Regions of Uganda
The regions of Uganda are known as Central, Western and Northern. These four regions are in turn divided into districts. There were 56 districts in 2002, which expanded into 111 districts plus one city by 2010; the national government interacts directly with the districts, so regions do not have any definite role in administration. Under British rule before 1962, the regions were functional administrative units and were called provinces, headed by a Provincial Commissioner; the central region is the kingdom of Buganda, which had a semi-autonomous government headed by the Kabaka. The equivalent of the Provincial Commissioner for Buganda was called the Resident. At Uganda's 2002 census, the Central region contained 27 percent of the country's population, the Western region contained 26 percent, Eastern region 25 percent, the Northern region had 22 percent; the country's population density by region was 226 persons per square kilometre in the Eastern region, 176 per square kilometre in the Central region, 126 per square kilometre in the Western region, 65 per square kilometre in the Northern region.
In 2002 3 million people, or 12 percent of the country's population, lived in urban areas. The Central region had 54 percent of the urban population, the Northern region 17 percent, the Western region 14 percent, the Eastern region 13 percent. Counties of Uganda Sub-counties of Uganda Uganda Local Governments Association ISO 3166-2:UG
Milton Obote
Apollo Milton Obote was a Ugandan political leader who led Uganda to independence in 1962 from British colonial administration. Following the nation's independence, he served as Prime Minister of Uganda from 1962 to 1966 and President of Uganda from 1966 to 1971 again from 1980 to 1985, he regained power after Amin's 1979 overthrow. His second period of rule was marred by repression and the deaths of many civilians as a result of a civil war known as the Ugandan Bush War. Milton Obote was born at Akokoro village in Apac district in northern Uganda, he was the son of a tribal chief of the Lango ethnic group. He began his education in 1940 at the Protestant Missionary School in Lira, attended Gulu Junior Secondary School, Busoga College and university at Makerere University. Having intended to study law, a subject not taught at the university, Obote took a general arts course, including English and geography. At Makerere, Obote honed his natural oratorical skills, he worked in Buganda in southern Uganda before moving to Kenya, where he worked as a construction worker at an engineering firm.
While in Kenya, Obote became involved in the national independence movement. Upon returning to Uganda in 1956, he joined the political party Uganda National Congress, was elected to the colonial Legislative Council in 1957. In 1959, the UNC split into two factions, with one faction under the leadership of Obote merging with Uganda People's Union to form the Uganda People's Congress. In the runup to independence elections, Obote formed a coalition with the Buganda royalist party, Kabaka Yekka; the two parties controlled a Parliamentary majority and Obote became Prime Minister in 1962. He assumed the post on 25 April 1962, appointed by Sir Walter Coutts Governor-General of Uganda; the following year the position of Governor-General was replaced by a ceremonial presidency to be elected by the parliament. Mutesa, the Kabaka of Buganda, became the ceremonial President, with Obote as executive prime minister. In January 1964, a mutiny occurred at the military barracks at Jinja, Uganda's second city and home to the 1st Battalion of the Uganda Army.
There were similar mutinies in two other eastern African states. Before they arrived, Obote sent his defence minister Felix Onama to negotiate with the mutineers. Onama was held hostage, agreed to many demands, including significant pay increases for the army, the rapid promotion of many officers, including the future president Idi Amin. In 1965, Kenyans had been barred from leadership positions within the government, this was followed by the removal of Kenyans en masse from Uganda in 1969, under Obote's guidance; as prime minister, Obote was implicated in a gold smuggling plot, together with Idi Amin deputy commander of the Ugandan armed forces. When the Parliament demanded an investigation of Obote and the ousting of Amin, he suspended the constitution and declared himself President in March 1966, allocating to himself unlimited power under state of emergency rulings. Several members of his cabinet, who were leaders of rival factions in the party, were arrested and detained without charge.
