1/8. Summary: I will summarise the situation in advance of the replacement of Dr. Rwanyarare’s/Celilia’s PPC – Presidential policy commission by Adoko Nekyon-Okello Okello/Wegulo’s SCC – Constitutional Steering Committee. My research shows that the PPC, mainly backed by the young Turks, Makerere academia, etc was being undermined by at least two groups:
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- The Nekyon-Okello Okello group.
- The Wegulo group.
- Ruhaihayo did not have a group but he was suspected to be vacillating between the Rwanyarare/Cecilia group and that of Wegulo. Rurangaranga was with the PPC.
i. Objectives: To overthrow the PPC, openly because its members like Dr. Okullo Epak and Cecilia, etc had stood for Parliament defying Party dictives but inside/innermost, because the party had to have a “home” [regional base].
ii. Execution of the ‘coup plan’: The Nekyon – Okello Okello group wrote a very convincing proposal and took it to the party president. On receiving it and after talking to them, he, as said earlier, asked them if there had been consultation. They answered “yes”. He told them to hold on. Meanwhile, someone from the ‘household’ (name withheld) rang Rwanyarare, “Nekyon and Okello Okello are here, confusing Mzee, yet he is tired”. Dr. Rwanyarare replied that, that, was unfair because, the last time he had visited , Mzee had been in such health as needing rest. On the question, by the caller, as to whether they had discussed the proposals, Rwanyarare answered in the negative. They spent two days and after seemingly getting some opinion from the Wegulo group, Obote signed their proposal.
iii. In Kampala , when the PPC heard of the ‘coup’ [Obote did not infact overthrow the PPC members. Instead, he created the CSC- the Constitutional Steering Committee but to which Rwanyarare was to hand over to, him coming in charge of the ‘Inter party desk” [liaison with NRM, DP, that is, imagine!!!]. The PPC young Turks refused the handover. Rwanyarare said, “no we shall create a larger crisis for the party. Instead we shall go to Court, after consulting the party president”. When contacted, Obote ordered them, “Sit together and discuss”. This was his last open word on party issues. The PPC group decided to go to Court and they did, judging that Mzee was too tired to be involved in the day-today conflicts at Uganda House. The Court Process dragged on, Uganda style till it was considered futile. At Obote’s burial ceremonies, word went around that some group had overworked Obote to death but this never held ground. Some cursed Nekyon but when he took charge of the ceremonies as clan elder, every rumour ‘died’ and complacency set in. The elections and the results are history.
2/8. BACK TO THE MAIN STORY AND ISSUES RAISED BY JOHN OCHIENO:
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- Dr. Rwanyarare is not a “Munyarwanda” at all. He is a typical Muchiga, from Kanungu District.
- Dr. Rwanyayare has at least two achievements attributed to him, in his long life:
- He was among the group of Junior School students taken from Kigezi high School (outside Kabale town) to talk English to the African who talked ‘better English’ that white men. This was Sir Edward Mutesa, on his tour of the then Kigezi district, in 1957. He [Rwanyarare] was by then, already a member of the UNC.
- He joined the UPC-youth wing at the party’s founding, March 15th,1960 [ Kampala club].
- After the anti-Amin liberation, when all UPC’s walked with their heads bowed, Dr. Rwanyarare was the first person to fly the ‘blue-black-red‘ flag [at his clinic, Blue Room, Namirembe rd, Kampala ]. No wonder he became the minister of culture in the Obote-II government soon after.
- Ironically, though it is at the same Blue Rooms { Namirembe Rd } that trouble started for veteran Musaazi in ‘59. In reality, he was overthrown by the young Turks led by Jolly Joe Kiwanuka [Founder of Express FC, who introduced Obote], although the ‘coup de grace’ was finally acted in the Mbale conference, where his vice president Obote took charge of the ‘progressive wing’.
- Dr. Rwanyarare had another quality. He knew Museveni so well that attacks on him ]M7] were always well grounded, since the Dr. knew the ‘rubble-rouser’ from his days as a DP activist in the early 1960’s. More to that, he was useful as M7’s propaganda could not undermine UPC as a ‘party for northerners’.
