Gaddafi’s enduring fascination with Uganda

His 42 years in power have not been confined to only Tripoli but extended more than any other country, to Uganda. Meet Gaddafi’s military economic and flamboyant lifestyle as witnessed in Kampala

If Gaddafi had an odd and long-running relationship with Uganda the country, after 2001, he developed an even more curious relationship with a kingdom within Uganda called Tooro in western Uganda.

As a result of his friendship with Tooro’s Queen Mother Best Kemigisa (itself a matter of great public speculation and amusement in Uganda), Gaddafi became anything from a regent to the youthful Tooro king Oyo to the main financier of kingdom projects.

Since it has always been believed that Tooro is one of the few places in Uganda where President Museveni has enjoyed unwavering support since 1986, Gaddafi’s involvement with Tooro affairs, bankrolling the renovation of the king’s palace, among other things – the very display of public generosity that is Museveni’s ruling style – it was not long before a somewhat upstaged Museveni started to develop friction with Gaddafi.

Tensions between Museveni and Gaddafi reached the point where, as the WikiLeaks US diplomatic cables later published, in September 2009, Museveni started to get concerned that Gaddafi could even order the shooting down of his presidential jet.
However, relations between the two leaders appear to have been repaired this year. On July 3, Libyan state TV reported that “Ugandan president sends condolences message to Libyan leader for death of his son, all “martyrs” of Nato bombings.”
From the Tropical African Bank in the 1970s (formerly called the Libyan Arab Bank) and since 2001 Uganda Telecom, National Housing and Construction Corporation, the Windsor Lake Victoria Hotel and other companies, Libya has invested substantially in Uganda.

To Uganda’s Muslim community, the lasting legacy of Gaddafi in Uganda will be the beautiful peach and cream-coloured grand mosque atop Old Kampala Hill, a construction project that started in 1972 but seemed like one of those that would never get completed.

Ugandans too have had their long-running fascination with Gaddafi. His flamboyant fashion sense, the hilarious fights his bodyguards always got into with Museveni’s presidential escort, that relationship/friendship/alliance with Best Kemigisa, all made headlines.

Uganda has had leaders over the years (Princess Elizabeth Bagaya, Presidents Binaisa, Museveni, military officers Kahinda Otafiire, politicians Speciosa Kazibwe), who became famous or notorious for their flamboyance or cantankerous utterances.
Gaddafi’s outrageous statements were in the mode familiar to Ugandans.

Ironically, considering the erratic person that Gaddafi is supposed to be, he has maintained a relationship in one form or the other with Uganda spanning four decades. If we were to go by that and to be fair to Gaddafi, 40 years certainly speaks of commitment.

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com