Mengo 1966 Massacre - Official Website

The executive premier then gave reasons for the attack on the palace as follows:

That there were arms hidden in the Mengo palace.
That the executive premier had disagreements with the Kabaka for wanting to attend the 1964 Cairo conference of non aligned countries as Kabaka and head of state instead of the executive premier attending.
That the premier had disagreed over the lost counties of Bunyoro referendum with the Kabaka.
That the Kabaka was interested in executive power himself.
That the Kabaka wanted to replace the premier with someone else.

There was shame when the executive premier and government officials failed to produce the arms allegedly captured from Mengo palace. In his book written shortly after his daring escape from the palace, the Kabaka Sir Edward Mutesa II, Spoke of the guns that belonged to himself, and his guards. He listed them as one hundred and twenty rifles for his royal guards. He had three carbines, half a dozen sterling submachine guns and a similar number of automatic rifles.

Meanwhile it was rumored that the Kabaka had surfaced in Ethiopia where he and Emperor Haile Sellaisse were close friends. Buganda’s Katikiro Joash Mayanja Nkangi and Buganda Kingdom finance minister Amos Sempa were declared wanted men, but their whereabouts remained unknown. Also wanted were Mr. C. Matovu, Buganda’s information minister. Mr. E.M Kalule, the speaker of the great Lukiiko (Kingdom’s legislative assembly). Later all gave themselves up to the authorities, except for the Katikiro Joash Mayanja Nkangi who was smuggled out of the country by his close confidants.

The United Nations Secretary General at the time, Mr. U. Thant, in a statement said that the United Nations could not intervene to help the Kabaka of Buganda. It was a statement in response to cables about the quarrel with the executive prime minister of Uganda. The reason was because, as he put it, “it was strictly an internal matter.”

In Ethiopia


Lameka Ntambi smuggled the Katikiro out	Katikiro Mayanja Nkangi smuggled out of the country may 1966

Meanwhile some foreigners killed a day earlier by angry mobs were announced as Anthony Carter and David Jones, both English.

In His book “The Desecration of My Kingdom” Sir Edward wrote that he wouldn’t give details of exactly what transpired for fear that the executive premier would take vengeance on any one he thought had a key role in palace affairs. Indeed, he foresaw the truth as many people were detained without trial under the state of emergency laws. They remained in jail until January 1971, when the executive premier was ousted from power by the very army he used to remove the Kabaka.

Forty one years after the massacre, the children, grandchildren, spouses, and relations of the fallen massacre victims remember with hounour the blood that was spilled on 24.5.1966. This is for the world to know, and for history to be put in place for now, and all future generations.

Send us names of any of the palace massacre victims known to you. This will be used for the development of a befitting well-designed memorial for none of them has a marked grave. View Additional Photos...