Obote responded with an armed attack upon Mutesa's palace. In 1967, Obote's power was cemented when the parliament passed a new constitution that abolished the federal structure of the independence constitution and created an executive presidency. In 1969, there was an attempt on Obote's life. In the aftermath of the attempt, all opposition political parties were banned, leaving Obote as an absolute ruler. A state of emergency was in force for much of the time and many political opponents were jailed without trial for life. Obote's regime terrorised and tortured people, his secret police, the General Service Unit, led by Obote's cousin, was responsible for many cruelties. In 1969–70, Obote published a series of pamphlets that were supposed to outline his political and economic policy; the Common Man's Charter was a summary of his approach to socialism, which became known as the Move to the Left. The government took over a 60% share in major private corporations and banks in the country in 1970.
During Obote's regime and widespread corruption emerged in the name of his version of "socialism". Food shortages sent prices through the ceiling. Obote's persecution of Indian traders contributed to this rise in prices. In January 1971, Obote was overthrown by the army while on a visit to Singapore to attend a Commonwealth conference, Amin became President. In the two years before the coup Obote's relations with the West had become strained; some have suggested that Western Governments were at least aware of, may have aided, the coup. Obote fled to Tanzania; the fall of Obote's regime was celebrated by many Ugandans. In 1979, Idi Amin was ousted by Tanzanian forces aided by Ugandan exiles. By 1980, Uganda was governed by an interim Presidential Commission. At the time of the 1980 elections, the chairman of the commission was a close associate of Obote, Paulo Muwanga. Muwanga had been the de facto President of Uganda from 12–20 May 1980, as one of three presidents who served for short periods of time between Amin's ousting and the setting up of the Presidential Commission.
The other two presidents were Godfrey Binaisa. The elections in 1980 were won by Obote's Uganda People's Congress party. However, the UPC's opposition believed that the elections were rigged a
Uganda
Uganda the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East-Central Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, to the south by Tanzania; the southern part of the country includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria, shared with Kenya and Tanzania. Uganda is in the African Great Lakes region. Uganda lies within the Nile basin, has a varied but a modified equatorial climate. Uganda takes its name from the Buganda kingdom, which encompasses a large portion of the south of the country, including the capital Kampala; the people of Uganda were hunter-gatherers until 1,700 to 2,300 years ago, when Bantu-speaking populations migrated to the southern parts of the country. Beginning in 1894, the area was ruled as a protectorate by the UK, who established administrative law across the territory. Uganda gained independence from the UK on 9 October 1962; the period since has been marked by intermittent conflicts, including a lengthy civil war against the Lord's Resistance Army in the Northern Region led by Joseph Kony, which has caused hundreds of thousands of casualties.
The official languages are English and Swahili, although "any other language may be used as a medium of instruction in schools or other educational institutions or for legislative, administrative or judicial purposes as may be prescribed by law." Luganda, a central language, is spoken across the country, several other languages are spoken including Runyoro, Rukiga and Lusoga. The president of Uganda is Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, who came to power in January 1986 after a protracted six-year guerrilla war, he has since eliminated the presidential term limits and the presidential age limit, becoming president for life. The residents of Uganda were hunter-gatherers until 1,700–2,300 years ago. Bantu-speaking populations, who were from central Africa, migrated to the southern parts of the country. According to oral tradition, the Empire of Kitara covered an important part of the great lakes area, from the northern lakes Albert and Kyoga to the southern lakes Victoria and Tanganyika. Bunyoro-Kitara is claimed as the antecedent of the Buganda, Toro and Busoga kingdoms.
Some Luo invaded the area of Bunyoro and assimilated with the Bantu there, establishing the Babiito dynasty of the current Omukama of Bunyoro-Kitara. Arab traders moved inland from the Indian Ocean coast of East Africa in the 1830s, they were followed in the 1860s by British explorers searching for the source of the Nile. British Anglican missionaries arrived in the kingdom of Buganda in 1877 and were followed by French Catholic missionaries in 1879; the British government chartered the Imperial British East Africa Company to negotiate trade agreements in the region beginning in 1888. From 1886, there were a series of religious wars in Buganda between Muslims and Christians and from 1890, between ba-Ingleza Protestants and ba-Fransa Catholics; because of civil unrest and financial burdens, IBEAC claimed that it was unable to "maintain their occupation" in the region. British commercial interests were ardent to protect the trade route of the Nile, which prompted the British government to annex Buganda and adjoining territories to create the Uganda Protectorate in 1894.
In the 1890s, 32,000 labourers from British India were recruited to East Africa under indentured labour contracts to construct the Uganda Railway. Most of the surviving Indians returned home, but 6,724 decided to remain in East Africa after the line's completion. Subsequently, some took control of cotton ginning and sartorial retail. From 1900 to 1920, a sleeping sickness epidemic in the southern part of Uganda, along the north shores of Lake Victoria, killed more than 250,000 people. Uganda gained independence from Britain on 9 October 1962 with Queen Elizabeth II as head of state and Queen of Uganda. In October 1963, Uganda became a republic but maintained its membership in the Commonwealth of Nations; the first post-independence election, held in 1962, was won by an alliance between the Uganda People's Congress and Kabaka Yekka. UPC and KY formed the first post-independence government with Milton Obote as executive prime minister, with the Buganda Kabaka Edward Muteesa II holding the ceremonial position of president.
Uganda's immediate post-independence years were dominated by the relationship between the central government and the largest regional kingdom – Buganda. From the moment the British created the Uganda protectorate, the issue of how to manage the largest monarchy within the framework of a unitary state had always been a problem. Colonial governors had failed to come up with a formula; this was further complicated by Buganda's nonchalant attitude to its relationship with the central government. Buganda never sought independence, but rather appeared to be comfortable with a loose arrangement that guaranteed them privileges above the other subjects within the protectorate or a special status when the British left; this was evidenced in part by hostilities between the British colonial authorities and Buganda prior to independence. Within Buganda there were divisions – between those who wanted the Kabaka to remain a dominant monarch, those who wanted to join with the rest of Uganda to create a modern secular state.
The split resulted in the creation of two dominant Buganda based parties – the Kabaka Yekka KY, the Democratic Party that had roots in the Catholic Church. The bitterness between these two parties was intense especiall
Uganda People's Defence Force
The Uganda Peoples' Defence Force known as the National Resistance Army, is the armed forces of Uganda. From 2007 to 2011, the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated the UPDF had a total strength of 40,000–45,000 and consisted of land forces and an air wing. 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 destabilized the armed forces weakened by ethnic divisions. Each post-independence regime expanded the size of the army by recruiting from among people of one region or ethnic group, each government employed military force to subdue political unrest; the origins of the present Ugandan armed forces can be traced back to 1902, when the Uganda Battalion of the King's African Rifles was formed. Ugandan soldiers fought as part of the King's African Rifles during the First World War and Second World War.
As Uganda moved toward independence, the army stepped up recruitment, the government increased the use of the army to quell domestic unrest. The army was becoming more involved in politics, setting a pattern that continued after independence. In January 1960, for example, troops were deployed to Bugisu and Bukedi districts in the east to quell political violence. In the process, the soldiers killed twelve people, injured several hundred, arrested more than 1,000. A series of similar clashes occurred between troops and demonstrators, in March 1962 the government recognized the army's growing domestic importance by transferring control of the military to the Ministry of Home Affairs. On 9 October 1962, Uganda became independent from the United Kingdom, with 4th Battalion, King's African Rifles, based at Jinja, becoming the Uganda Rifles; the traditional leader of the Baganda, Edward Mutesa, became president of Uganda. 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 Africanising 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, he refused to support demands for Africanization of the officer ranks. On 1 August 1962, the Uganda Rifles became the Uganda Army; the armed forces more than doubled, from 700 to 1,500, the government created the 2nd Battalion stationed at the north-eastern town of Moroto on 14 November 1963. Omara-Otunnu wrote in 1987 that "a large number of men had been recruited into the Army to form this new battalion, and... the new recruits were not given proper training" because the Army was heavily committed in its various operations. In January 1964, following a mutiny by Tanganyikan soldiers in protest over their own Africanisation crisis, unrest spread throughout the Uganda Army.
