| Time | Political Event | FES Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 1893 | Buganda Kingdom becomes a British protectorate. | |
| 1914 | The British protectorate was extended to the current state borders. The area is governed by the principle of ‘indirect rule by the British and called Uganda from thereon. | |
| 1953 | Mutesa II, the king of Buganda since 1942, was dethroned and sent into exile by the British after he demanded complete sovereignty. The resulting heavy riots lead to a high death toll. | |
| 1954 | The founding of the Democratic Party (DP). The DP was supported by the community of small farmers and the catholic population of Buganda. Party leader: Benedikt Kiwanuka | |
| 1960 | Milton Obote founded the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) as the following party of the liberation organisation Uganda National Congress. Contrary to the catholic orientated DP, the UPC aims at the protestant part of the population. | |
| 1962 | Uganda gained the status of an independent State as part of the commonwealth. The first president was Mutesa II. The aim was to establish a multi party system with general elections. | |
| October 62 |
Milton Obote became the first prime minister. A governing coalition of the UPC and the protestant royalists of the Kabaka-Yekka (KY) is formed. Idi Amin was announced as the general chief of the Army. |
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| 09. Oct. 1963 | Uganda became a republic, King Mutesa II became the President of State (with very little power) and Milton Obote was declared the head of government. | |
| 1964 | The economy was partially regulated and parts become state-owned. All business people – mostly Indians and Europeans – were supposed to turn over 60% of their businesses to the state. The result was an exodus of foreign capital. | |
| 1966 |
The military turned against the royal-supporting Buganda. President King Mutesa II was relieved of his power; he manages to flee out of state. The Kingdom of Buganda was abolished. The one-party system was introduced and a presidential regime under the leadership of Milton Obote established. The implementation of Nyerere’s ‘African socialist concept’ took place as well as the nationalizing of agriculture, trade and governance. An ambush on Milton Obote fails. After substantial undermining of the army and police, a rift developed between Idi Amin and Milton Obote. |
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| 1967 |
The FES started its activities in adult education in 1967. Adult education was of particular interest at this time. It was used as a tool to develop public interest and gain support for securing a democratic development process after gaining independence. For these reasons the FES started to cooperate with the Milton Obote Foundation in Kampala in the sector of political education. First foreign representative: Müller-Osten (1967-1968) |
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| 1968 | Benedikt Kiwanuka was arrested and DP was banned. |
In 1968 the Milton Obote Foundation was expanded through a publishing as well as a printing division. Further points of focus of the FES: Training and information activities in Uganda as well as the FRG. |
| 1969 |
King Mutesa II died in Great Britain. Milton Obote was slightly wounded after an assassination attempt at a UPC conference at Lugogo. The state of emergency that had been declared for Buganda was extended to the entire country. All political organisations, except the UPC, were banned. |
The printing division was equipped with a complete rotation machine and officially initiated by president Milton Obote. The up to then weekly newspaper ‘The People’ can now be published on a daily basis. Foreign representative: Matthiesen (1969-1970) |
| April 1970 | Advisor Jutta Kochenrath was send to establish and run a radio production studio for the education programs of the Milton Obote Stiftung | |
| 1971 | A coup through Idi Amin takes place. Milton Obote goes into exile to Tansania.Erection of a brutal military regime under the lead of Idi Amin. | All FES-activities in Uganda were stopped. |
| 1972 |
Idi Amin breaks of the diplomatic relations to the main financial supporters Israel and the USSR. Muslim Idi Amin turns to Saudi-Arabia and Libya. Idi Amin bombs several targets in Tansania after a first failed invasion attempt by troops assembled there by Milton Obote. |
