MINISTRY Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, Planning and Development, Minister of West Indian Affairs, Leader of the House of Representatives: Minister of Public Utilities and Housing: Senator the Hon. D. P. Pierre Minister of External Affairs: The Hon. F. C. Prevatt Minister of Health and Local Government: Dr the Hon. M. P. Awon Minister of Education: Senator the Hon. C. Gomes Minister of Industry, Commerce, Petroleum and Mines: Senator the Hon. O. R. Padmore PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARIES Ministry of the Prime Minister: Post vacant Ministry of Labour and Social Security: Senator the Hon. J. C. Daniel SENATE President of the Senate: Senator J. Hamilton Maurice HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE House of RepreSENTATIVES V. Jamadar JUDICIARY COURT OF APPEAL Chief Justice and President of the Court of Appeal: The Hon. Mr Justice A. H. McShine Mr Justice C. E. Phillips Mr Justice H. A. Fraser U UGANDA GANDA is near the centre of the continent of Africa. It is bounded on the east by Kenya, on the south by Tanzania and Rwanda, on the west by the Congo and on the north by the Sudan. The distance from north to south of the country is about 400 miles and from east to west about 350 miles. The total area is 91,076 square miles, of which 16,364 square miles are open water. This area of open water consists of parts of Lakes Victoria, Albert and Edward and all of Lakes George and Kyoga. From Lake Victoria at Jinja the. Nile begins its 3,800 miles journey to the Mediterranean. Lake Victoria is 3,720 feet above sea level: in the north at the Sudan frontier the altitude is only 2,000 feet. The ground rises towards Mount Elgon (14,178 feet) in the east and towards the Ruwenzori Mountains in the west. The highest peak of the snow-capped Ruwenzori range is 16,794 feet, the third highest mountain in Africa. Uganda has thus great variety of landscape and vegetation. There are hot, dry deserts in the north-east, luxurious rain forests in the west and south-east, the remainder being mostly tree-savannah with extensive sluggish swamps. Wildlife is varied and abundant. Over most of the country the weather is that of a perpetual summer, with hot sunshine, cool breezes and showers of rain. Temperature ranges at Entebbe are about 17.5°C (62°-64°F) minimum and 26°-27°C (77°-81°F) maximum. The mean annual rainfall at Entebbe is 63.44 inches. The principal towns are Kampala, the capital (population including suburbs 331,889), Jinja (population 47,298) and Mbale (population 23,539). At the 1959 census the population was 6,536,616, of whom 6,449,558 were Africans (approximately 680,000 of whom were not of Uganda origin), 10,866 Europeans and 76,192 persons of other race (mostly originating from the Indian sub-continent). This represented an average rate of increase of approximately 2.5 per cent per annum since the previous census. In 1961 the population was estimated to number some 6,845,000 of whom 6,751,000 were Africans, 11,600 Europeans, and the remainder mostly Asians. In mid-1965 it was estimated that the population was 7,551,000. The provisional 1969 census results show a population of 9,526,237, an increase of 47 per cent since the 1959 census. The analysis of the African population by tribes showed the Baganda to be the largest (just over one million), followed by the Iteso, Banyankore and Basoga with about half a million members each. Twenty-four other tribes showed totals in excess of 10,000 each. 24 languages in various groups (Bantu, Nilotic and Hamitic) are spoken but English is the official language. No statistics are available giving information about the main religions but it is believed that one-third of the people are Roman Catholic, one-third Protestant, one-sixth Muslim and a sixth not conforming to any organised religion. In 1967 Uganda had 2,648 grant-aided primary schools with an enrolment of 641,639 children while 27,025 students were enrolled in secondary schools, 1,521 students at Technical Schools and 4,257 at Teacher Training Colleges. Makerere University College, opened as a technical school in 1921, achieved its status as a constituent college of the University of East Africa in 1963. On 1st July 1970, Makerere became a separate national University as Makerere University, Kampala. First degree courses are offered at Makerere in Agriculture, Arts and Social Science, Education, Medicine and Science; and except for Science, post graduate diplomas are also offered in these faculties. Total enrolment at Makerere for 1967/68 was 1,860 and in that year 1,467 Ugandans were attending the University of East Africa. In 1966/67, 2,328 Ugandans were enrolled in Universities and institutions of higher education abroad (1,426 in Britain). Having no sea coast, Uganda is dependent principally upon the railway line to Mombasa, Kenya, for her imports and exports, and in 1960 more than 700,000 tons of goods were carried in each direction. There are nearly 700 miles of mainline railways in Uganda between Totoro and Kasese and Tororo and Pakwach. With the erection of a bridge over the Nile it is planned to extend the railway to Arua. There are 15,000 miles of roads of all sorts, of which almost 1,000 miles are bitumenised main highways. Uganda's international airport is situated at Entebbe, twenty-one miles from Kampala. The runway is 9,900 feet in length. There are also landing grounds at Tororo, Jinja, Soroti, Gulu, Arua, Kasese, Murchison Falls and Mbarara from which internal services are operated by the East African Airways Corporation. Radio Uganda and Uganda Television are both controlled by the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and Tourism. Uganda's exports and re-exports in 1969 amounted to Shs. 1,602m. of which exports to neighbouring Kenya and Tanzania accounted for Shs. 190m. Main overseas export earners were: coffee (Shs.779.9m.); cotton (Shs.250.9m.); copper (Shs.120-3m.); tea (Shs.9.3m.); animal feeding stuffs (Shs.42·1m.); hides and skins (Shs.26-7m.). Britain's purchases from Uganda in 1969 were Shs.315.8m. (22.6 per cent). Goods to the value of Shs.910m. were imported by Uganda from overseas in 1969. Imports from Kenya and Tanzania in the same period were Shs.343m. Britain (Shs.312m.) was Uganda's largest overseas supplier. In 1970/71 a recurrent revenue of Uganda Shs. 1,170m., including Shs.28m. from new taxation proposals, is expected with an expenditure of Shs. 1,121m. Development resources are expected to amount to Shs.414-2m., of which Shs. 135.4m. is expected to come from external or tied sources, Shs. 199.9m. from internal loan finance and the remainder from development revenue and the recurrent budget surplus. The net gap in budget finances will be Shs.97.7m., to be met from local short term borrowing. Uganda's Independence Day is 9th October. HISTORY Archaeological evidence points to human occupation of the area which is now Uganda from the earliest times. The pursuit of agriculture may have originated in the first millenium B.C., probably coincidentally with Bantu settlement. For a time the earlier stone-age inhabitants and the agriculturalists continued to exist side by side, the former being gradually absorbed. The working of iron was learned perhaps a thousand years ago. The fertility of the south and west of the country favoured the development of political institutions, and in those areas there grew up a number of highly coherent, centrally controlled units. Up to the nineteenth century the most powerful of these was Bunyoro, but in that century Buganda took the lead. In the north, different conditions had favoured the development of small tribal organisations. During the nineteenth century, the first British traders, explorers and missionaries reached Uganda. Speke and Grant penetrated from the east coast of Africa in 1862; Baker from the north in 1864. In the 1870s there were unsuccessful attempts by Egypt to obtain control. In the late 1870s the first missionaries reached Buganda. In 1888 British interests in East Africa were assigned by Royal Charter to the Imperial British East Africa Company, and in 1890 Captain (later Lord) Lugard was sent to represent the Company in Uganda. He concluded a treaty with the Kabaka of Buganda and established the Company's influence. The cost of the Company's operations was, however, prohibitive, and in 1893 an Imperial Commissioner, Sir Gerald Portal, assumed the obligations and rights of the Company on behalf of the British Government. Buganda was formally declared a Protectorate in 1894; Bunyoro, Tororo, Ankole and Busoga followed in 1896. New agreements were negotiated with Buganda, Toro and Ankole in 1900 and 1901. The basic pattern of Uganda's economic development was laid down before the First World War, in spite of the Administration's pre-occupation with the suppression of an outbreak of sleeping sickness which devastated the country. Cotton growing by peasant farmers, introduced in 1904, flourished, and the development of this sector of the economy stimulated the growth of transport and communications. The construction of a network of all-weather roads was begun, and a connection with the coast was obtained by a shipping service across Lake Victoria to Kisumu in Kenya, which was linked to Mombasa by rail in 1901. In 1913 the Busoga Railway was completed, and this, with the system of waterways radiating from the Nile basin, helped the development of the area of fine cotton-growing soil in the eastern part of the country. The 1914-18 War made considerable demands on manpower, and checked Uganda's economic progress, especially in the context of world depression in the early 1920s. Coffee was developed as an alternative cash crop, and the first sugar refinery was opened in 1924. By 1928 the railway from the coast had been extended as far as Jinja, and the completion of a bridge over the Nile in 1931 finally linked Kampala with the Indian Ocean. Under British administration land policy prohibited acquisition by nonAfricans of freehold title to land. As a result European settlement did not become a feature of Uganda's development; and in Buganda, where title to land was held almost exclusively by Africans, indiscriminate purchase and exploitation by non-Africans was eliminated. This was an important factor in the development of harmonious race relations in Uganda. The war of 1939-45 also made great demands on Uganda's resources and the emphasis of Government policy in the immediate post-war period was upon economic rehabilitation and development, a programme which was greatly helped by the high prices obtainable for cotton and coffee. CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT The Uganda Order in Council 1902 made provision for the government of the protectorate, and control was passed from the Foreign Office to the Colonial Office in 1905. By 1914 a series of boundary commissions had established the country's boundaries which remained unchanged until the present day except for the transfer of Rudolph Province to Kenya in 1926. In 1921 Executive and Legislative Councils were created, and the latter was expanded in 1953 to make it more representative. The Legislative Council was further increased in 1955, half the membership then being African. At the same time a ministerial system was introduced, a number of the ministers being non-officials. In 1958 direct elections of African Representative Members to the Legislative Council were held in a number of Districts. Buganda, however, did not take part and was consequently not represented in the new Council. The year 1960 saw further constitutional advance, with the general objects of broadening the composition of the Legislative Council and restricting its membership almost entirely to elected members, and of converting the Governor's Executive Council into a Council of Ministers. A Commission under Lord Munster considered the relationships between the Kingdoms and the Central Government. A general election under the new arrangements was held in March 1961 and resulted in a majority for the Democratic Party, led by Mr Benedicto Kiwanuka, |