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Uganda World War II
World War II again revolutionized the military. The
colonial
administration recruited 77,131 Ugandans to serve in nine
infantry units, two field artillery batteries, and several
auxiliary battalions. Ugandans served outside Africa for
the
first time, seeing action in the occupation of Madagascar
in
opposition to the Vichy government in France and the
reconquest
of Burma from the Japanese. In addition, Ugandans helped
defeat
the Italians in Ethiopia (then Abyssinia) and worked as
part of a
military labor force in Egypt and the Middle East. They
also
garrisoned at Mauritius and Diego Suarez near Madagascar
and
helped build defenses in Mombasa, Kenya. As in World War
I,
Ugandan soldiers made important contributions to the war
effort
and received many awards, including the Distinguished
Conduct
Medal, the Military Medal, and the Member of the British
Empire
Medal.
Following the allied victory in 1945, protectorate
officials
again reduced the army's size, demobilizing 55,595 of the
Ugandan
troops by March 1948. The remainder belonged to the Fourth
Battalion. During the late 1940s, Ugandan troops deployed
to
British Somaliland and Kenya to contain local uprisings.
In the
1950s Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya, Ugandans served in the
Kenyan
towns of Nakuru, Kinangop, Fort Hall, and Nyeri. As
independence
approached in both nations in the 1960s, Ugandans
participated in
joint police-army sweeps against cattle rustlers in
northwest
Kenya.
In 1948 the British established the East Africa High
Commission to administer the three possessions (Uganda,
Kenya,
and Somalia) as one territory. The military arm of the
High
Commission, the East African Defence Committee,
coordinated their
military policies, but the War Office in London retained
ultimate
responsibility for military affairs. In 1957 the High
Commission
assumed all responsibility for administering East Africa's
military organizations and changed the name of the King's
African
Rifles to the East African Land Forces. This unification
scheme
was shortlived, however, and in 1958 Uganda's Legislative
Council
created the Military Council to help Uganda's governor
administer
the army's finances and returned responsibility for the
military
to London.
As Uganda moved toward independence, the army stepped
up
recruitment, and the government increased the use of the
army to
quell domestic unrest. The army was becoming more closely
involved in politics, setting a pattern that continued
after
independence. In January 1960, for example, army troops
deployed
to Bugisu and Bukedi districts in the east to quell
political
violence. In the process, the soldiers killed twelve
people,
injured several hundred, and arrested more than 1,000. A
series
of similar clashes occurred between troops and
demonstrators, and
in March 1962 the government recognized the army's growing
domestic importance by transferring control of the
military to
the Ministry of Home Affairs.
After Uganda achieved independence in October 1962,
British
officers retained most high-level military commands.
Ugandans in
the rank and file claimed this policy blocked promotions
and kept
their salaries disproportionately low. These complaints
eventually destabilized the armed forces, already weakened
by
ethnic divisions. Each postindependence regime expanded
the size
of the army, usually by recruiting from among people of
one
region or ethnic group, and each government employed
military
force to subdue political unrest. These trends often
alienated
local populations where nationalist sentiment was already
low.
Data as of December 1990
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