On 22 January 1964, soldiers of the 1st Battalion in Jinja mutinied to press their demands for a pay raise and a Ugandan officer corps. They detained their British officers, several noncommissioned officers, Minister of Interior Felix Onama, who had arrived in Jinja to represent the government's 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 2nd Battalion, The Scots Guards and Staffordshire Regiment responded, they surrounded the First Battalion barracks at Jinja, seized the armory, quelled the mutiny. The government responded two days by dismissing several hundred soldiers from the army, several of whom were subsequently detained. Although the authorities 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 approved a military pay raise retroactive to 1 January 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 18 to 55. Two northerners, Shaban Opolot and Idi Amin, assumed command positions in the Uganda Rifles and received promotions to Brigadier and commander in chief, army chief of staff, respectively. Following the 1964 mutiny, the government remained fearful of internal opposition. Obote moved the army headquarters 87 kilometres from Jinja to Kampala, he created a secret police force, the General Service Unit to bolster security. Most GSU employees guarded government offices in and around Kampala, but some served in overseas embassies and other locations throughout Uganda; when British training programs ended, Israel started training Uganda's army, air force, GSU personnel. Several other countries provided military assistance to Uganda. Decalo writes that:... using classic'divide and rule' tactics, he appointed different foreign military missions to each battalion, scrambled operational chains of command, played the police off against the army, encouraged personal infighting between his main military'proteges' and removed from operational command of troops officers who appeared unreliable or too authoritative."
When Congolese aircraft bombed the West Nile villages of Paidha and Goli on 13 February 1965, President Obote again increased military recruitment and doubled the army's size to more than 4,500. Units established included a third battalion at Mubende
Speaker (politics)
The speaker of a deliberative assembly a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England; the speaker's official role is to moderate debate, make rulings on procedure, announce the results of votes, the like. The speaker decides who may speak and has the powers to discipline members who break the procedures of the chamber or house; the speaker also represents the body in person, as the voice of the body in ceremonial and some other situations. The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerford in the Parliament of England. By convention, speakers are addressed in Parliament as'Mister Speaker', if a man, or'Madam Speaker', if a woman. In other cultures other styles are used being equivalents of English "chairman" or "president". Many bodies have a speaker pro tempore, designated to fill in when the speaker is not available; the Speaker of the House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the Australian House of Representatives, the lower house of the Parliament of Australia.
The President of the Senate is the presiding officer of the Australian Senate, the upper house of the Parliament. In Canada, the Speaker of the House of Commons is the individual elected to preside over the House of Commons, the elected lower house; the speaker is a Member of Parliament and is elected at the beginning of each new parliament by fellow MPs. The Speaker's role in presiding over Canada's House of Commons is similar to that of speakers elsewhere in other countries that use the Westminster system; the Speaker does not vote except in the case of a tie. By convention, if required to vote, the Speaker will vote in favour of continuing debate on a matter, but will not vote for a measure to be approved; the Speaker of the Senate of Canada is the presiding officer of the Senate of Canada, the appointed upper house. The Speaker represents the Senate at official functions, rules on questions of parliamentary procedure and parliamentary privilege, presides over debates and voting in the "Red Chamber".