- Finally, it is Dr. Rwanyarare [and Chechilia] who registered the new UPC party as we know it today, according to the requirements of the current constitution of Uganda . May factions were against this. So, he is the founder of the “new UPC”.
3/8. On Hon. Nekyon, I know he was an effective minister. Especially, when he said, “..History will prove me right..” on signing off the conversion of Nakasero European hospital into UTV/Radio Uganda headquarters in 1967, as M.o. Information, Broadcasting and Tourism.
Ø We must admit though, a fact you seem not to accept, that he is the one who engineered the removal of Dr. Rwanyarare from the PPC [leadership of UPC] together with Okello Okello. Wegulo was in the wings though. I stand by what I say on this and I would like you to find out more about it: Words always reached the ‘party president’ and many came with their views. I find it strange that you forget that Sister Cecilia [read Chechilia] was ostracized from the party for standing in the parliamentary elections. When Adoko Nekyon arrived with his team, with proposal for the future of the party, the one questions Obote reportedly continued asking were:
o Rwanyarare, Cecilia and Co. are in touch with the grass-roots. Are you people there? How will you communicate and explain the change?
o Most important: have you discussed this issue with Uganda House? [meaning the Rwanyarare faction, the PPC]? To which they reportedly answered in the affirmative. Now, if Nekton’s pre-mature announcement of the DP victory in 1980 [claiming support of soldiers, in case] was bad for UPC, this lie, to the ailing party president my be the one to haunt Nekyon and the party, for a long time to come. In fact, when a member of the Rwanyarare team visited soon after Nekyon’s team’s departure Obote he behaved, not unlike Jacob after he has blessed Abel in place of Cain. He reportedly only communicated with body language and offered Nekyon’s reasons, not his. May be because of ailment or of remorse but, the rest is history.
4/8. In my para. 5, of the earlier post, I did not imply that Obote never signed the “Appointing” instruments. Indeed he appointed and dismissed officials at Uganda House (when inexile) BUT, AFTER “CONSULTATIONS”, in this case, “LOBBYING”. It was after such consultations that he ‘dis-engaged’ the Rwanyarare PPC team from the leadership of UPC [he instead created a parallel organ, the CSC- Constitutional Steering Committee, headed by Hajji Badru Wegulo, another [anti-Rwanyarare coup plotter], making Rwanyarare the head of “Inter-party” relations. Another point though: The preparations for his come back were now silently in progress. It may be that, since he was to go home in Lira/Apach, it may be be assumed that Adoko and his team would have done better at grass-root mobelisation in the area, or so they thought.
5/8. The Dr. Olet I mentioned is one Egwea.
6/8. UPC a party of the future? Hmm. Physical scientists believe what they can ‘see’. Only social scientists try to predict the future. True, UPC will be there in the future. But, in power? May be. Did it not come in power in 1962, with no majority in parliament? Good luck.
7/8. On being ‘happy’ with Mama Akena, a.k.a. Mrs. Kalule Obote in charge: Ha ha!! Is it really believed that our people can support anything of their ‘like’ on such simplistic whims, even a hyena in a sheep’s fleece? Does she have power? If so, why is she being sidelined by Foreign Minister Sam Odaka from the Milton Obote Foundation in charge of Uganda House, Uganda School Supply, etc. Do you not know that Uganda House was gone but was only saved by one of the 99 tricks appied by the ‘city boys left in Kampala’ ? Did Miria contribute to saving it?
8/8. Concluding: Party belonging is a commitment. A party is judged by its dream and may be UPC will rejuvenate and re-package itself but the latest anti-Miria conference did not market you well. The intrigue that made the ‘once turn-coat’ Nekyon the party-hero in the evening of his cousin’s life makes the party an ‘enigma’ bundled in mystery, a mystery that can only be unwrapped by your geuine party members, that is ,if one of the 99 tricks does not include ‘fratricide’ as exhibited in the PPC-CSC un-necessary struggle, detailed above. That was a self-scored goal whose effects will take years, if not decades to heal.
[Note: These vies are only cademic and are not based on my political leanings. the contents are open secrets ta Kampala club, Kitante Golf course, Uganda House Shed, among many makeree discussin circles, etc].
Christopher Muwanga,
Nakasero,
Kampala.
