By Wilson Akiiki Kaija
At the dawn of Uganda’s independence in the 1962 elections, John Kakonge wanted to stand for Kampala East parliamentary seat. Obote was uncomfortable.
Why?
Obote was worried of two people in the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC). Grace Ibingira and John Kakonge. Unlike Ibingira who disagreed with Obote ideologically, him being unapologetically Rightist and openly royal, Kakonge was a Socialist and shared most if not all Leftist ideals of Obote.
It would be easy, Obote probably reasoned, to deal with Ibingira. But Kakonge was the real headache. He was young, politically appealing to the youth and women, had no royal baggage, was eloquent. A true UPC.
Having such a person come to Parliament with a mandate from Kampala, of all places, was suicidal to Obote.
Obote and Adoko Nekyon hatched a plan to convince Kakonge not to stand for Parliament. The idea was to knock him out even before the contest.
They approached the man from Bunyoro to pull out of the race with a promise that he would be one of the nine specially elected Members of Parliament after the elections. All he had to do was to move around Uganda with Obote campaigning for UPC. "Kakonge, you are bigger than a small parliamentary seat in Kampala. You are a national leader," Obote reportedly convinced him.
Kakonge swallowed the bait. Thanks in part to excellent mobilisation skills and networks, UPC performed much better in 1962 than in 1961. They won 37 seats, 10 more than in 1961.
When Parliament convened for the first time, they had two items on the order paper.
1. Election of the Speaker
2. Election of the nine special MPs.
Obote reportedly kept his list of the nine with him until the very last minute. He passed the chit around to members as the voting got underway.
Kakonge was not on the list!
Kakonge so trusted Obote that he didn't even bother to follow the proceedings at Parliament. He knew for sure he was one of them. After the voting, someone traced him to Uganda Club where he was seated with friends having a drink. They told him, "you haven't been elected."
At first he didn't believe the news. "It can't be!"
When it dawned that "it could be", he was so devastated. He felt a very deep sense of betrayal. Within days he left Uganda and told friends he was out of politics and was going to exile. He flew to Dar es Salaam to start his exile.
Apparently, Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere convinced him to return home saying that it was a bad precedent for Uganda to start its journey of independence with political exiles.
But, see how things turned out. He would later get into a three-man fight, again, for the position of UPC Secretary General. With Ibingira and Obote in 1964.
And, importantly, he was the only person who openly opposed the Daudi Ochieng motion on the floor of Parliament in February 1966 that alleged that Milton Obote and deputy commander of the Ugandan army Idi Amin had been complicit in the looting and misappropriation of gold, ivory and cash from Uganda’s neighbour Congo. He talked with his vote, not just mouth. He stood by Obote!
As Ibingira got closer to Uganda’s first president Kabaka Muteesa II who was in a fight for control of the destiny of Uganda and at the same time turned UPC against Obote, Kakonge was the man on whose shoulders Obote leaned to fight back.