At the beginning of 1972 the Ugandan Government asked for a continuation of the advisory work by the FES in adult education in the broadcasting sector. After a thorough assessment of the situation the FES decides to partially continue their work in this area. The program of 1972 includes the completion of the studio, the installation of the technologies and the preparation for programs as well as the establishment of listener groups around the country. However, the political developments and the security situation make the continuation of the project activities unviable. |
| 1974 | Project activities in Uganda were handed over to the FES office in Nairobi with irregular visits of FES representatives to Kampala. | |
| 1977 | The East African Community was suspended. | |
| 1979 | Ugandan troops entered Tanzania. As a result Tanzanian troops as well as the Ugandan liberation force Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF), which was founded by Yusuf Lule in Tanzania, occupied Uganda. Idi Amin was overthrown and fled to Libya. Later on he was given exile by Saudi-Arabia. | |
| April 1979 | President Yusuf Lule established a transitional government. | |
| June 1979 | After Yusuf Lule failed to establish a government which was capable of acting, he was replaced by Godfrey Binaisa as Ugandan head of state. | |
| May 1980 |
Dismissal of the government headed by Binaisa and taking over by a military commission of six lead by Obote’s ex-minister of the interior Paulo Muwanga occurred. Milton Obote returned from exile. |
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| October 1980 | The minister of defense Yoweri Kaguta Museveni was dismissed. In turn he founded the guerilla organisation National Resistance Army (NRA). | |
| December 1980 |
General elections took place. Milton Obote’s party Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) won the elections with 72 seats. The Democratic Party (DP) won 51 seats, the Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM), now the party which supports Museveni, won 1 seat. The suspicion of manipulation of the elections by the UPC arose. |
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| 1981 |
Milton Obote’s power expanded step by step. Democratic rights were reduced and democratic institutions disempowered. This was followed by a down spiral of the economy. |
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| July 1981 | Tanzanian troops left Uganda. | |
| 29. Nov. to 07. Dec. 1981 |
A FES delegation consisting of Dr. Volker Vinnai, Gerhard Kleipsties and Heinz Bendt visited Uganda as part of project preparations. Talks with several high ranking officials were made: They met with president Milton Obote, representatives of the Milton Obote Foundation, representatives of the National Organisation of Trade Unions (NOTU) as well as representatives of the Makerere University and representatives of the Democratic Party (DP). Meanwhile the FES planed to open up an office in Kampala, even though the security situation as well as the economic situation was seen to be difficult. The particular aim was a wide-spread project management of the FES in Uganda. The FES refused an offer by the UPC to set up the office in Uganda house in Kampala. |
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| 1982 |
Uganda stopped back payments of debts due to illiquidity. The Tutsis who had fled from Rwanda in the 60’s were forced to return to Rwanda. Several resistance movements began taking up arms against Obote’s regime. |
Application for a socio-political advisory program as a part-project Uganda for 1982 and 1983 was made. The project was put on hold due to the political events of the time. |
| 1983-1984 |
The situation in Uganda reached civil war dimensions. The Obote regime reacted with brutal retaliation to the attacks of the NRA and other guerilla organisations. The ethnic group of Baganda in Buganda which openly opposed Milton Obote became the target of repression. The government had little control over the entire Ugandan military. Heavy violation of human rights occurred. It is estimated that more people were killed in the second regime of Milton Obote than under Idi Amin. The Ugandan government advised the German Foreign Ministry in a letter that political foundations would not be tolerated. |
The FES further put its own project activities in Uganda on hold. The situation was to be reassessed in the first half of 1984. The office in Kenya monitored the situation. |
| November 1983 | Uganda signed friendly agreements with Kenya and Tanzania. | |
| July 1985 |
A coup d´etat by Acholi forces under the command of brigadier occurred, resulting in the appointment of chief of army lieutenant general as head of state. The NRA reacted with armed resistance. |
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| 10. Dec. 1985 | Yoweri Kaguta Museveni visited Germany. A meeting with him and ***???*** took place. | |
| 26. Jan. 1986 |
