By Otim Nape
At Kololo Airstrip where he received instruments of power for the newly independent Ugandan nation, on 9th October 1962, Dr Milton Obote was a properly married man. As he was enthroned as Uganda’s founding prime minister, he was flanked by an official spouse who was not Miria Kalule who the world came to know as his first lady. Then who was it? It was Imat Milyeri Apio Ayer, a Langi woman who had been his wife almost 10 years preceding the achievement of independence. This is a fact many Ugandans, if not all, haven’t been aware of. Why? According to Charles Akora, son to Milyeri who is now deceased, out of respect and reverence for Dr. Milton Obote, people in his close circle who were aware agreed to keep it top secret fearing that any escalation into the public domain would diminish his good public standing. It has now reliably emerged that Obote was traditionally married to and lived with Milyeri as husband and wife long before Miria (call her slay Muganda queen of the 1960s) came into the picture. Obote family members that were anonymously interviewed for this article denied being aware of Milyeri but Akora, who often lived in the Obote household and was mistaken by many to be his first born, elaborately gives his narrative. He also shares well-kept photographs and challenges any of Obote children to challenge his version-and the authenticity of the photographs showing his mum flanking Obote at Kololo.
THE DETAILS;
While he lived in Kenya as a worker, who gradually became politically very active, Obote always stayed with Milyeri officially as husband and wife. They had met earlier on in the 1950s in Jinja where they both worked doing some odd jobs. Akora says that months after commencing the relationship, it was realized Milyeri was pregnant from her previous relationship before Milton came into the picture. It turns out the man who was responsible for this pregnancy was another member of the (Obote’s) Oyima clan though not as very prominent as Obote was. It was a traditional scandal of sorts but the clan elders quietly managed it in a manner that ensured minimum damage to the reputation of their son Obote in whom them Oyima clan politically had a lot of hope. Milyeri, who officially was Obote’s spouse on the campaign trail as the political orator campaigned for his UPC in the pre-independence elections, was asked to choose between the two men and she naturally chose Obote who was clearly becoming a higher prolific celebrity not only in Oyima clan but the entire Lango community. Madly in love with Milyeri, Obote didn’t care about the pregnancy being another man’s. He carried on with Milyeri, the babe he madly loved at that time.
OUR SOURCE FOR ALL THIS;
All this narrative has been narrated and corroborated to this news website by now 69 year old Charles Akora, who many Obote close confidants including Col Idi Amin grew up thinking was Obote’s biological son and his first born at that. In actual sense he is the outcome of the pregnancy Milyeri had conceived already by the time she came to live with Obote as his official wife long before Miria came into the picture. “Milton loved and treated me like his own biological child. You wouldn’t tell I wasn’t his child because even Mama Miria always treated me like her own child. Even her sons grew up thinking I was their elder brother. I was always in State House and I lived there as often as I liked in especially holidays,” says Akora who has since bitterly fallen out with Miria over ownership of the residential house in which Obote lived with his mother Milyeri as he served in the LEGCO as a representative of Lango district. Even in the Tanzanian exile, Akora lived very closely with the Obote household clearly creating an impression he was indeed Miria & Milton’s first born child. “I was employed as an economist in the EAC Secretariat in Arusha until it collapsed in 1977. I stayed in Tanzania with Milton and I even participated in the war under Kikoosi Malum. On return to power by the UPC government, I worked in parastatals mostly Foods & Beverages as an economist in the planning department,” Akora explains.
