Binaisa and Buganda: In his own words

Dear Tingasiga: In his series in Saturday Monitor on Godfrey Lukongwa Binaisa, the former Ugandan president, Fred Guweddeko wrote: “Between November 1960 and November 1961, Binaisa switched positions on Mengo a total of five times. He had supported Buganda Independence, opposed Buganda Independence, supported Buganda Federal (sic), and opposed Buganda federal and again supported Buganda federal.”

Sadly, Binaisa died on August 5, 2010, leaving an unfulfilled promise he made to me over a decade ago that he would write his version of events. Therefore he has surrendered forever his right of rebuttal before the court of public opinion. However, back in 1998, I recorded a series of conversations with Binaisa, then living in exile in New York City. Parts of these were published in the Monitor over a decade ago. I reproduce, without prejudice, what he told me about his complex relationship with Buganda’s leaders:

Mulera: You have had a difficult relationship with Buganda, dating back to your days as Attorney General of Uganda.
Binaisa: To understand my relationship with Buganda, you have to examine the Baganda class system. My father was a schoolmaster, and then a minister in the Native Anglican Church. My maternal grandfather, Gabulyeri Jamba, was the deputy Sekiboobo (deputy Ssaza chief of Kyaggwe, the biggest of Buganda’s 20 counties.) He was killed at Bukaleba, near Jinja, in 1888, while commanding the Buganda army against the colonial troops of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. He died together with Rev. George Pilkington, who had translated the Bible into Luganda.

Given my background, and having studied at Budo, I was expected to be part of the Buganda ‘upper class’, and to toe the ‘Mengo insider’ line. I refused to do that. You had people like Abubakar Mayanja, a Mukopi (peasant Muganda) with brains, who went to Budo, and then became more of a Mukungu (court official) than the Bakungu.

The Bazungu called such people ‘peasant princes.’ People like Abu Mayanja resented my rejection of their pretence to be Bakungu. Can you imagine that one man, who once scored only 8 out of 100 in a school examination, went on to become a big chief? This man, who shall remain anonymous, used to make noise in the Lukiiko, and I was expected to call him Ssebo and ingratiate myself to him. I rejected a system which was ran by such men of little intellect and talent.

Instead, I was one of those nationalists from Buganda, including Jaberi Bidandi Ssali, Kalule Ssetaala, Kintu Musoke and Paulo Muwanga, who disagreed with Buganda going it alone. This upset the Mengo clique, whose hypocrisy and duplicity would soon lead to disaster.

When the Buganda Lukiiko sent 21 Kabaka Yekka representatives to the national parliament, including a muzungu, Sir James Simpson, their mandate was to represent the Baganda people’s interests. Instead, they represented their personal interests and betrayed the Baganda and their Kabaka, by opportunistically joining Milton Obote’s UPC, without seeking the approval of the very Lukiiko which had sent them.

Soon after betraying their Kabaka, those Mengo people teamed up with Grace Ibingira to remove me from the chairmanship of UPC in Buganda, and Bidandi Ssali from the post of general secretary. They wanted to remove us so that they could now plot against Obote.
Mulera: How about your relations with the Baganda people themselves?

Binaisa: The Baganda people are very good and must not be blamed for what went wrong. Really they have had no fault in that regard. Remember that they had a very long history of an organised kingdom, dating back to at least 800 AD. During that time, they developed a culture of total obedience to their leaders. In all of Buganda’s history, the people have always ended up in trouble whenever they have had bad leadership. That is something you young people must understand.

I will never lie to the Baganda or mislead them just to get quick results. Those who misled Mutesa into forming Kabaka Yekka betrayed Buganda. I argued with them to form an alliance with people from the western region, but they were so close-minded that they never saw the long-term consequences of their actions. Had we allied with the westerners, we would never have had the 1966 problems.

I used to ask these Baganda leaders: You have spread Christianity throughout the region, you are proud that you were educated at Budo, Kisubi and Gayaza, so why don’t you use your magezi (wisdom) in politics?
Mulera: What was your role in the 1966 coup by Milton Obote?
Binaisa: Nkambo Mugerwa, Kofi Crabbe, from Ghana, and myself wrote the 1966 Constitution in one night. I piloted it through Parliament and we then put it in the MPs mail boxes. My goal was to try and prevent the military from taking over. I thought we would buy time, to allow Obote to call the election which was scheduled to take place on or before April 26, 1967. When Obote heard that I had said this in London, he was so upset that, on my return to Uganda, he asked me who had told me to make such a statement. I replied: “Mr President, no one told me not to, either.”

I kept advising him to call the election, which he was required to do by 1967. I told him not to fear elections or defeat, and reminded him that even Winston Churchill, after leading Britain to victory in the Second World War, was defeated at the polls. Obote still refused to call the election. That man’s skull was too hard, and he feared defeat so much that he became blind.

So Tingasiga, Binaisa’s political journey, with its twists and turns, was as fascinating as his personal life which, unfortunately, overshadowed the former. Others who are better qualified than me must continue to educate us about him and his role in the very complex politics of Buganda and Uganda. For my part, I salute Binaisa, a great man whom I was privileged to call my friend; a man gifted with a great sense of humour; a brilliant man and free thinker from whom I learnt more about my country than I have foraged from books and other literature. Uganda is poorer without him.

Dr Mulera is a Consultant pediatrician and neonatologist
mkmulera@aol.com