Siege of the capital Kampala and take over of the political power by the NRA chaired by occurred. The National Resistance Council functioned as the highest government organ. became president. The National Resistance Movement was declared as the single political system. All opposition parties were banned from being politically active. The political leaders were however involved in the Government. A basic democracy with so called Resistance Councils on all political levels was established. |
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| End of 1986 | A weighted division of power between the different ethnic groups led to widely spread peace and stability in Uganda. Only in the north splinter groups of followers of , and and gangs from Sudan undertook raids. |
In may 1986 Rolf Hans and Hermann Matusch (a member of FES-Kenya) traveled to Kampala on invitation of the ***???***. To take up socio-political project work was deemed possible. An assessment of opening up an office was to be undertaken by a delegation from the head office later that year. In November 1986 (FES-head office), (Kenya) and (Zimbabwe) traveled to Uganda for the project preparation. The result was a recommendation to delay setting up the office until the second quarter of 87. In the medium-term the FES should work in three areas:
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| 06. Jul. 1987 |
Erich Holtze took up his duties as the local coordinator for Uganda in Kampala (1987-1989). The first office address was: Plot 32, Kyadondo Road, Kampala. A delegation of the department of cooperatives and business development, namely and traveled to Kampala in November 1987 in order to prepare a socio/economic development project. |
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| April 1988 | Uwe Prien (1988-1993) arrived to take up the post as project manager for the project “small rural businesses development” | |
| 1988-1993 | A Ugandan constitution was drawn up. |
The project closely worked with the (NRM) in the years from 1988-1992 and made a major contribution to the development of the and the strengthening of in the decentralized government system. From 1989 the FES has strategically supported the constitutional implementation process. |
| 1992 | The economy which had slumped due to the exodus of foreign business people ordered by and the subsequent civil war begun to recover and to show the first signs of growth rate. |
In the framework of the department for socio-economic development (Referat für Wirtschafts – und Sozialentwicklung) the (SEDCO) was founded together with the (UGADEV) in order to support small business activities. In the same year the UGADEV Bank went bankrupt. was created to focus support on rural based women and their business activities. Together with the (UAE) events and conferences with some high-ranking participants were organized on the economic-political project side. |
| 1992-1995 | A ***???*** was started in cooperation with the GTZ. The local partner was the NAWOU, whilst the technical project management was covered by a DED expert. The aim was to increase the involvement of rural based women in the economic revival via self-help initiatives and by strengthening their economic and socio-political role in the Ugandan development process. | |
| Early 1993 | Development of a Draft Constitution: Locking up of the so called movement system. ‘Resistance councils’ became the distinct governance structure starting from the village council right up to the national parliament. Political parties were not banned, yet they were not allowed to be politically active. It was a democracy of councils of independent politicians, who were solely elected on their personal capacity. | The social-political activities of the FES had their main focus in the maintenance of a free and plural democracy. In conjunction with the (NRM), the FES tried to soften the rigid positions of both the officially not registered parties and the movement. |
| July 1993 | Enthronement of 37 year old , who was living in exile, as the 36. Kabaka (King) of Buganda. The central government allowed the symbolic reinstallation of the kingdoms Toro, Bunyoro, Ankole and Buganda, all of which were suspended by in 1967. | |
| August 1993 |
Günther Haustedt took over as project manager from Uwe Prien. The (UTTF) was founded in order to strengthen the parliamentary system in a multi-party democracy. The launching event took place on the 06. August 1993. |
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| 1994 | The election of the constituent assembly (281 delegates) resulted in a clear majority of the candidates sympathizing with the movement system. |