The Ntinda old colonial model little old house (located along Plot 131 Semawata road just opposite Tuskys) is where Obote and Milyeri lived as husband and wife. This was after Obote, along with Milyeri, returned from Kenya and was immediately nominated to represent Lango district in the LEGCO. Having realized it was very expensive to pay for the Nakivubo-based Metropolitan hotel where he used to stay with Milyeri each time he came for LEGCO business in Kampala, Obote applied to (African Housing Scheme) what became National Housing & Construction Co ltd after independence and was allocated the Semawata House. His neighbors included fellow LEGCO members and fellow Congress politicians like Grace Ibingira, Sam Ngudde Osaka etc. These too were allocated houses in the same Semawata road estate because of the government responsibilities they held. “It now looks a very modest place you can’t even believe Obote’s political journey, for the purposes of his Kampala-based political operations, started here. In the 1950s these were very posh residences and for an African to live there, you had to be high profile like the LEGCO members otherwise you would apply and it’s not allocated to you. It wasn’t just about money but status dictated because these where places of the whites,” Akora explains as he takes us into the well enclosed compound. “We kept the house that way because we wanted to preserve that aspect of Milton’s history.” Inside the not-so-very large compound is a double cabin pick up with number plates that show the owner of the vehicle must be working with an international NGO or one of the powerful government parastatals or MDAs. “That’s for our tenant and please don’t make it part of the story,” Akora says as he pleads with our camera crew not to photograph the tenant’s vehicle. He explains that Obote’s LEGCO salary suffered monthly deductions to contribute towards this house that was purchased under mortgage-like terms.
However, as we shall subsequently show in the last part of this story, Lands Minister Betty Amongin disputes this version; she says available records show Milton got the house free of charge because of the position he held in the LEGCO. Akora, who subsequently had no kind words for Amongin, says whereas she technically doesn’t appear on the relevant documents pertaining to the 99 year leasing for the house to her spouse Milton Obote (she wasn’t a gov’t employee like Milton was), his mum Milyeri significantly contributed to the purchase price for the house. Amongin says there is no way Milyeri could have contributed because to Obote the house was merely allocated; he didn’t have to pay a penny because he was entitled by virtue of his position. Amongin challenges Akora to produce any written proof that Milyeri contributed money towards the purchase of the house. Akora differs. “She had been a well-earning tailor and business lady both in Kampala and Lira. She agreed with Milton that they both contribute money and that exactly is what happened,” Akora says adding that partly was the reason that, even after being snatched by Miria, the younger Ganda Queen he met in 1963 through social friends, Obote surrendered a posh car to Milyeri and allowed her to stay in Ntinda Semawata house on being kicked of the Entebbe Prime Minister’s residence in Entebbe by a pro-Miria clique. “The primary reason is that, as Prime Minister, Milton didn’t want a scandal as Miria moved in. He prevailed on my mother to take things easy and she complied because she didn’t want to spoil Milton’s politics as a national figure,” narrates Akora who was barely 10 years when Miria’s very secretive liaisons with Milton began leading into the ejection of his own mother from what later the Entebbe State House.
MILTON-MILYERI FALL OUT;
Akora says that because Obote didn’t want to have his political career as the new Prime Minister scandalized, he hid the Semawata house secret away from Miria even after the Ganda Ngeye lady moved in officially as Obote’s First Lady. In the same spirit Milyeri, who the Lango community very much revered and even bestowed on her the title Imat (which means mum), was prevailed over to mostly live in Lira and get a caretaker for the Semawata House. Indeed even when she lived there, as she operated a garments shop in Nakasero market during the Obote II regime, Akora says Milyeri was always incognito not to cause image problems for Milton. During his time as early as 1972, Amin drove to Lira and asked about the child (Akora who was now working at Mak/Kabanyolo) and offered Milyeri a job in Uganda Hotels Ltd. She eventually died in Mulago hospital in the late 1980s after being greatly devastated by the events of 1985-6 which saw her only child Akora confined in Kenya for many months as he weighed the option of returning to the Museveni-led Uganda. She lost her Nakasero garment’s business to the looting. Akora, who is uncomfortable discussing why his mother didn’t have any children with Obote, says she was diabetic and got so much stressed with her son’s unexplained absence and got a stroke that led her into coma/ICU for weeks in Mulago where she eventually died.
MIRIA/AKENA COME FOR THE HOUSE;
Akora, whose Akokoro cattle ranch was allegedly destroyed by Miria’s people as they battled in Lira High Court where Miria reported accusing him of illegally encroaching on Obote’s family land, says he has now confirmed that Miria and her son Jimmy Micheal Akena want to economically impoverish him so that he dies a pauper. “She took the man and unfairly kicked out my mother to become the First Lady and we said okay that’s life. Now she is again bringing her greed to grab my mother’s house. I’m not going to let her. I will go down fighting. What do they want me to do? You don’t want me in the village: you destroy my ranch and I defeat you in court where you reported me. They are even saying I shouldn’t live on the Oyima communal land in Akokoro. What did I do to these people?” tearfully says Akora who has already instructed lawyers to challenge Miria & Akena’s land grabbing in court regarding their newly acquired title for the Semawata road house. “Even in both Langi & Ganda culture, it’s abominable for one to take possession and live in the house that your husband slept in with your co-wife. Even the Oyima clan Constitution is very clear about that. It’s abominable; it’s clearly prohibited.” Akora says Semawata house has always been his until recently when Miria & Akena started clandestinely working on the paperwork to hijack & transfer its ownership from him. They eventually registered joint ownership of the Semawata house and the lands ministry, ULC & KCCA have since issued them a title. “Since Akena’s wife Betty Amongin became Minister of Lands, I suspected them of sinister moves to dispossess me of my land.
Akena hasn’t been talking to me for a very long time and after successfully getting the title in their own name, their true intentions manifested last Wednesday when Akena personally came to the house and told the tenants that I own this and I want you guys out by [Easter] Monday. This is all clearly in bad faith and there is no way we can talk about this as a family any more. They know everything how it was bequeathed to me by my mother and how I applied for letters of administration and proceeded to apply for registration of title. Those two greedy adults, used to only free things because they are Obote’s wife & son, know everything about my efforts to consolidate my ownership,” Akora says adding that with Amongin serving as lands minister, Miria & Akena believe they can always get their way. In a brief phone interview Monday afternoon, Akena sounding tensed up told this news website that: “I have no apologies registering a title on my father’s land; and it has never been Milyeri’s land.” He refused to discuss more saying he was apprehensive his comments can easily be used to become the basis “to write a sensational headline.” Akora rants on: “It’s a deeply entrenched syndicate because Amongin has thrice come to this property claiming to be looking for a house to rent yet clearly the state in which that house is (its small & too dilapidated) can’t attract a minister to rent it.” Akora says even the ULC/Lands Ministry, the registry staff that had all along been very enthusiastic about his title application all of a sudden changed “and started telling me that Mr. Akora this matter is now very complicated because our boss the Minister has become very keen about it.” Amongin, in a phone interview with this news website, laughs this off saying “it’s true I’m the minister of land but such matters are actually handled by the [ULC] Chairman Baguma Isoke and the Secretary [Nyombi].” She admits being aware of the dispute like many other controversial applications that to her knowledge in her supervisory role as sector minister.
Ironically Akora says he has since 2015 been seeking to register and get title in the names of Milton Obote who is husband and father to Miria & Akena respectively. Amongin says that is an act of fraud because Akora has no will or any written thing from registered owner Obote evidencing existence of either legal or equitable interest in the Semawata land. Indeed beyond being Milyeri’s son, Akora’s many documents don’t disclose how he is exactly related to Obote in whose name and on whose behalf Akena and Miria have since registered their interest in the same land. This is so because Miria is the administrator for the entire Milton Obote estate as a deceased person. Indeed Akora admits that he should have acted much earlier than 2015 when he started the process to register his interest in the land. Now that their title precedes his on the same land, Akora will legally have much more work to do to successfully fight them off. He has already seen how the task at hand is going to be “because when my lawyers put a caveat and served it to the title-issuing authority which is Kampala District Land Board and ULC, they refused to accept it saying they fear to antagonize Minister Betty Amongin.” A clearly determined Charles Akora says “but I’m not going to be cowed I’m determined to use the court system to fight for my mother’s land (slightly less than a 1/4 acre & can fetch Shs1bn given the prime location).
