY was weak and therefore, needed support from elsewhere;
Buganda had to defend itself by getting support from the popular party,
UPC and also the members of UPC and KY had attended the same Protestant
schools. All these factors made it easy for the alliance to take place.
Daudi Ochieng played a major role to create the alliance.
One of the terms of the alliance which was later on adopted in 1962
constitution, was for Buganda to hold indirect election for Buganda's
representatives to national parliament. UPC was not to field candidates
in Buganda to allow KY compete with DP only.
The UPC and the colonial government supported this move. DP openly opposed this but no fair change was made. In the February 1962 Lukiiko elections, KY de-campaigned DP reasoning that voting for DP meant disrespect for the Kabaka. In other words it was a choice between Ben and Edward. As expected KY won 67 Lukiiko seats with DP winning only 3. The Lukiiko then nominated 21 to go national parliament. This unfortunate event marked the failure of DP to come to power.
The independence elections for the rest of the country were held in
March 1962 and the results were as follows: UPC won 34, KY 21
(nominated from Lukiiko) and DP 24. The KY/UPC alliance had a total of
55 seats against DP's 24 only. Most DP heavy weights in Buganda
including the leader of the party, Ben Kiwanuka lost their seats.
On 9th October 1962, the Duke of Kent representing Her Majesty the
Queen of England handed over the constitutional instruments of
Independence to Uganda with Obote as a Prime Minister.
National Movements and New States in Africa