Together with the (NAWOU) a ‘gender information center’ was opened with the aim of giving gender issues a sufficient platform in the constituent assembly (CA). Besides providing ongoing advisory services to mainly female delegates of the CA, regular dialogue meetings about the gender topic were being held. Additionally, rural women in the regional and local councils were trained in cooperation with the NRM-secretariat. The UTTF took up controversial topics surrounding the CA debate through public seminars and by doing so it added transparency to the work of the CA. |
| 1994 |
The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) was created with support of Sudan under the command of the religious fanatic Joseph Kony and terrorized the north of Uganda. First talks about a seize fire failed at the last minute. |
The critical security situation in the following years hindered an expansion of the project activities in the small businesses development projects to the northerly parts of the country. The assistance to the small scale industry through the partner organization SEDCO made up a substantial part in the FES project activities. However, the ‘small scale industry association’ (USSIA) took up a more and more important role as well. In the beginning of 1995 a cooperation contract was signed with the USSIA, which included the take over of the by now suspended UGADEV by SEDCO. |
| September 1995 | The new constitution as decided upon by the constituent assembly was promulgated. It put on hold the freedom to act freely by political parties (except the NRA), but strengthened the position of the parliament in regard to the Head of state. | Seminars with high-ranking guest speakers dealing with social and economic-political subjects were offered to members of the Constituent Assembly by closely interlinking both FES projects, the development of small scale industry as well as societal advisory projects. The trade and industry ministry, together with the UNDP, supported the creating and publishing of an industrial politicy concept. |
| 1996 | Hajo Lanz (1996-2000) became the new representative of the FES after Guenther Haustedt. | |
| May 1996 | The presidential elections took place in which was confirmed as the Ugandan head of state for the next five years with almost 75% of votes. | The project had already increasingly emphasized the issue of women’s role in politics and business before the elections and systematically strengthened the (NAWOU) as well as sensitised the members of the Constituent Assembly through the event series ‘gender dialogues’. |
| June 1996 | An absolute majority of members of the governing NRM won the democratic elections. |
The FES did not undertake any measures to directly or indirectly support the elections. In order not to endanger the long-term goal to reintroduce the multi-party system, a self-induced break from the project activities was agreed upon with all partners of the socio-political project. The FES partner UTTF organised a public discussion event with German president during his state visit to Uganda in attendance of the Ugandan president and the judges of the Court of Uganda about the subject of constitutional jurisdiction in a modern state. The election of a new team of leaders at the ‘National Organisation of Trade Unions’ (NOTU) raised hope of improving future cooperation with the FES. In the past, internal quarrels of the union management had caused problems to relations with the FES. |
| April 1997 | The Democratic Republic of Congo based guerilla-organisation Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) repeatedly attacked the civil population of the south-west of Uganda. | |
| 1998 | Uganda managed to become a prime example for improvement in Africa in the eyes of the IMF and the World Bank through measures like reducing the armed forces by 50% and drastic reductions in the public sector. The economic growth was very high, the capital city was thriving and was seen in other countries as a ‘benevolent dictator’. Nevertheless, 80% of the population – particularly in rural areas – remained very poor and with over 1.5 million people infected by HIV and around 900.000 aids related deaths since the late 80’s, Uganda took a sad first place worldwide. | To especially support the involvement of rural areas in the general growth of the central region besides strengthening their self-help and promoting cooperative-activities, the business development project placed more and more emphasis onto the cooperation with trade unions (social compensation / structural adjustment) and the efforts in the area of ‘good government’ were increased. A large anti-corruption campaign was supported via the democracy project.
