Veteran legislator Bisamunyu passes on

By Cyprian Musoke 

PARLIAMENT will on Friday hold a special session to pay tribute Eli Nathan Bisamunyu, who was a member of Uganda’s first post-independence parliament. 

The Former Deputy Speaker and Kigezi representative passed on Tuesday at Mengo hospital where he had been admitted, according to the family.He died at the age of 87. 

Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, informed the MP during yesterday’s siting that Bisamunyu’s body will lie in state for public viewing this morning and later in the afternnon, the Parliament will be tribute to the deceased. 

According to the family, burial is scheduled to take place on Sunday in Mparo, Kabale district on Sunday at midday. 

Bisamunyu born in 1928 at Kasooni-Nnozi Mparo, Rukiga county, present day Kabale district, studied at Kigezi high school and Busoga College, Mwiri together with the deceased former Apollo Milton Obote. 

Bisamunyu later proceeded to Makerere College school (now Makerere University), becoming the first student in the history of Kigezi to graduate from the university in 1953. 

He was among the founders of Uganda National Congress, Uganda’s first national political party. 

 In 1962, Bisamunyu joined the legislative assembly as a representative of East Kigezi and slowly rose to the post of deputy speaker of Parliament until the rise of Idi Amin in 1971, when parliament was disbanded.  Bisamunyu retired from public service in 1989 and chose to leave a "quiet" life.