All Binaisa did was for the good of the country

Aug 15, 2010

IT was a sad moment when Uganda lost a brilliant man at the age of 90 years. Godfrey Binaisa was the fifth president of Uganda after Independence in 1962. Binaisa was the brain behind the 1966 Constitution. All that Binaisa did was in good faith

By Samuel Oduny

IT was a sad moment when Uganda lost a brilliant man at the age of 90 years. Godfrey Binaisa was the fifth president of Uganda after Independence in 1962. Binaisa was the brain behind the 1966 Constitution. All that Binaisa did was in good faith

Uganda was in a constitutional crisis during the exchange of fire with Buganda Kingdom which made the Kabaka to flee the country. It was the great work of Binaisa which contained the situation and restored peace in the country.

It was not surprising that Buganda Kingdom did not send a word of condolence at the death of Binaisa and no MPs from Buganda were in the House when the casket was lying in state. Binaisa is blamed for consolidating the UPC government in 1966.

Uganda became a republic in 1967, but before that, in 1966, all the kingdoms in Uganda were abolished.

In 1979 Binaisa became the president of Uganda after Yusuf Lule. At that time, Baganda demonstrated that without Lule in power there was no work. But Binaisa, with his heart of nationalism, refrained from the demonstration which cost lives of the people in Kampala. He controlled the situation without any tribal feelings.

Most Baganda mistook him for trying to bring back Obote.

Although Binaisa was quite a brilliant man he missed one side of the coin in ruling Uganda —— the side of the army.

Binaisa misfired when he was advised by certain members of the Democratic Party (DP) to remove David Oyite Ojok from the army as chief of staff and appoint him as an ambassador to Algeria.

Binaisa did not calculate well. First the DP group wanted Peter Oboma to be the army chief of staff, but on his own he appointed Sam Nanyuma as chief of staff.

The reshuffle in the army did not please the armed forces. Earlier on, Binaisa had also moved Yoweri Museveni from minister of defence and posted him to that of regional corporation. This shake-up in the army made the army remove Binaisa from the presidency. The army then formed a military commission headed by Paul Muwanga as chairman and Yoweri Museveni as vice-chairman. At the same time a motion of no confidence was moved in the National Consultative Council by Osinde Wangor and seconded by Dent Ocaya Lakidi. The motion went through.

I was a soldier in the defunct Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA) in charge of political education at the army headquarters and Binaisa was the commander-in-chief of the army.

When Binaisa was removed he was put under house arrest at State House Entebbe under the protection of Maj Gen Musuguri a Tanzanian who was the commander of the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces in Uganda. Binaisa was kept under house arrest until after the election of December 1980 when he requested to meet President Julius Nyerere. When he was taken to Tanzania he opted to ask for asylum in the US.

All in all we shall live to remember Binaisa for his struggle for Uganda to achieve independence and the great work he did in liberating the country in 1979 from dictator Idi Amin.


The writer is a former soldier in the defunct UNLA

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