Further areas of focus of the project work were:
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| December 1998 | Uganda was granted a long-term credit by the world bank of 2.2 billion US dollars. | The movement system and the missing of parties and political alternatives made the cooperation with the civil society inevitable. The build-up and strengthening of civil-societal organizations, especially labour unions, women’s organizations and associations became of special interest under the political circumstances. The socio-political dimension of our work became increasingly important. Accordingly, the main focus of activities shifted to the socio-political part of the project. |
| Due to the suspension of the regional media project in Nairobi, the regional media measures are covered by the Kampala office. | ||
| March 1999 | Hutu rebels attacked a tourist camp in the south-west of Uganda at Bwindi National Park and take hostages. Later on they killed eight of them. All eight were in possession of American or British passport; a revenge action against those countries because they supported the Tutsi minority regime in Rwanda. | The increasing harmonization of the eastern African countries Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania gained more and more political relevance. The integration process got a new impulse in 1996 through the opening of a regional secretariat in Arusha. FES regional activities supported this process and furthermore aimed to inform the broad public about the developments and get them involved via NGOs. |
| May 1999 | About a dozen people were killed in bombings in Kampala. | |
| July 1999 | Civil war parties from Congo and delegates from Rwanda and Uganda signed a peace agreement after peace talks in Lusaka. An international peace keeping force was to be deployed in the border area between Rwanda and Uganda. | |
| December 1999 | Sudan and Uganda signed a treaty to improve their relations. The treaty included a section that intended to cease support of the guerilla organizations of their respective countries. | |
| 2000 | A mass suicide of 530 members of a Christian sect and the spreading of the Ebola virus in the north caused shockwaves throughout the country. | Fritz Kopsieker replaced Hajo Lanz as the project manager. (2000-2004) |
| June 2000 | A public referendum about the (re-)introduction of the multi party system vs. the continuation of the movement system resulted in a 90% landslide win of the movement system. |
The political system specific to Uganda led the project activities to increasingly support the democratic structures through cooperation with civil-society organizations and groups of parliamentarians as well as organs of communal self-governance. The direct cooperation with small business organizations were reduced accordingly. Ahead of the 2001 elections, the main cooperation with members of parliament focused on the (YPA) which developed quite quickly into a group of progressive MP’s. Further cooperation included the work with the Movement-Secretariat in the aftermath of the referendum in order to assist the Movements transition process into a political party. |
| March 2001 | Presidential elections took place in which was re-elected for another 5-year period with 69.3% of all votes. Foreign observers defined the elections as ‘fair and peaceful’. A former comrade of Museveni in his fight against Milton Obote and co-founder of the NRM, only attained 27.8% of the votes. The overall turnout of voters was over 70%, higher than expected |
The consultation with the Movement-secretariat to introduce reforms to the political systems was continued. A visit by the Movement-Secretariat to the ANC in South Africa aiming at helping to further a general political transition process of the Movement. A newly introduced constitutional commission was supported by contributions of the civic society in the stride to open up the political system. Several political initiatives and groups were created in this development, some of which took up an increasingly important part of the project work. |
| April 2001 | A UN group of experts accused leading politicians from Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi as profiting from the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Armed forces were alleged to loot natural resources in the occupied areas. Relatives of the Ugandan president were named in the report. | |
| November 2001 | Due to intensive anti-aids campaigns and education the aids situation slowly improved. | |
| May 2002 | Parliament passed a law (Political Parties and Organizations Act) which loosened the limitations of political parties in place since 1986 and allowed the founding of new parties. Political rallies and demonstrations were still banned, however. |
The increasingly entrenched movement system called for support of an open discussion about a pluralistic political system. Youth and women organizations, besides the already very active young parliamentarians, increasingly took part in the open dialogue about the transition process. The and a so called were founded. Besides the youth, MP’s who were critical towards the movement system organized themselves in the (PAFO) and voiced their disagreement toward the new party law as well as called for a dialogue about the causes for the violent conflict in north Uganda for the first time. |
| August 2002 | A major offensive was launched against the (LRA) in spring was only conditionally successful which is why president offered a truce fire. At the end of 2001 the LRA was put on the list of terror organizations by the USA, causing Sudan to offer cooperation with Uganda in order to please the United States. Uganda started looking at seizing support from the south Sudanese rebel movement SPLA in return. | |
