The making of Muteesa’s exclusive Kakamega Club

Writing in the Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 12, No. 1 of March 1974 I. R. Hancock says the Kabaka advised Masembe-Kabali to “consult our friends in Kakamega.”

The making of Kakamega
The Kakamega Club was a social group which had evolved out of friendship which had begun when Kabaka Edward Muteesa was a student at Kings College Budo in the 1940s. Six of the club members were part of the founding group of 36 which started the Kabaka Yekka movement.

The founder members of the club were either Muteesa’s schoolmates at Budo or former students who were there before him. Most, if not majority of them, had joined the protectorate service or the Buganda prisons service just like Masembe-Kabali.

However, by the time he formed KY, Masembe-Kabali had resigned from the service of the protectorate government as a prisons officer.

At Budo, the club was formed to entertain, protect and stimulate the young Kabaka. A number of members of the group formed a circle of sportsmen who played with the Kabaka while at school.

However, as they left school and went into the working world, the club evolved to become “less informal and more exclusive”.

And when it became exclusive, there was a need for a name that would remain a mystery to the public. The name was never to link the group with the seat of power at Mengo.

Why Kakamega
Kakamega is an administrative region in western Kenya which was used as a military camp during World War II. A number of Ugandans who participated in this war used it as a transit camp. As a result, there were road signs directing to its location. Some of these road signs found their way into Buganda. They were brought by returning soldiers after their tour of duty.

According to records in the personal files of Masembe-Kabali in file 67 and 71 at Makerere University library, the name Kakamega was adopted at a meeting held on May 2, 1952.

According to an article by Hancock published by the Cambridge University Press, “it seems one member had arrived late for a meeting in Kampala, and anxious not to reveal the true reason for his delay, announced that he had come from ‘Kakamega’, having passed a sign on the Jinja Road. Those present agreed to adopt the name for their group.”

Later in 1955 when the Kabaka was returning from the first exile forced on him by then governor Sir Andrew Cohen, the club was called upon to prepare a special welcome for the club’s patron.

The club’s secretary, Y.B. Katwe, wrote: “I am sure you are one of the best friends of the Kabaka, you remember our life at Budo, the picnics held at Entebbe and Kaazi, our enjoyments in the palace, our group Kakamega, our life at Makerere, hunting trips to Kyankwanzi and Tooro and many others which I have not mentioned.”

“You realise we must write and give the Kabaka a special welcome on his return from exile. I request you, if you are in favour of the idea, to come to a meeting at my house on September 17, 1955, at 4 O’clock.”

The club had a constitution governing it and the Kabaka was above the constitution. As the patron, he had the veto powers when it came to who should be admitted to the club and who was to be dismissed from the club. Also as patron, the Kabaka’s views were taken as orders.

The club’s constitution also gave the Kabaka the powers to expel any member without informing other club members.
Kakamega Club had at least three meetings annually with the Kabaka as chief host, either at Lubiri in Kampala or Bamunanika in Luweero District. But as time went by, age caught up with the members and the meeting became less frequent.

Age also curtailed the frequency of the social activities of the club. They used to meet for activities such as concerts, swimming, shooting, tennis, football, musical evenings and boating. In her unpublished manuscript Tales from the Muteesa’s Palace, Barbara Kimenye talks of picnics she attended with Kabaka’s close friends, sometimes on the islands.

Membership
Membership to this club was not open to whoever went to Budo. Majority of its members were from notable families, with a few whose membership was bought through hard work and wealth.

Those from notable families included Latimer Mpagi, the son of a sub-county chief, John Bakka, son of a county chief who later become a county chief himself before becoming treasurer in Mengo.

Others included R. Ntambi and James Mukasa, both sons of a once powerful county chief; S. K. Masembe-Kabali and Dr S. K. Mukasa, both sons of former kingdom treasurer; H. Kanaabi, the son of a county chief; Nolawala Kakungulu, son of Semei Kakungulu; E. S. Sempebwa, whose father once served as a private secretary to the Kabaka and James Lutaya.

There were two princes as well in the club; they included Prince Lincoln Ndaula and Prince John Kukanga.
Besides nobility, there were those whose membership was as a result of either personal friendship with the Kabaka or social status because of their wealth. These included the likes of Antoni Tamale, Y. B. Katwe, and C. M. S. Mukasa.
Another characteristic of the club was that it was not open to Catholics, and it was no club for the poor. At one point, its member Antoni Tamale had to withdraw from the club when his financial stand took a nosedive, only to be reinstated after recovering from a financial crash.
The bar they set was not only limiting the entrance, but as time passed it became high for the members. According to Hancock, it was common for members to renegade on their annual subscription.

“There were always complaints about members not paying the entrance charge of Shs100 and the annual subscription of Shs50, and eventually these fees had to be lowered,” Hancock writes.

Role in Mengo politics
Some of the Kakamega Club members such as Lutaya, Bakka and Mukasa played informal roles in the politics of Mengo so much that then Katikkiro (prime minister) Micheal Kintu tried many times to block the club members from accessing the Kabaka.

Though the group was known to exist, its name was never known and politicians who were Mengo outsiders referred to it as “Kabaka’s friends”. Even those who were inside the establishment preferred to keep their identity a mystery.

One of the proponents of keeping the club’s existence a mystery was Mukasa who had risen to become a private secretary to the king.

According to Hancock, “C. M. S. Mukasa argued that their activities should not be advertised, because it would be alleged that the Kabaka had a few politically influential friends. The Kabaka himself insisted that the club should be kept in the background, because of prevailing conditions.”

Mukasa’s move was to contain interest of other members like Bakka who portrayed themselves as the link between the Kabaka and his subjects, a thing the Kabaka never wanted.

Birth of Kabaka Yekka
The Kakamega Club had a profound influence in the formation of the Kabaka Yekka movement, ending the Democratic Party’s aspiration of ushering Uganda into full independence.

Since it was a purely Anglican club, they saw DP, which was predominantly Catholic, as a threat to the Anglican establishment.

The four founder members of KY were Masembe-Kabali, Tamale, Bakka and Mpagi, all big landlords in Buganda. They were ready to do anything to keep things unchanged as the idea of an independent Uganda became a reality.
According to Hancock, “On the other hand, Kabaka Yekka was much more than a device to defend notable families, to protect them from representative democracy, and from economic and social change. It was also a movement for those who had nothing to lose but their identity, who were Baganda before they were anything else, who had no time for something called Uganda.”
With such a mindset, the founders of the movement were motivated by events of March 1961 when DP won the election. They must have felt threatened; hence the desire not only to protect the throne but also what was theirs.
As Hancock put it, “to the members of the Kakamega Club, however, this implied a person as much as an institution; They formed Kabaka Yekka to help our friend.”

Dr S. K. Mukasa, both sons of former

Kabaka Muteesa II was born in Kampala, on November 19, 1924, and was educated at King’s College Budo. Upon the death of his father Kabaka Daudi Cwa II on November 22, 1939, Muteesa was proclaimed Kabaka at the age of 15 and was installed on November 26, 1939.
Muteesa died of alcohol poisoning in his London flat in 1969.
Identified by the British police as suicide, the death has been viewed as assassination by those who claim Muteesa may have been force-fed vodka by agents of the Obote regime.

Source: Wikipedia.com