THE OBOTES SPEAK OUT:
Having failed to get Miria as her phone was off each time we tried calling, we rang her equally accused son Jimmy Akena who admitted being aware of the dispute but denied any wrong doing. “It’s my father’s land and not Milyeri’s and I have no apologies whatsoever registering my interest, through title acquisition, on land that duly belongs to Milton Obote,” Akena said before begging to be let go. He insisted that talking too much would only make things more complicated as he feared his comments might be used as basis “to write a sensational headline.” We gratefully got another staunch Obote family member who elaborated on the situation on condition he wasn’t quoted. “I don’t want to be quoted unless I get authorized by Jimmy and Mama Miria which might take time yet you seem to be in a hurry for your story,” the family member said on phone sounding very disgusted about Akora’s shamelessness. The family member said: “It’s because we are decent and restrained, otherwise it’s us who should be running to Mulengera news to expose Mr. Akora for the land grabber that he is. For all the years the family was in exile, he went to government and for all those decades kept collecting rent on all Milton Obote’s properties. Even when we returned, he never told us about this. When President Museveni wrote a letter directing the Finance Ministry to pay compensation and renovate all Obote’s houses-Kololo, Lira and Akokoro for the destruction the army occupation caused, the defense and lands ministry came in. Lands was for the valuation purposes and defense, it was because their soldiers occupied the properties. As finance prepared to pay, the defense produced documents showing that Mr. Charles Akora had turned himself into the land lord representing the family and was always collecting rent. He is a criminal who should be in Luzira because how do you deal in someone’s property in such a manner without any power of attorney? In fact he was praying that we all don’t return from exile so that he would grab the properties especially those that were unknown to us.” The family member adds that it was mostly Adoko Nekyon, Obote’s very influential cousin who is also head of Oyima clan, that helped the family to identify and locate many of these properties including those (like Semawata) whose ownership Akora sought to conceal from them. Ironically, Akora says he is the one who disclosed to Akena the existence of the Semawata property. “He had just returned from exile and had nowhere to stay. MOF was chasing him from the Uganda House apartment and it was going to be embarrassing because even the Kololo house was uninhabitable. I brought him here [Semawata] and showed him the house saying it doesn’t look good but if the worse come to the worst, you can live here for the time being,” claims Akora. “It all shows how ungrateful that Akena man is: I used to house his children at my own [Naguru] house and got them schools but today he can’t even greet me. I also pleaded with the family of his wife in West Nile when they demanded compensatory dowry because he hadn’t married their daughter properly after they met in Zambia. I’m the one who negotiated for the children’s custody but see how he has paid me back.” Akora says the manner in which Akena stormed his Naguru house and took away the children showed how ungrateful he is. “He came when we are away and unceremoniously carried away his children and my wife was the most shocked because she treated them as her own kids.” The Obote family member adds that in fact even the Naguru property that Akora calls his home was Obote’s land (over half acre near Kembabazi) which they don’t want to recover from him “because by the time we returned from exile he had already build a permanent house on it but let him know that we know everything.” Akora refutes this claim and explains it was Prince Mawanda, who chaired ULC in early Museveni years, is the one who allocated to him the land on the account that he knew his mother to be a decent well-behaved lady. But the Obote family member doesn’t take that to be true. He instead demanded that Akora “shouldn’t tell you lies regarding his relationship to Milton; his father was Milton’s elder brother-period.” On her part Amongin, who said “I understand his situation and I’m not angry against Charles,” restricted her comments on the general principles and practices guiding the ministry on matters regarding a deceased person’s estate. “Charles can go to heaven and back but that won’t give him that property unless he has Dr. Obote’s will giving him the land or any other relevant documents. For us in government are guided by the law; what it says is what we do. I really don’t know about the issue of the mum that much but this is how it works; if Dr. Obote had a will showing I have bequeathed this land to lady so and so and Charles has possession of that, then he comes to the ministry and we proceed. If his mother paid for the land as he says, then he brings that proof. But in this file from what I know, there is no other person apart from Dr. Obote and the administrator of the estate is the person to apply for the title… It clearly shows the land was allocated [not sold] to him as a government official.” Amongin adds that the entire Ntinda neighborhood all the way to the Minister’s village was government land allocated [and not sold] to government officials who lived on the properties thereon. Amongin says available documentation on the file shows the land was allocated to Dr. Obote and on his death, Miria became the administrator. “The way the law works is such that if Charles wants to contest Mama Miria’s being the administrator of Dr. Obote’s estate, he contests it in court and not to the press. If he has his proof, he adduces it in court and wins the case. At the Ministry when such a matter comes to us we ask who is the administrator? Any other story beyond that regarding who was born to so and so isn’t my business as a government official.” For comments, call/text/Whatsapp us on 0703164755!
