On February 22, 1966 Prime Minister Milton Obote suspended Uganda's 1962 independence constitution, seized all executive power, and stripped ceremonial President Kabaka Edward Mutesa II of authority, launching the first stage of the crisis that turned Uganda into a one man state. The trigger was the Congo gold scandal: in early February the Kabaka Yekka MP Daudi Ochieng had moved in parliament to censure Obote and suspend army deputy commander Idi Amin over the alleged plundering of gold, ivory, and money from the Congo, and parliament demanded an investigation of Obote himself. Obote returned from a northern tour, and on February 22, 1966 arrested five dissenting cabinet ministers (Grace Ibingira, Emmanuel Lumu, George Magezi, Balaki Kirya, and Mathias Ngobi) at a cabinet meeting at State House Entebbe, sending them to Gulu, and two days later suspended the constitution and assumed all powers of state.
He soon stripped Mutesa of the presidency. It paired with the April 15 second stage, and led to the May storming of the Kabaka's palace and Mutesa's flight into exile.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: President Kabaka Edward Mutesa II (ceremonial head of state), stripped of the presidency by Obote in the February to March 1966 phase and not physically harmed at this stage; five cabinet ministers were arrested and detained. Mutesa was later driven into exile by the May 1966 palace attack, but at the February auto coup he was not harmed.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Milton Obote (prime minister who seized all power)
Kabaka Edward Mutesa II (ceremonial president stripped of authority)
Idi Amin (army deputy commander implicated in the gold scandal)
Daudi Ochieng (KY MP whose censure motion triggered the crisis)
Sources
When Parliament demanded an investigation of Obote and the ousting of Amin over a gold smuggling plot, he suspended the constitution and declared himself President in March 1966, allocating to himself almost unlimited power under state of emergency rulings; several cabinet members, leaders of rival party factions, were arrested and detained without charge, and Obote then attacked Mutesa's palace, ending with Mutesa fleeing to exile.
Parliament on January 27, 1966 passed a law banning Kabaka Yekka, and on February 22 five dissenting cabinet ministers were arrested and sent to Patiko Prison in Gulu, two days after which the 1962 Constitution was suspended, part of the sequence in which Obote moved against the Buganda establishment.
An official Ugandan account records that upon accusations of dereliction of duty by the President and other reasons, Obote suspended the 1962 constitution on 22 February 1966 and took over all powers of state, giving rise to the 1966 Crisis, and that on 15 April 1966, in a Parliament surrounded by troops, he introduced without notice a new constitution passed without debate, the pigeonhole constitution.
SOURCE REVIEWEDEmbassy of Uganda Japan, Uganda Politicsopen source ↗
A Ugandan press history records that Obote, having returned from a northern tour to accusations about the Congo gold scandal, had on February 22 suspended the constitution and arrested five cabinet ministers (Grace Ibingira, Emmanuel Lumu, George Magezi, Balaki Kirya, and Mathias Ngobi) behind his condemnation, and upset the commission of inquiry set to investigate Amin, ministers, and himself over the scandal.
SOURCE REVIEWEDDaily Monitor, Buganda expels Uganda as Obote abolishes the 1962 Constitutionopen source ↗
Editorial Note
Paired record care: this February 22 record is the FIRST stage of Obote's 1966 auto coup (suspension of the constitution, arrest of five ministers, stripping of the Kabaka); the companion record 1966-04-15 is the SECOND stage (the pigeonhole constitution imposed by parliament), and they must stay distinct. Date nuance: sources variously date Obote's assumption of all power to February 22 (constitution suspension and minister arrests, the dataset's date) and his self-declaration as president to March; the stripping of Mutesa's presidency is dated March 3 in some accounts. Fate coding: at this stage Mutesa was not physically harmed; the violence (the May 24 palace storming under Idi Amin and Mutesa's flight to Britain, where he died in 1969) came later and is noted here without being folded into this record's fate.
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Kabaka Edward Mutesa II (ceremonial head of state), stripped of the presidency by Obote in the February to March 1966 phase and not physically harmed at this stage; five cabinet ministers were arrested and detained. Mutesa was later driven into exile by the May 1966 palace attack, but at the February auto coup he was not harmed..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
⚑ This citation establishes the coded baseline record; use the claim-level sources above for the researched narrative.
Baseline Source-Document Entries
New York Times
“Uganda Quiet, Obote Says; He Denies Fraud Charges,” February 14, 1966
“Uganda Premier Seizes All Power: Arrests 5 Cabinet Ministers Who Are Reported To Have Challenged His Authority,” February 23, 1966
“Uganda Leader Shelves Charter: Obote Says He Is Balking Government; s Overthrow,” by Lawrence Fellows, February 25, 1966
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →