Uganda Journal By Acut Lwani
June 22, 2003
| In this second and last part of our Uganda Journal flashback on former Uganda President Godfrey Lukongwa Binaisa, Acut Lwani takes us through the five months of his presidency from June 1979 and recounts how Mr Binaisa�s sudden rise to power was much the same as his fall. The first part was published in Sunday Monitor last week.
President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere had been under intense pressure from the British Government to ensure that Dr. Milton Obote was not returned as president and that Lule was, instead, elected. It is why the Conference was shifted from Dar-es-Salaam to Moshi. In Moshi, the meeting was held not in a civil hall but at a police training college. What�s more, there was very tight security and thorough checks were enforced at the police training college gate. The then Tanzanian Foreign minister, Mr Benjamin Mkapa, practically hovered over the meeting to ensure that Lule was elected chairman/president of the UNLF. It was only after Lule was elected that the British stopped airlifting arms and fuel to Gen. Amin from neighbouring Kenya. They also subsequently withdrew their earlier threat to mount an invasion on Tanzania. Binaisa was an entirely different man. While Lule did not have the courage to stand outside on the lush green compounds of State House and travelled to Kampala only in an army Land Rover, hidden between bodyguards in the back seat and escorted by several heavily armed vehicles, Binaisa had the presidential motorcade laid out for him. He was driven into Kampala in the Mercedes Benz 600 limousine, flying the presidential standard through �No Lule, No Work� protests of burning tyres at Najjanankumbi and Katwe, on the outskirts of the capital. He seemed more curious than afraid of those demonstrations. The midnight protest of several hundreds of men and women with burning-grass torches inspired by Mr Andrew Kayira, converged onto the seat of government at the Uganda International Conference Centre/Nile Mansions [now Nile Hotel]. The army was forced to fire over the crowd to disperse it. Kayiira had also planned to blow up the Nile Mansions. An oil tanker carrying 20,000 litres of fuel was commandeered and parked at the gates of the Nile Mansions. It was to be ignited by a single bazooka (RPG) fire. Fortunately, the gunman aimed his bazooka too high and it missed the tanker, exploding high up in the air. Had the oil tanker caught fire, government ministers, women and children, Tanzania People�s Defence Forces (TPDF) officers as well as foreign diplomats, would have all been incinerated in the resulting inferno. Still Dr. B.N. Kununka, a senior citizen, a founder member of liberation politics and UNC, collapsed in front of his daughter who had been accidentally gunned down by the security fiasco at the gates of Nile Mansions. Despite the prevailing turmoil, Binaisa seemed undeterred. His remarks on Dr Kununka�s death were: �Well, it is an occupational hazard. It was the ultimate price worth paying for one�s country.� It was not long after Binaisa began to show some curious signs of weakness. Cabinet Meetings were frequently interrupted and business remained unfinished with no follow-ups. Cabinet decisions were not implemented. He allegedly shifted from person to person and group to group for advice. He quickly abandoned the very people who valued him and who actually catapulted him into the presidency, in the first place. Still for the ordinary people of Uganda, he remained a popular mystery. With the backdrop of Gen. Amin�s and Lule�s poor performances, Binaisa was a brilliant and eloquent speaker who held his audience spellbound with his wisdom and wit. A Presidential, Cabinet and Senior UNLA officers� Christmas weekend was arranged at Chobe Safari Lodge. Binaisa insisted that any security of any name should be able to take its president to where he wanted. Kabalega [Murchison Falls] National Park was still infested with remnants of the disgraced Amin regime. But this mattered less to the ambitious president. The weekend was eventful. Big shots converged on Chobe with their wives, concubines and children. It was enjoyable and passed without incident. This was a testing ground. Binaisa, rightly so, now wanted to spread his wings beyond Kampala and over the whole of Uganda. He accepted the suggestion of a one-week Northern Tour with much relish. No doubt he would love to visit parts of northern Uganda where, twenty-two years earlier, he, as an anti-colonial freedom fighter, was banished. Centred on Gulu, rallies were organised in Arua, Kitgum, Lira and Apac for him to address his people