Prime
Binaisa overthrown after sacking Oyite-Ojok, Museveni
Left to right in this file photo: Fronasa leader Yoweri Museveni, Military Commission chair Paulo Muwanga and former president Godfrey Binaisa. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- Godfrey Binaisa was briefly placed under house arrest before fleeing into exile in Kenya first, and later Britain and the United States.
It is 43 years and two days since Godfrey Lukongwa Binaisa was removed from the Office of President of Uganda.
The man who had gained great prominence after he dragged the Idi Amin government to court and won a $175,000 settlement for the murder in 1972 of two Americans – Nicholas Stroh, a freelance journalist, and Robert Seidle – had fled into exile and lived in Britain and the United States where he practiced law while participating in various exile movements aimed at ousting Amin.
It was, therefore, relatively easy for him to be identified as the man who would placate the Baganda who had been angered by the ouster of his predecessor, Yusuf Lule.
Kicked out
Binaisa, was kicked out of office on May 12, 1980, by an organ of the Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF), the Military Commission.
The Military Commission was at the time headed by Paulo Muwanga, with Yoweri Museveni, the leader of the Front for National Salvation (Fronasa), one of the Uganda fighting groups that joined the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces (TPDF) in fighting Amin out of power, as Muwanga’s deputy.
Binaisa’s troubles had, of course, began much earlier in his short-lived reign.
Binaisa, who famously confessed that “entebbe ewooma” (power is sweet) early in his 11-month reign, sought to introduce the politics of “ekigaali” or “umbrella” through which he sought to bring all Ugandans under the same political thoughts and ideas.
It is believed that it was from Binaisa’s “umbrella” that Mr Museveni borrowed the idea of the Movement system of government.
Binaisa believed that it was necessary to bring all Ugandans under the umbrella before the country could embark on the road to recovery.
However, the umbrella was also meant to help him avert the possible return to Uganda of Apollo Milton Obote, the then exiled leader of the Uganda People's Congress (UPC).
He managed to get the interim Parliament, the National Consultative Council (NCC), to endorse his idea that the 1980 elections would be fought under the umbrella of the Uganda National Liberation Front, and no individual parties would be allowed.
That opposition to Obote’s return and his political manoeuvres did not endear him to many people, some of them extremely powerful, in the UNLF and its armed wing the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA), both of which were dominated by supporters of both Obote and the UPC.
Many of them had wanted him out, but their hands were tied because of his rising popularity and divisions within the Military Commission. That was until May 10, 1980, when he handed his detractors the initiative.
Clash with army/ Oyite-Ojok
The Christian Science Monitor reported in its edition of May 13, 1980, that “a fierce power struggle broke between president Godfrey Binaisa and the army”.
The source of the confusion was an announcement broadcast on Radio Uganda on May 10 which relayed news of the dismissal of Brig David Oyite-Ojok, as head of the army.
Oyite-Ojok, one of Obote’s biggest allies, was one of the top commanders of the Kikoosi Maalum, one of the Uganda fighting forces that had fought alongside TPDF.
According to the Radio Uganda broadcast, Oyite-Ojok was “dismissed because of the deteriorating security situation in Uganda” and a “near breakdown of relations between the civilian government and the army”.
The decision came against a backdrop of allegations that Oyite-Ojok had turned the UNLA into his private army, with bases in most parts of northern Uganda, especially in the Lango sub-region where he and Obote came from, and in Acholi where other top UNLA commanders such as Tito Okello Lutwa and Bazilio Olara-Okello came from.
“Binaisa was desperately keen on trimming his powers. Unfortunately, he did not have enough power and military force to back up his actions,” says Prof Paul Wangoola, who was a member of the NCC.
Oyite-Ojok’s replacement, the broadcast indicated, would be Lt Col Sam Nanyumba, a Sandhurst-trained military officer who had also been in exile during the Idi Amin era. Oyite-Ojok was named Uganda’s ambassador to Algeria.
Museveni shuffled
The same broadcast announced a mini-Cabinet reshuffle that saw Fronasa leader Museveni moved from the Ministry of Defence.
Binaisa named himself as Museveni’s replacement in the Ministry of Defence, with Christopher Okoth as State Minister for Defence.
Army hits back
Binaisa had clearly bitten more than he could chew. Oyite-Ojok and other pro-Obote elements quickly moved to counter his actions.
On the evening of May 10, angry soldiers stormed Nile Mansions Hotel, where many of the Cabinet ministers lived and worked, and arrested Dr Barnabas Kununka, the minister of the Interior and head of the Security Police.
Kununka had earlier threatened to use the police to arrest whoever would go to attend political rallies of UPC.
Obote had at the time already announced that he would be returning on May 27, 1980, to contest in the general election on the UPC ticket.
That was obviously in defiance of the position that had earlier been taken by the NCC which had declared that the elections would be held under a no party arrangement.
Prof Lule, who had been deposed before Binaisa took office, had also announced that he would be returning to contest in the same election.
Kununka was later returned to the Nile Mansions Hotel, but the fracas at the hotel proved costly in terms of human life. Two people, including Rose Naisanga, the 18-year-old daughter of Mathias Ngobi, the minister for Agriculture, were killed.
Radio Uganda surrounded
On May 11, UNLA soldiers loyal to Oyite-Ojok surrounded and took over the premises of Radio Uganda. They then defiantly announced that Brig Oyite-Ojok was “still Chief of Staff of the army”.
That contradicted the decisions of the Commander-in-Chief who was also the acting minister of Defence.
They also announced that the NCC would be urgently convened to discuss the developments with a view of averting both a crisis and possible civil war.
On May 12, it was finally announced that he was no longer the president. A Presidential Commission of Uganda that was comprised of, among others, Paulo Muwanga, Yoweri Museveni, Oyite-Ojok and Tito Okello took over matters of State.
Binaisa, a former attorney general who helped Obote with the writing of the pigeon hole and republican constitutions was briefly placed under house arrest before fleeing into exile in Kenya first and later Britain and the United States.
He returned to Uganda in 2001 and passed on in August 2010.
About Military Commission
The Military Commission was at the time headed by Paulo Muwanga, with Yoweri Museveni, the leader of the Front for National Salvation (Fronasa), one of the Uganda fighting groups that joined the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces (TPDF) in fighting Amin out of power, as Muwanga’s deputy.
