Public holiday in Binaisa’s honour

The government has declared that tomorrow will be a public holiday in honour of former president Godfrey Binaisa. Information Minister Kabakumba Masiko told Daily Monitor that the Minister of Public Service made the announcement yesterday.
“We will all be expected to observe it,” she said when contacted in the evening.

Government in charge
Binaisa will be buried tomorrow at a burial ground not yet known by press time yesterday. This will mark the end of the week of mourning which was announced by the government last week.

According to Ms Masiko, the government will take charge of all the costs and organisation of the burial of the former president. Yesterday, Binaisa’s body spent the night at Parliament for an overnight public viewing.

The body arrived at Parliament at 4pm, accompanied by close relatives. It was received by the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Sekandi. Also present were the Leader of the Opposition, Prof. Ogenga Latigo and MP Elijah Ekupa (FDC, Kasilo County). Ms Masiko represented the government.

Members of Parliament will hold a session in his honour today. Binaisa is survived by seven children, four of whom live abroad. He died in his sleep on Thursday.

He was part of the Uganda Peoples’ Congress which in 1962 formed the first post-independent government of Uganda. During this regime, he was appointed Attorney General. He also helped create the 1967 Constitution.

Following the overthrow of Idi Amin in 1979, Binaisa was appointed president on June 20, 1979 by the National Consultative Commission, which was then the supreme governing body of the Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF), a coalition of former Ugandan exiles who had helped remove Idi Amin.

Binaisa is the second former Ugandan president to die in the country, after Gen. Tito Okello Lutwa, who ruled from July 26, 1985 to January 26, 1986, when President Museveni took over power.