and to personally assure them that Amin�s regime was defeated and a thing of the past. Contrary to earlier apprehensions that pro-Amin elements may cause trouble, Arua staged a rousing welcome. Kitgum followed suit. President Binaisa travelled by road from Gulu to Kitgum. On Acwa River he took part in Acoli traditional rituals of spearing and roasting a she-goat to mark the end of the war and in the customary welcome of crashing an egg underfoot. The Kitgum rally was preceded by a near-full military parade complete with the trooping of the colours by the fighters of the Save Uganda Movement (SUM), who had liberated the whole district, long before the combined TPDF/UNLA had arrived in the area. There was a spontaneous outpouring of joy and assurance that Amin was indeed gone. Endless flow of food and drinks, and several dancing troupes of the royal Bwola, War Otole, Women�s Apiti and Godo, the girls� Dingidingi, and the youth�s Larakaraka and countless anti-Amin compositions, went on late into the night. Binaisa�s greetings in Acoli, conveyed in a Kiganda accent, were greeted with ear-splitting cheers and drumming. Lira�s Akii-Bua Stadium was parked to capacity and its streets were milling with jubilant crowds, all jostling to have a glimpse of the new president. The next day, Apac had a similar story to tell. The food was sumptuous and delicious. The Gulu reception was equally warm but, perhaps, more officious. At the rally at Pece Stadium 15 June was declared as the National Youth Day, to coincide with the official day of the complete liberation of Uganda from Gen. Idi Amin�s diabolical rule. On his return to Entebbe, it was said that Binaisa was ecstatic with joy at his successful and more than expected Tour of the North. He reportedly exclaimed: �That was a great and pleasurable experience!� And he then asked: �Do these people really recognise me as president and support me?� He was assured that that indeed was the case. He was not the same man ever again after that tour. It was said that the Northern Tour suddenly fired the political ambition in him. Soon, old and new Ganda ssaza chiefs started paying regular visits to State House, first, individually and, then, in groups. The chiefs were entertained to classical music and dance and partook of generous helpings of roast goat-meat. The reason for the lavish parties became evident only when an announcement was made that a mammoth rally was being called at City Square, Kampala, where Binaisa would receive a hero�s welcome on his return from a tour of Western Uganda. This news took the ruling UNLF/NCC by complete surprise. Prof. Rugumayo protested, to no avail. Binaisa was escorted to the west by his Tanzanian security detail and not much else. On his return, the rally at the square was intended to anoint Binaisa as a leader of Buganda, who was accepted throughout Uganda. Apparently, the NCC and cabinet were not involved or invited to this ceremony, which was ostensibly organised with the permission of Mr David Barlow, the Inspector General of Police. Binaisa must have thought long and hard about his future and how he could hang on to the presidency at the expiry of the UNLF. He contacted President Nyerere and discussed how Dr. Obote could be kept out of Uganda or within Tanzania permanently. At home, he sacked Mr Museveni as his minister of Defence, accused Gen. Tito Okello-Lutwa of possessing a private army in Kitgum. The matter was taken before Nyerere, in Mwanza, for arbitration. Politically, he teamed up with Prof. Dani Wadada Nabudere of the �Gang of Four� fame (the very people who were already plotting to clip his wings and to eventually remove him from power). On a trip to Jinja he announced the formation of the �Umbrella�, a concept (like Museveni�s Movement, in later years) that would encompass and superimpose itself over the old political parties and other groups. He would be the head of the Umbrella at general elections. Following that, he would then dismantle the UNLF. Binaisa made his intentions known to the foreign embassies in Kampala. He persistently invited the British High Commissioner to State House. To have a firmer grip on the country�s finances, his office began to process business invoices and contracts. He gave a contract to a British firm to urgently modify, extend and fully refurbish State House. Against the advice of the cabinet, he gave yet another contract, worth over US$6 million, to a firm to supply mobile hospitals. Only a few incomplete units arrived and wasted away in the rain before they were installed, regardless. President Binaisa was no longer interested in the cabinet or the NCC. He hosted a lot of