The Speaker of the Senate is appointed by the Governor General of Canada from amongst sitting senators upon the advice of the Prime Minister. The Speaker has a vote on all matters. In the event of a tie, the matter fails. At the provincial level, the presiding officer of the provincial legislatures is called the "Speaker" in all provinces except Quebec, where the term "President" is used; the presiding officer fulfills the same role as the Speaker of the House of Commons. Parliamentarism in Italy is centered on the Presidents of the two Houses, vested in defense of the members and of the assembly as a whole. Now constitutional community highlights changes in this role. In Singapore, the Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore is the head officer of the country's legislature. By recent tradition, the Prime Minister nominates a person, who may or may not be an elected Member of Parliament, for the role; the person's name is proposed and seconded by the MPs, before being elected as Speaker. The Constitution states.
While the Speaker does not have to be an elected MP, they must possess the qualifications to stand for election as an MP as provided for in the Constitution. The Speaker cannot be a Cabinet Minister or Parliamentary Secretary, must resign from those positions prior to being elected as Speaker; the Speaker is one of the few public sector roles which allow its office-holder to automatically qualify as a candidate in the Singapore presidential elections. The Speaker is the individual elected to preside over the elected House of Commons; the speaker is a Member of Parliament and is elected at the beginning of each new parliament by fellow MPs. The Lord Speaker is the presiding officer of the House of Lords; the used "Speaker of the House of Lords" is not correct. The presiding officer of the House of Lords was until the Lord Chancellor, a member of the government and the head of the judicial branch; the Lord Chancellor did not have the same authority to discipline members of the Lords that the speaker of the Commons has in that house.
The Lord Speaker is elected by the members of the House of Lords and is expected to be politically impartial. Both chambers of the United States Congress have a presiding officer defined by the United States Constitution; the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives presides over the lower house of Congress, the House of Representatives, is elected to that position by the entire House membership. Unlike in Commonwealth realms, the position is partisan, the Speaker plays an important part in running the House and advancing a political platform; the Vice President of the United States, as provided by the United States Constitution formally presides over the upper house, the Senate. In practice, the Vice President has a rare presence in Congress owing to responsibilities in the Executive branch and the fact that the Vice President may only vote to break a tie. In the Vice President's absence, the presiding role is delegated to the most Senior member of the majority party, the President pro tempore of the United States Senate.
Since the Senate's rules give little power to its non-member presider, the task of presiding over daily business is rotated among junior members of the majority party. In the forty-nine states that have a bicameral legislature, the highest leadership position in the
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of 209,331 km2, it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island, the ninth-largest island in the world. In 2011, Great Britain had a population of about 61 million people, making it the world's third-most populous island after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan; the island of Ireland is situated to the west of Great Britain, together these islands, along with over 1,000 smaller surrounding islands, form the British Isles archipelago. The island is dominated by a maritime climate with quite narrow temperature differences between seasons. Politically, Great Britain is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, constitutes most of its territory. Most of England and Wales are on the island; the term "Great Britain" is used to include the whole of England and Wales including their component adjoining islands. A single Kingdom of Great Britain resulted from the union of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland by the 1707 Acts of Union.
In 1801, Great Britain united with the neighbouring Kingdom of Ireland, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, renamed the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" after the Irish Free State seceded in 1922. The archipelago has been referred to by a single name for over 2000 years: the term'British Isles' derives from terms used by classical geographers to describe this island group. By 50 BC Greek geographers were using equivalents of Prettanikē as a collective name for the British Isles. However, with the Roman conquest of Britain the Latin term Britannia was used for the island of Great Britain, Roman-occupied Britain south of Caledonia; the earliest known name for Great Britain is Albion or insula Albionum, from either the Latin albus meaning "white" or the "island of the Albiones". The oldest mention of terms related to Great Britain was by Aristotle, or by Pseudo-Aristotle, in his text On the Universe, Vol. III. To quote his works, "There are two large islands in it, called the British Isles and Ierne".
