contd.
The President's Secretary responded to Obote's accusations on 4th March 1966
and questioned why the Prime Minister did not specify which foreign
diplomats had been asked to send troops. He reminded the Prime Minister that
while on his Northern tour, serious allegations concerning plans to
overthrow the Constitution had been made in Parliament and that on his
return, the Prime Minister himself had acknowledged the great alarm,
especially in Kampala, caused by the movement of troops which Obote himself
had authorized earlier without informing the President. Connection was made
between this illegal training of troops and the truck loads of arms and
ammunition impounded by the Kenyan government the year before.
The response further stated that "In the circumstances, precautionary
requests had to be made should the situation get out of hand. The safety of
the nation was at stake. The President did not invite foreign troops to
invade this country". The precautionary requests were conditional and did
not precipitate anything. The answer further reminded the Prime Minister
that during the army mutiny in 1964, he had called in British troops without
informing the President who was both Head of State and Commander-in-Chief
until Sir Edward demanded to be given the necessary information.
Concerning the dereliction of duty accusations, the Secretary to the
President stated, and I quote:
"As to failure to sign the two Acts, section 67 of the Constitution
provides, in part, that if the President "declines" to perform an act as
required by the Constitution, the Prime Minister may himself perform that
act. In his capacity as Kabaka of Buganda and President of Uganda, Sir
Edward Mutesa was put in a most invidious position over the question of the
Referendum. The two Counties, the subject of the Referendum, formed part of
the Kingdom of Buganda. The Prime Minister was quite aware of this quandary
himself and he agreed to follow the procedures laid down in section 67 and
signed the Acts. The section envisaged such a situation. It was
constitutional for the President to have declined as he did".
The same was true for the official opening of the session of Parliament. The
Constitution did not provide that the President MUST (emphasis mine) perform
the opening of each and every session. It envisaged occasions where the
Vice-President could perform functions should the President be unable to do
so. This was one such occasion. All of this shows that Obote was just trying
to find petty reasons for carrying out his unconstitutional acts.
Another problem was that the President had no access to the mass media which
was a monopoly of Obote and his government. So while Obote could reach a lot
of people, Sir Edward could only depend on the mercy of the press which was
also not quite free. But on 4th March 1966 the President managed to break
his silence and published two letters he had written to the Prime Minister
on 28th February 1966 and 3rd March 1966. The first one read in part:
"This is to inform you that your public statements of 22nd and 24th
February, 1966, have caused me much anxiety especially as you have not
informed me of them as you are required by the Constitution".
He goes on to inform Obote that his taking over of all powers of the
Government of Uganda was contrary to the Constitution, which is the supreme
law of the land and that the suspension of the Constitution was
unconstitutional.
I'll quote the rest of it in full in order to do full justice to the
message:
"I have allowed plenty of time to elapse before writing to you in the hope
that after careful thought you would find your way to retracting these
unconstitutional acts. I had hoped that your advisers would point it out to
you that the course you were pursuing might cause instability in the
country, a situation which we are all striving to avoid. Now that the dark
clouds continue to mount in the very lives of the people of this country, I
feel I am in duty bound to ask you to stay your hand, and to desist from
continuing with the procedures against Government personnel, especially
those who are commissioned to serve me.
Our first duty is to the people of this country. The people decided in their
great wisdom that the best way to serve them is through the means laid down
in the Constitution which they themselves made.
Once again, I earnestly appeal to you to adhere strictly to the Constitution
in order to remove this overhanging uneasiness which cannot be conducive to
peace, good order and the counrty's prosperity".
It is clear from the above that Sir Edward still thought he could be civil
in his dealings with Obote.
..more later.
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