Miria Obote

Miria Obote (née Kalule; born 16 July 1936) is a Ugandan politician and former first lady of Uganda. She was first lady during the two presidencies of her husband, Milton Obote, from 1966 to 1971 and from 1980 to 1985. In November 2005 she was elected president of the Uganda People's Congress (UPC), becoming the first woman to lead a major political party in Uganda. As UPC flag bearer she ran in the 2006 Ugandan general election, receiving 57,071 votes, about 0.8 per cent of the total, and finishing fifth. She is widely known in Uganda as "Mama Miria".

Early life and education Miria Kalule was born on 16 July 1936 in Kawempe, a suburb of Kampala, then in the Uganda Protectorate.

Miria and Milton Obote had four sons. Their third son, Jimmy Akena Obote, became a Member of Parliament for Lira Municipality and later president of the UPC.

As first lady Miria Obote was noted for her reserved public profile, her fashion sense and her focus on family life and hospitality.

First lady of Uganda When Obote became executive president in April 1966, Miria Obote assumed the role of first lady for the first time. After Obote was ousted again in the 1985 Ugandan coup d'état, the family returned to exile in Zambia, where they lived for two decades.

Milton Obote died in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 10 October 2005. His body was returned to Uganda for a state funeral and burial in his home village of Akokoro in Apac District. Miria Obote accompanied the remains and decided to resettle in Uganda with her family. On 28 November 2005 a delegates' conference at Namboole Stadium elected her president of the UPC, succeeding her late husband. She became the first woman to lead the UPC and one of the first women to head a major political party in Uganda. In February 2006 she visited Mengo, the seat of the Buganda Kingdom, where she delivered a formal apology on behalf of her husband's government for the 1966 attack on the palace. The Buganda officials present accepted her apology, describing the meeting as cordial and constructive.

Miria Obote remained UPC president until March 2010, when former UN diplomat Olara Otunnu was elected to succeed her at a party delegates' conference in Kampala.

Later life After stepping down from UPC leadership, Obote stayed largely out of frontline politics, occasionally appearing at party and national events. In November 2018 her son Jimmy Akena announced that she had been admitted to Kampala Hospital with a chest infection and was being monitored in a high dependency unit.

Legacy Miria Obote is frequently portrayed as a bridge figure between Uganda's independence generation and later multiparty politics.