Pliny the Elder in his Natural History records of Great Britain: "Its former name was Albion. Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne; the French form replaced the Old English Breoton, Bryten, Breten. Britannia was used by the Romans from the 1st century BC for the British Isles taken together, it is derived from the travel writings of the Pytheas around 320 BC, which described various islands in the North Atlantic as far north as Thule. Marcian of Heraclea, in his Periplus maris exteri, described the island group as αἱ Πρεττανικαὶ νῆσοι; the peoples of these islands of Prettanike were called the Priteni or Pretani. Priteni is the source of the Welsh language term Prydain, which has the same source as the Goidelic term Cruithne used to refer to the early Brythonic-speaking inhabitants of Ireland; the latter were called Picts or Caledonians by the Romans. Greek historians Diodorus of Sicily and Strabo preserved variants of Prettanike from the work of Greek explorer Pytheas of Massalia, who travelled from his home in Hellenistic southern Gaul to Britain in the 4th century BC.
The term used by Pytheas may derive from a Celtic word meaning "the painted ones" or "the tattooed folk" in reference to body decorations. The Greco-Egyptian scientist Ptolemy referred to the larger island as great Britain and to Ireland as little Britain in his work Almagest. In his work, Geography, he gave the islands the names Alwion and Mona, suggesting these may have been the names of the individual islands not known to him at the time of writing Almagest; the name Albion appears to have fallen out of use sometime after the Roman conquest of Britain, after which Britain became the more commonplace name for the island. After the Anglo-Saxon period, Britain was used as a historical term only. Geoffrey of Monmouth in his pseudohistorical Historia Regum Britanniae refers to the island as Britannia major, to distinguish it from Britannia minor, the continental region which approximates to modern Brittany, settled in the fifth and sixth centuries by migrants from Britain; the term Great Britain was first used in 1474, in the instrument drawing up the proposal for a marriage between Cecily the daughter of Edward IV of England, James the son of James III of Scotland, which described it as "this Nobill Isle, callit Gret Britanee".
It was used again in 1604, when King James VI and I styled himself "King of Great Brittaine and Ireland". Great Britain refers geographically to the island of Great Britain, it is often used to refer politically to the whole of England and Wales, including their smaller off shore islands. While it is sometimes used to refer to the whole of the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, this is not correct. Britain can refer to either all island
Prime Minister of Uganda
The Prime Minister of Uganda chairs the Cabinet of Uganda, although the President is the effective head of government. Ruhakana Rugunda has been the Prime Minister since 18 September 2014; the post of Prime Minister was created for the first time in 1962. In 1966, Prime Minister Milton Obote suspended the Constitution, abolished the post of Prime Minister, declared himself President. In 1980, the post of Prime Minister was re-established; the headquarters of the office of the Prime Minister of Uganda are located in the Twin Towers on Sir Apollo Kaggwa Road, in the Central Division of Kampala, Uganda's capital and largest city. The coordinates of the headquarters are 0°18'58.0"N, 32°35'13.0"E. As of October 2016, the Office of the Prime Minister oversaw several cabinet ministries and sub-ministries, including: First Deputy Prime Minister: Moses Ali Minister in Charge of General Duties, Office of the Prime Minister: Mary Karooro Okurut Ministry for Karamoja Affairs: headed by Minister John Byabagambi Minister of State for Karamoja Affairs: Moses Kizige Ministry of Disaster Preparedness and Refugees: headed by Minister Hillary Onek Minister of State for Disaster Preparedness and Refugees: Musa Ecweru Government Chief Whip: Ruth Nankabirwa Minister of State for the Northern Region, Uganda: Grace Kwiyucwiny Minister of State for Luweero Triangle: Dennis Galabuzi Ssozi Minister of State for Teso Affairs: Agnes Akiror Minister of State for Bunyoro Affairs: Ernest Kiiza Uganda President of Uganda List of heads of state of Uganda Vice President of Uganda Politics of Uganda History of Uganda Political parties of Uganda World Statesmen – Uganda Rulers.org – Uganda
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