Disturbances (Governor's Report) (Hansard, 31 January 1945)

§ Colonel Stanley

On 8th January there was a small strike of Township and Public Works Department labour at Masaka. On 9th January this spread to factories, where the strike was settled and the labour returned to work on 15th January. On 11th January there were scattered strikes 1469W of lower paid labour in Kampala and on 15th January the strikers, who had rejected all invitations to negotiate with the Government, resorted to acts of violence and disorder, accompanied by stoning of the police, looting of shops and intimidation of other workers. The majority of the African employees of the Government and commercial interests in Kampala ceased work.

Subsequently the strike spread to Jinja and Mbale and again to Masaka, and, although it was generally unaccompanied by disorders, isolated clashes with the police and military occurred, including one outside Koja, where the military were compelled to fire upon a rioting African mob estimated at a thousand, killing four and wounding ten. The total number of casualties at Kampala and elsewhere is eight Africans killed, fifteen Africans wounded, one Indian died from injuries by stoning, and several police and one British N.C.O. injured. The Governor reports that the number of African casualties would have been larger but for the restraint shown by the police, the military and the administration.

The general situation is now normal, all labour having returned to work. The Governor is appointing a Commission of inquiry under the Chief Justice to inquire into the disturbance.

Pending the report of this Commission I do not propose to comment in detail on the causes of the disturbances, but the Governor reports the following facts:

(1) Discontent has been caused among the poorer classes of the population by the high cost of living and in particular the greatly increased cost of essential piece-goods, the acute shortage of which has operated to defeat price control in spite of all the Government's efforts to the contrary. There has also been dissatisfaction at the fact that the increased war bonus introduced by the Uganda Government last year was considerably lower than the corresponding scheme in Kenya. The Uganda Government appointed a Committee last October to review the position, and this Committee completed its work just before the strikes, although copies of the report were not available to the public. The Government has now acted on the Committee's report and a comprehensive scheme of increased bonus for Government employees of all races, in general conformity with the Kenya scheme, is being announced and will he introduced immediately with retrospective effect to 1st July, 1944. The Governor reports also that, in order that there should he a comprehensive review of wages of unskilled labour, he took steps just before the strikes began to set in motion the machinery for fixing minimum wages under the Minimum Wages Ordinance, 1934.
(2) For some time the Kabaka's Ministers have been the object of attacks by influential sections of political opinion in Buganda and for several months the Kabaka has been considering the reconstruction of his Ministry. In November moreover he announced his intention of altering the composition of the Lukiko (Assembly) in order to make it more representative in character. The Minister of Finance has now resigned, and I understand that the Kabaka is announcing the acceptance of his resignation and the appointment of a successor.