Cuthbert Joseph Obwangor (1 November 1920 – 19 May 2012) was a longtime Ugandan minister and legislator. He was a minister and a political prisoner for the Apollo Milton Obote regime after he opposed Obote's extension of power while Obwangor was a minister.
Early life
Cuthbert Joseph Obwangor was born in Kiiya Village, Omasia Parish, Katakwi District, Eastern Region, Uganda on 1 November 1920. He is a member of the Iteso ethnic group.
Education
He attended Ngora Catholic Church Primary School. He later attended the Nyenga Seminary, then attended Namilyango College from 1939 to 1941, City College Coventry and the Railway Traffic School in Nairobi, Kenya from 1942 to 1946.
Career
Business
After graduating from the Railway Traffic School, Obwangor worked in Kenya at the East African Railways and Harbours Corporation before returning to Uganda in 1951. He first entered politics in Kenya, when he worked for Jomo Kenyatta and the Kenya African National Union executive council. Upon his return to Teso sub-region, he became a prominent businessperson in Magoro within the Magoro market where he built and ran a restaurant.
Political career
Pre-Independence
In 1952, Obwangor entered Ugandan politics. He was elected to the Teso District Council and was elected to represent the Teso District at the Uganda Legislative Council, the precursor to the Parliament of Uganda during British colonial rule when Uganda was the Uganda Protectorate. He was a founding member of the Uganda National Congress, the first legal political party in Uganda that later merged into the Uganda People's Congress in 1960.
Obote Government
After the Independence of Uganda, the Uganda Legislative Council of the Uganda Protectorate dissolved on Tuesday 9 October 1962, being replaced on Wednesday 10 October 1962 by the independent Parliament of Uganda for the newly independent Republic of Uganda. Obwangor represented Teso again in the Parliament of Uganda. Ethnic conflict threatened to spry up after the independence of Uganda, and ethnic groups were naming kings to fight for their respective ethnic groups, and the traditionally kingless ITeso people attempted to name Obwangor as Iteso king, but Obwangor refused as he was dedicated to a multi-ethnic unified Uganda.
Obwangor was a committed member of the Uganda People's Congress, the party of President Apollo Milton Obote that emerged from the pre-independence Uganda National Congress political party. Obwangor served as the treasurer of the Uganda People's Congress from the party's creation in 1960 until 1967, during which he oversaw the finances of the construction of the Uganda House.
During the Apollo Milton Obote regime, Obwangor served in numerous ministerial positions as a part of his cabinet. When Apollo Milton Obote succeeded Benedicto Kiwanuka, Apollo Milton Obote appointed Obwangor to be Minister of Regional Affairs, which briefly assumed the responsibilities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Felix Kenyi Onama also can lay claim to the Minister of Interior position between 1962 and 1964, as he was Minister of Works and Labour. That role assumed some of the other responsibilities of the Minister of Interior such as leading the Ugandan National Police Force. Obwangor and Felix Kenyi Onama were succeeded in their roles in 1964 by Basil Kiiza Bataringaya, who headed the newly created Ministry of Home Affairs, later renamed to be the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Bataringaya assumed the role after he flipped parties and joined the Obote administration.
After he left the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Cuthbert Joseph Obwangor became Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs in 1964, succeeding Grace Ibingira. He also assumed the role of Minister of Housing and Labour in February 1966, serving in that role concurrently with being the Ugandan Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs. He remained as Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and Minister of Housing and Labour until May 1966, when he became Minister of Commerce and Industry of Uganda.
Imprisonment
Obwangor, then minister of Commerce and Industry in Uganda, began to fall out of favor of President Apollo Milton Obote when he spoke out in favor of restraints on the presidential power in Uganda, with the following an excerpt from the journal of the Parliament of Uganda with his speech on 11 July 1967: