On April 15, 1966 Prime Minister Milton Obote completed his seizure of power in Uganda by imposing a new constitution on parliament without notice or debate, the second stage of the 1966 crisis that followed his February suspension of the independence constitution. Surrounded by heavily armed soldiers, Obote arrived at parliament and directed members to find a draft of the new constitution in their pigeonholes, the small boxes where legislators' mail was left, giving the document its lasting nickname, the pigeonhole constitution. He declared the 1962 constitution abolished and the new one adopted that same day, April 15, 1966.
The new charter abolished the federal status of Buganda and the other kingdoms, merged the office of prime minister with the presidency, vested all executive power in Obote, and declared Uganda a republic. Buganda's Lukiiko refused to recognize it and in May demanded the central government leave Buganda soil, which Obote treated as rebellion, ordering the army under Idi Amin to storm the Kabaka's palace on May 24.
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 and the federal constitutional order; the pigeonhole constitution stripped Buganda's autonomy and vested all power in Obote. Mutesa, already removed from the presidency in the February to March phase, was not physically harmed by the April 15 constitutional act; the palace storming and his exile came in May.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Milton Obote (prime minister who imposed the new constitution)
Kabaka Edward Mutesa II (whose Buganda autonomy was abolished)
Idi Amin (army commander who later stormed the Kabaka's palace)
Sources
The declaration in Parliament by Prime Minister Milton Obote that abrogated Uganda's independence Constitution came on April 15, 1966, when, having on February 22 suspended the constitution and arrested five cabinet ministers, he resolved that the constitution of 9 October 1962 be abolished and the one before the House be adopted that day, 15 April 1966.
SOURCE REVIEWEDDaily Monitor, Buganda expels Uganda as Obote abolishes the 1962 Constitutionopen source ↗
On 15 April 1966, in a Parliament surrounded by troops, Obote introduced without notice a new constitution to be voted upon that very day; it was passed without debate, and members found it in their pigeonholes, giving it the name pigeonhole constitution, which abolished the federal status of kingdoms, merged the office of Prime Minister with that of the President, vested all executive power in Obote, and declared Uganda a Republic.
SOURCE REVIEWEDEmbassy of Uganda Japan, Uganda Politicsopen source ↗
The 1966 pigeonhole constitution, so named because copies were posted in the pigeonholes of Members of Parliament, was promulgated on 15 April as a temporary measure, relabelled the leader of the largest party in the Assembly as President, and downgraded Buganda to the status of the other kingdoms by retracting its previous privileges, after Obote in February 1966 suspended the first constitution and made himself both head of state and head of government.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, Constitution of Ugandaopen source ↗
A Ugandan legal history records that on April 15, 1966 Obote, surrounded by heavily armed soldiers, arrived at Parliament and directed MPs to check their pigeonholes for a draft of a new constitution, and ordered the national assembly to become a constituent assembly to adopt the pigeonhole constitution, consolidating power by merging the positions of Prime Minister and President.
SOURCE REVIEWEDDaily Monitor, Legal divide-and-rule: A history of Uganda's constitution-makingopen source ↗
Editorial Note
Paired record care: this April 15 record is the SECOND stage of Obote's 1966 auto coup (the pigeonhole constitution imposed on parliament); the companion record 1966-02-21 is the FIRST stage (constitution suspended, five ministers arrested, Kabaka stripped of the presidency), and the two are distinct dataset events three weeks apart. Fate coding: the April 15 act was a constitutional seizure, not a physical assault, so the deposed leader's not physically harmed fate holds for this record; the May 24 storming of the Kabaka's palace under Idi Amin and Mutesa's flight to Britain (where he died in 1969) are the later violent phase, noted here but not folded into this event's fate. This mirrors the paired auto coup structure used for other multi stage seizures in the dataset.
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 and the federal constitutional order; the pigeonhole constitution stripped Buganda's autonomy and vested all power in Obote. Mutesa, already removed from the presidency in the February to March phase, was not physically harmed by the April 15 constitutional act; the palace storming and his exile came in May..
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 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 →