How did previous govts before NRM celebrate liberation day?

Every year on the 26th of January, Uganda commemorates the National Resistance Movement Liberation Day which is a national holiday.

It marks the day the National Resistance Army, a rag-tag rebel group led by Yoweri Museveni, overthrew the military government of Gen. Tito Okello on 26th January 1986.

Gen Okello and his allies in the Uganda Army, as the national army was known then, had months earlier toppled Dr Milton Obote in a coup d’état.

However, one may wonder; before the marking of NRM’s Liberation Day, how did regimes before this of Museveni commemorate such similar days?

Equivalent to today’s Liberation Day, Idi Amin celebrated Revolutionary Day on 25th January, marking his bloody military coup which had toppled Milton Obote in 1971.

The Obote II government commemorated Heroes Day on 27th May, the day he returned from exile in Tanzania and landed at Ishaka, in Bushenyi district, western Uganda.

This website engaged veteran journalist Henry Baguma who narrated that, unlike other similar liberation days, this time round, the event seems to be politicized.

“What I mainly remember about these kinds of celebrations during the Idi Amin and Milton Obote II governments is that they were far different from today’s celebrations,” Baguma says in an interview.

“Most of these celebrations have become very political. For example, you may find that in Kakumiro yesterday, you couldn’t find anybody who doesn’t subscribe to the NRM party. Even those who would come to Kakumiro would avoid dressing anything that portrays colours of the opposition,” he said.

Baguma says most of these celebrations were a must-attend and different activities in the country would come to a standstill until the celebrations ended.

“During the previous governments, for example, that of Idi Amin, there were no political parties at the time. Everybody would turn up,” Baguma, remembers.

“By the way, what I remember is that it was a forceful celebration and no shops would open. Kampala would completely shut down and every person would go to Kololo for the celebrations,” he adds.

He stressed that different government institutions, ministries and departments, as well as schools, had to all close down, especially during Amin’s regime, to commemorate the Revolutionary Day.

When asked about the activities that were always conducted during the reigns of Obote and Amin, Baguma stated that those who attended enjoyed feasts and military parades which used to entertain the public.

Yesterday, the NRM party is marking 37 years since the NRA under the leadership of Museveni captured power on January 26 1986 after a five-year bush war.

The national celebrations were held in Kakumiro district under the theme “Our resolute effort to transform Uganda is a promise we shall fulfil.”