| September 2002 | The heads of state of Congo (-Kinshasa) and Uganda, , signed a treaty in Luanda about getting Ugandan troops out of Congo. In return, Congo agreed to no longer tolerate rebel groups which fight Uganda on their ground. | |
| March 2003 | The Movement National Conference decided to allow party political activities and called for a commission in this regard. A discussion about the lifting of maximum term regulations for the president was started by the Movement at the same time. | The project work was increasingly centering on the current political developments and engaged in cooperating with the partners and directing measures for opening the political system and re-introducing the multi-party system. All lines of work in the field of media, gender and labour unions in cooperation with parliamentarians and NGO’s concentrated on going along with and furthering the political transition process. |
| July 2003 | US president visited Uganda. | |
| August 2003 | Uganda’s ex-dictator died after 20 years of exile in Dschidda in Saudi-Arabia at the age of 78. The Ugandan government refused to bring back the corpse to Uganda for a state funeral. | |
| January 2004 |
A constitutional commission suggested a referendum about the lifting of the term limits for the president besides re-instating party political activities. Official talks were held between delegates of the opposition parties and the Movement in regard to the modalities and a time plan for the re-introduction of the multi-party system. |
Due to the difficult re-organisation process of the ‘old parties’ and the institutional as well as ideological difficulties of many newly founded small parties, the (PAFO) became the main partner of the FES in terms of organizing public discussion forums in order to support the political transition process. The hardening of the positions of supporters of the Movement as well as the opposition was the reason for increased difficulties and risks in the cooperation with these political partners, however. Toward the end of the year the cross-party approach of the PAFO was replaced by the founding of the (FDC) and therefore could not stand anymore as a co-operational partner in the initial sense. More emphasis was placed on our partners in the civil-society sector, in particular youth and women’s organizations. Even our labour union partner NOTU appeared to overcome its long-term crisis and tried to bring its socio-political duties more into the public debate. |
| February 2004 | Having been deprived of their retreat areas in the south of Sudan, the LRA started to attack a refugee camp 300 kilometers north of Kampala in which at least 200 people died. The LRA consists largely of kids and adolescents who are firstly kidnapped and then forced to commit violence. All in all about 1.5 million people have fled their villages in the north due to this conflict. | |
| August 2004 | The heads of state of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania agreed to implement the . | Even though the east-African integration has been a core subject for the regional project for quite some time, the resolution for the so called of the political integration has become an increasingly important aspect of the national project work in Uganda. |
| October 2004 | Jürgen Peters replaced Fritz Kopsieker as the FES representative | |
| December 2004 | The so called ‘omnibus bill’ was introduced to parliament and contained a complex 119 suggestions for a change to the constitution. | FES activities concentrated on facilitating the public debate as the constitutional aspects of the political transition. An opinion survey disclosed a majority of Ugandans would opt for the retention of the movement system. |
| December 2004 | In-sufficient preparations caused negotiations between the LRA and the World Bank nominated negotiator to fail. | Despite the failure of official peace talks the security situation in the northern regions improved. Therefore FES slowly expanded its activities to this area. Arua and Gulu were the first places where seminars were jointly organized with FES partner organizations. |
| January 2005 | In the new year the government declared that negotiations with the LRA had failed, but signals that they are still open for more talks. The negotiations were taken up again. | In collaboration with the Gender Department of Makerere University the FES designed a first survey about the role of women in peace negotiations and peace keeping missions. Target areas were (post conflict area) and Region (ongoing conflict). In cooperation with the FES office in Khartoum a joint conference on gender in military conflicts is held with participants from Kenya, Sudan and Uganda. |
| January 2005 | The party registration as decided upon as needed and in-line with constitution back in November 2004 was launched. | The movement system facilitated special interest groups with own members in the Parliament of Uganda. In the forthcoming multi-party system their agenda had to be incorporated into the programs of the different political parties. FES supported its partner organization from the labour unions, women and youth organizations to lobby the emerging political parties. |
| July 2005 | Despite a boycott by the majority of the opposition parties the Ugandan people decided overwhelmingly for the return to the multi-party system. Out of 47.3% of registered voters 92.4% voted for the return of multi-party system. | As most of the electorate were not properly aware of the new political system a series of workshops were organized to inform the Ugandan people about the multi-party system. Special anti-violence campaign was organized since the general elections in 2001 had been widely characterized by violence. |
| 23. Feb. 2006 | First general elections took place under the newly introduced multi-party system. Four major political parties contested:
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