parties at State House. The TPDF and Tanzanian police left and only a skeleton security and presidential bodyguard had remained. As his political strength progressively increased, he decided to reshuffle his cabinet in order to consolidate his own position. The now extended NCC reluctantly approved such decisions. Paulo Muwanga, the Internal Affairs minister, was dropped from cabinet. Museveni was moved from Defence to Regional Affairs. A ministry of Transport was created for Prof. Yoweri Kyesimira, etc. Binaisa also thought he should do something about the army, the UNLA. Without any consultations with the Chief of Defence Forces, Col. Tito Okello-Lutwa, he invoked his powers, as the Commander-in-Chief, to remove the Army Chief of Staff, then Lt. Col. David Oyite-Ojok, the hero of the liberation struggle and, by far, the most popular, effective and respected military officer. Muwanga (Chairman), Museveni (Secretary), Col. Okello-Lutwa and Lt. Col. Oyite-Ojok were all members of the all-powerful UNLF flagship, the Military Commission/UNLA. Binaisa had thrown a stone into the beehive, and stood there to watch what the outcome would be. It is said that his advisers and staff sensed the danger and went to desperate lengths to try to save his presidency. They did not forward the recorded announcement to Radio Uganda to be broadcast, hoping to buy time to persuade the president to change his mind. But the usually wily Binaisa was determined to have his way. He had already sent a copy of the tape by another courier to another officer with specific instructions to broadcast the announcement of Lt. Col. Oyite-Ojok�s summary dismissal immediately. By midmorning, Kampala was abuzz with rumours and apprehension. There was total chaos. Heavily escorted to the Nile Mansions, Lt. Col. Oyite-Ojok appeared in full military dress. He headed straight to Mr. Akena p�Ojok�s room and literally forced his way in. He saluted briskly and barked out his demands: �I want an explanation now! I can no longer hold back the soldiers who want to go to Entebbe and shoot President Binaisa. Why do you want to send me to Algeria?� Akena p�Ojok said: �The soldiers will do nothing of the sort. You must stop soldiers from doing anything stupid that will bring a lot of trouble into the country. Am I under arrest?�, Akena p�Ojok demanded to be told. �No!�, Oyite-Ojok replied. Tempers cooled and Akena p�Ojok suggested to the Chief of Staff that in view of the fact that the president had not consulted widely with the relevant departments, he should file his complaints with the Military Commission (MC), which would then report to the NEC/NCC. Meanwhile Akena p�Ojok promised to get in touch with Muwanga, the chairman of the MC and with President Binaisa himself. Muwanga had not yet heard the news by the time Lt. Col. Oyite-Ojok reached him. The Military Commission sat in a meeting until the early hours. Meanwhile, Binaisa could not be reached on the phone. However, his close aides tried to persuade him to immediately rescind his decision to dismiss Oyite-Ojok from the army. Some friends reminded him that the omens did not portend well for him. For instance, on two occasions at rallies in Busoga, snakes suddenly appeared from nowhere and sent the crowds that had assembled to listen to him scattering in panic. By the morning, the Military Commission, without any reference to the NEC/NCC/UNLF, announced a new government. Ugandans awoke to yet another full-blown military coup. This was, however, disguised as a civil government under the Military Commission. Muwanga would lead the interim administration. The head of state would be a triumvirate of senior citizens and judges; Justice Yeremiah Nyamuchoncho, Justice Saulo Musoke and Mzee Wacha-Olwol. The NCC/UNLF was never dissolved but was simply summoned to be informed of the swift and radical changes. Binaisa, now isolated at State House, appealed to Mwalimu Nyerere to send in troops to help him put down what he clearly saw as a revolt against his government. It was a rude awakening when Nyerere replied that he did not want Tanzanian troops to get involved in the internal politics of Uganda, and that he could only secure Binaisa�s personal safety and guarantee him a safe exit from State House if it came to that. Binaisa�s fate was hermetically sealed. He had botched his presidency just as quickly and mysteriously as he had come by it. The �Umbrella� had effectively collapsed, ushering in the long-awaited hope for the return of multiparty politics in Uganda. *Acut Lwani is a Ugandan living in Newcastle, UK. |
� 2003 The Monitor Publications
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