Milton Obote (1924-2005), former prime minister (1962-1966) and president (1966-1971, 1980-1985) of Uganda. Obote helped lead Uganda to independence from Britain in 1962. During both his terms as president he attempted, unsuccessfully, to overcome ethnic conflict and division within the new nation through the use of military force.

Apollo Milton Obote was born in Lango, then a district of northern Uganda, the son of a minor administrative official and the grandson of a chief in the Langi ethnic group. In 1947 he entered Makerere University College (now Makerere University) in Kampala, but he left before completing his degree. In 1950 he moved to Nairobi, Kenya, to work for a construction company. While in Nairobi, Obote became involved in the trade union movement and joined a pro-independence organization led by future Kenyan president Jomo Kenyatta.

Obote returned to Uganda in 1957, becoming head of the Lango branch of Uganda’s first political party, the Uganda National Congress (UNC). In 1958 he was directly elected to represent Lango in Uganda’s colonial legislative council, which British authorities had expanded to include nominated African representatives in 1945. Obote and his followers split with the UNC in 1959, and the following year he and his supporters merged with another party to form the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), with Obote serving as president.

In 1962 Obote participated in the negotiations for Uganda’s independence from Britain and helped draft a constitution that granted varying, although limited, privileges to the four historic kingdoms that made up the new country. These kingdoms—Ankole, Buganda, Bunyoro, and Toro—had opposed Ugandan independence because they believed their autonomy would be reduced.

Obote became prime minister in 1962 after general elections. The UPC expanded its political base by forming a coalition with the Kabaka Yekka (KY) party. The KY party represented Buganda, the most powerful of the kingdoms. The following year, the KY leader and kabaka (king) of Buganda, Sir Edward Mutesa II, became Uganda’s president, a largely ceremonial office. The UPC’s coalition with the KY ended in 1964 because Buganda opposed Obote’s decision to hold a referendum in a disputed area in Buganda claimed by another kingdom. By that time, however, the UPC held a working majority in parliament, and Obote remained in office.

In 1966 the parliament demanded an investigation of Obote’s role in a gold-smuggling scandal, but he thwarted the investigation. Obote responded by removing many of his opponents from power, arresting several of his ministers, ousting President Mutesa, and assuming the presidency himself under a new constitution. In reaction, Buganda announced its secession, but the Ugandan army, under Colonel Idi Amin, led a successful attack against Bugandan forces and occupied the kabaka's palace. Mutesa fled to London, ending Buganda’s attempt at separatism.

In 1967 Obote introduced Uganda's third constitution, which abolished the kingdoms and increased the president's powers. In 1968 he announced the UPC’s so-called “Move to the Left,” a policy that led to the partial nationalization of several foreign companies. Obote was overthrown in 1971 in a coup that Amin organized after Obote began investigating him for corruption. Amin assumed the presidency of Uganda, and Obote received asylum in Tanzania, where he arranged for military training of other exiled Ugandans. Amin’s rule was marked by the death of hundreds of thousands of Ugandans who opposed him.

In 1979 exiled Ugandans participated in the Tanzanian army's successful invasion of Uganda to overthrow Amin. Obote was subsequently elected president a second time in 1980, thus returning Uganda to civilian rule. However, many Ugandans believe that the UPC actually lost these elections and took power by altering the results. In early 1981 guerrilla leader Yoweri Museveni formed an army, later called the National Resistance Army, to oppose Obote’s government.

The war that followed became the central issue of Obote’s second term as president. He clamped down on newspapers, ordered the arrest and torture of opponents, and allowed his army to kill tens of thousands, possibly even hundreds of thousands, of civilians, mostly in Buganda. To strengthen his control, Obote appointed officers from his own Langi ethnic group to top military positions. He also faced the challenge of rebuilding the economy, which Amin’s corrupt regime had left in ruins. In 1981 Obote agreed to an economic recovery plan in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The package achieved moderate initial success in the agricultural sector, but Uganda’s performance fell short of its economic targets, and the assistance was suspended in 1985.

Obote’s rule ended in July 1985 when a section of his army, dominated by soldiers who were not from his ethnic group, rebelled because of the heavy casualties they were suffering. Military leader Tito Okello, who had led the rebellion, became president of Uganda, and Obote fled to Kenya and later received asylum in Zambia. In January 1986 Museveni overthrew Okello and assumed the presidency.

Obote remained president of the UPC from exile, but the UPC was not permitted to nominate or campaign for candidates under the nonparty system instituted by Museveni. Obote remained in exile for the rest of his life.