Though it’s common practice for Africans to gloss over one’s legacy at death, while proclaiming only the deceased’s good record, I will critically assess the twin legacies of Uganda’s Akena Adoko and Tanzania’s Rashid Kawawa, hopefully for the benefit of posterity.
Kawawa died on December 31, 2009 and Adoko died on January 8, 2010. Having never interacted with them personally, I will not dwell on their personal traits, of say being amiable or sociable, etc. My main concern would be on their contributions towards the realm of nation building.
Both Kawawa and Adoko lived during what the Chinese refer too as interesting times. That turbulent post colonial era, when newly independent political elites, without having acquired the required apprenticeship to manage statecraft from a divisive and fleeing colonial master, ended up in charge of the brutal colonial state that reigned over disparate communities.
Inevitably, it required considerable political skill and vision to hold together these new countries. Indeed how the Tanzanian and Ugandan political elite responded to these challenges offers interesting case studies of nation building and regional liberation on the one hand, and of national disintegration and regional destabilization on the other.
Kawawa and Adoko shared in common the trait of having submitted themselves to the wills of their political masters from the very start. Tanzania’s Mwalimu Nyerere in the case of the former, and Uganda’s Milton Obote, regarding the latter.
If Mwalimu Nyerere, aptly referred to by Prof. Ali Mazrui as “… a true philosopher, president and original thinker” was the grand architect of Tanzanian nation building and regional liberation and security, Rashid Kawawa was his ever trusted, skilled, implementing mason.
Kawawa’s imprint is visible for the discerning eye to see in the united Tanzania of today and in the fruits of liberation of the Eastern and Southern Africa countries. Kawawa was a selfless person who as a young man rejected the opportunity to study at Makerere College so as to enable his father pay for the education of his younger siblings.
Soon after, he led Tanganyika’s Federation of Labour, and vehemently opposed the primitive exploitation of African labour in his country. This led him to be nicknamed “Simba wa Vita” (the Lion of War). Together with Mwalimu Nyerere in 1953, they formed the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU).
It’s TANU that led Tanganyika to independence in 1961. Later, he was instrumental in the formation of the United Republic of Tanzania when Tanganyika merged with the Zanzibar Isles. This meant forming a coalition between TANU and the Zanzibari Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) and Umma parties headed by Abeid Karume and Abdul Rahman Babu respectively.
Instrumentally, Kawawa was a trusted intelligent, loyal and hardworking party cadre. Indeed, when in January 1962 Nyerere temporarily resigned as executive Prime Minister so as to devote time to party building, it’s Kawawa to whom he relinquished the mantle to.
He never failed the people of Tanganyika for he ably held the fort and later that year peacefully handed back power to his political mentor and boss.
Mzee Kawawa was a lead actor in the creation of the Tanzanian nation state. This in addition to the conception and implementation of the African Socialist Arusha Declaration and associated Ujamaa policies. He was a gifted political communicator, mobiliser and implementer.
As Tanzania’s Minister of Defence and National Guidance, he played a pivotal role in the liberation of Southern Africa from White settler autocracy and for the military defeat of the notorious Idi Amin junta in Uganda.
Mzee Kawawa offered the political guidance over that mammoth task of liberating Uganda. He even travelled with the Uganda National Liberation Front leader, Yusuf Lule, to Kampala, for his swearing in as President in early April 1979.
Having been CCM Secretary General and later Vice Chairman, he was instrumental in transforming this party into the robust, stabilising mass mobilising machine it is today. He was also one of the key actors that oversaw this country’s peaceful political transitions.
Similarly, Kawawa is associated with the failures of the policies he helped to craft. For instance, the collapse of the Tanzanian economy [through] Ujamaa, or the return of Milton Obote and his Uganda People’s Congress autocracy in Uganda, in 1980.
In his eulogy, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki stated that in Mzee Kawawa, “… the Kenyan people saw a person who embodied the true values of East Africa.”
POWERFUL CIVILIAN
When discussing Akena Adoko’s legacy, it’s the period from 1962 to 1971 that I will focus on. To paraphrase the then Makerere-based Prof. Mazrui, Akena Adoko was “… the second most powerful civilian in Uganda after the Head of State,” To appreciate this point, let’s recall that he combined the roles of chief ideologue and spymaster of the Obote I regime.
His influence was heightened through his being Obote’s first cousin. Against this background, the questions I intend to address are; how and in whose interest Adoko applied this power.
Being one of Uganda’s first lawyers, he offered the ruling UPC the legal advice associated with the misrule of this period. As head of the General Service Unit, the regime’s security apparatus, Adoko was responsible for Obote’s rehabilitation of Idi Amin, who had been recommended for disgraceful discharge from the Army by the departing colonial governor, basing on Amin’s atrocious misconduct in Karamoja.
The placement of officials as critical as Army commander, depends considerably on the vetting process of state security organs. Amin’s retention was for selfish political calculations, intended to retain Obote and Adoko in power against the wishes of the people of Uganda.
More effects of Adoko’s counsel to Obote manifest in the latter’s response to the Daudi Ocheng parliamentary motion of 1966. This was a vote of no confidence in Obote’s administration, based on gold and ivory smuggling allegations that implicated Obote and Amin.
Obote’s response deliberately collapsed constitutional rule and disintegrated the Ugandan body politic. This was through the abrogation of the 1962 Lancaster House Constitution. Additionally, five dissenting Cabinet ministers were arrested during a Cabinet meeting and later Amin attacked Kabaka Mutesa’s palace, effecting Obote’s ‘palace coup’.
Approximately 1,000 people, mostly innocent civilians, got killed in this fracas, with civil liberties being suspended through the Buganda specific Emergency Regulations. Additionally, all opposition political parties were banned in 1969 and their leaders detained without trial.
Typically, Adoko callously justified these misdeeds as a “revolution” on Uganda Television. Adoko’s ineptness and further disservice to Uganda, and the people of Africa, is illustrated through his failure to adequately warn Obote of the danger Amin posed to their regime’s survival.
Rather, in tragicomedy style, similar to Nero and Rome’s burning, he left Kampala for the January 1971 Singapore CHOGM when Amin was on rampage! Normally, as security chief and lead regime ideologue, he had no business abroad with an impending crisis at home. He should have remained behind to mobilise against Amin’s coup.
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Indeed it is very interesting how these two met and got involved in the continuous destruction of the State of Buganda as the enemy of their political socialism and greed for power. Such political professors up to now have some very interesting students. The amount of corruption emanating from such socialistic dreams these days makes one wonder how much it is likely to cost in lives and money.
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