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Uganda The First Obote Regime: The Growth of the Military
In the first year of independence, the KAR was again
known as
the Uganda Rifles. The armed forces more than doubled,
from 700
to 1,500, and the government created a second battalion,
stationed at the northeastern town of Moroto. The
traditional
leader of the Baganda, Edward Mutesa, became president of
Uganda
and commander in chief of the army. Milton Obote, a
northerner
and longtime opponent of autonomy for the southern
kingdoms
including Buganda, was prime minister. Mutesa recognized
the
seriousness of the rank-and-file demands for Africanizing
the
officer corps, but he was more concerned about potential
northern
domination of the military, a concern that reflected the
power
struggle between Mutesa and Obote. Mutesa used his
political
power to protect the interests of his Baganda
constituency, and
he refused to support demands for Africanization of the
officer
ranks.
In January 1964, following a mutiny by Tanzanian (then
Tanganyikan) soldiers in protest over their own
Africanization
crisis, unrest spread throughout the Ugandan armed forces.
On
January 22, 1964, soldiers in Jinja mutinied to press
their
demands for a pay raise and a Ugandan officer corps. They
also
detained their British officers, several noncommissioned
officers, and the minister of interior, Felix Onama, who
had
arrived in Jinja to represent government views to the rank
and
file.
Obote appealed for British military support, hoping to
prevent the mutiny from spreading to other parts of the
country.
About 450 British soldiers from the Scots Guards and
Staffordshire Regiment responded, surrounded the military
barracks at Jinja, seized the armory, and quelled the
mutiny. The
government responded two days later by dismissing several
hundred
soldiers from the army, several of whom were subsequently
detained.
Although the authorities later released many of the
detained
soldiers and reinstated some in the army, the mutiny
marked a
turning point in civil-military relations. The mutiny
reinforced
the army's political strength. Within weeks of the mutiny,
the
president's cabinet also approved a military pay raise
retroactive to January 1, 1964, more than doubling the
salaries
of those in private to staff-sergeant ranks. Additionally,
the
government raised defense allocations by 400 percent. The
number
of Ugandan officers increased from eighteen to fifty-five.
Two
northerners, Shaban Opolot and Idi Amin Dada, assumed
command
positions in the Uganda Rifles and later received
promotions to
commander in chief and army chief of staff, respectively.
Following the 1964 mutiny, the government remained
fearful of
internal opposition. Obote moved the army headquarters
from Jinja
to Kampala, and created a secret police force, the General
Service Unit (GSU) to bolster security. Most GSU employees
guarded government offices in and around Kampala, but some
also
served in overseas embassies and other locations
throughout
Uganda. When British training programs ended, Israel
started
training Uganda's army, air force, and GSU personnel.
Several
other countries also provided military assistance to
Uganda
(see Foreign Military Assistance
, this ch.).
When Zairian (then Congolese) aircraft bombed the West
Nile
villages of Paidha and Goli on February 13, 1965,
President Obote
again increased military recruitment and doubled the
army's size
to more than 4,500. Further reorganizations included the
creation
of a third battalion at Mubende, a signals squadron at
Jinja,
brigade reconnaissance units, an antiaircraft detachment,
an army
ordnance depot, a brigade signals squadron training wing,
a
records office, a pay and pensions office, and a Uganda
army
workshop.
Tensions rose in the power struggle over control of the
government and the army and over the relationship between
the
army and the Baganda people. On May 24, 1966, Obote ousted
Mutesa, assumed his offices of president and commander in
chief,
suspended the 1962 constitution, and consolidated his
control
over the military by eliminating several rivals. After
Mutesa
fled to Britain, Obote dismissed twenty-five Baganda
officers for
disloyalty and again increased recruiting in the north. In
July
1967, to further consolidate support within the army,
Obote
created the Military Police Force under Major General Idi
Amin
Dada's command. Amin, in turn, recruited forces from his
home
region of West Nile among Lugbara, Madi, Kakwa, and people
of
Sudanese descent, who were known by the ethnic label
"Nubian."
Obote's rivalry with Amin toward the end of the 1960s
replaced
his earlier power struggle with Mutesa. These tensions
helped
polarize the rank and file in the military.
Throughout most of the 1960s, military expeditions
often
contributed to regional antipathy toward centralized
control.
Army patrols in northeastern Uganda often responded to
accusations of cattle rustling and other problems, which,
in
earlier decades, would have been dealt with locally. Then
when
the government allowed Sudanese rebels of the Anya Nya
movement
to operate from bases in the northwest, army detachments
deployed
to that region to prevent an incursion by Sudanese
government
troops. Many Ugandans in the area who were of Sudanese
descent
remained skeptical about Ugandan nationhood and viewed the
army
presence as a military occupation rather than a security
measure.
Data as of December 1990
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