Reports Leo Odera Omolo IN kisumuCity

Although Godfrey Binaisa’s most memorable statement is “entebbe ewoma”, meaning “the seat is sweet”, he spent 328 days in power grappling with various problems.

Binaisa had to deal with commodity scarcity, an assassination attempt, rampant murders, in-fighting between groups that had defeated Idi Amin and an impoverished government.

His confidant, Israel Mayengo, recalls that even the money Binaisa used for escaping from Uganda was raised by friends. Despite these troubles, Binaisa remained a humourous president who always threw his comrades into laughter.

Mayengo said: “He often, jokingly, complained that whenever he met people they laughed at him. He then said people laughed because he was handsome and asked whether God made a mistake to give him the good looks,”

Mayengo served as a member of the National Consultative Council, the equivalent of Parliament at the time. He was appointed to the Council by Binaisa.

“He was so close to me that he shared with me most of his secrets and when he was escaping from Uganda, he used my car.”

Binaisa became President on June 20, 1979. He was appointed by the National Consultive Council.

He replaced Prof. Yusuf Lule who was dropped by the same council on the same day he was appointed.

Mayengo recalls that before Binaisa was appointed, the commission chaired by Edward Rugumayo sat at State House Entebbe to discuss a motion on a vote of no confidence against Lule.

The motion was tabled by Paul Wangola a member of the council.

“He gave seven reasons for tabling the motion. But I later learnt from Paul Muwanga that all of them were false. Muwanga was the person behind the motion,” Mayengo said.

Two of the seven reasons which Mayengo could still remember were that Lule had failed to look after the soldiers who had fought Amin and he had appointed ministers without consulting the commission.

The commission was the supreme governing body of the Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF) a coalition of former Ugandan exiles who had fought Amin.

Out of 30 commission members, 16 supported the motion to oust Lule while 14 opposed it. Paul Kawanga Ssemwogerere and Andrew Lutakome Kayiira were among those who opposed the motion.

The opponents stormed out of the meeting but later returned and settled for a compromise; It was to be announced that Lule had voluntarily relinquished power. “Lule agreed but a few minutes later, he held an interview with a journalist from Radio Uganda who he told that he had been forced out of office,” Mayengo recalls.

Eager to tell the country what had happened; the journalist rushed back to Radio Uganda aired the comment from Lule, saying he had been forced out. This sparked off riots that welcomed Binaisa’s regime.

Meanwhile a popular freedom fighter, Nkombe Mpambara, was sent to Sheraton Hotel, where Binaisa had spent a night, to inform him that he was the new president.

Binaisa was sworn in as President at a low key event at Parliament as the riots gained momentum in parts of the city. Chief Justice Wako Wambuzi presided over the function.

The late Cardinal Nsubuga had been invited to the function but he refused, saying he was tired of the chaos in Government.

“The riots were contained when the Minister of Defense, Yoweri Museveni, made an announcement that however would be caught in the riots would face a severe punishment,” Mayengo said.

At one point, as the army tried to quell the rioters at city square (now constitutional square) in Kampala, soldiers fired at the crowd and a former Buganda prime minister, Paulo Kavuma, was hit.

When he came to power, people doubted whether Binaisa had full authority and wondered whether he was holding the seat for Milton Obote, who was in exile in Tanzania.

This prompted him to make the famous statement “Entebbe ewoma”. “He made that statement to show them that he could not simply relinquish power for Obote as if he was not enjoying it,” Mayengo recalls.

Although Mayengo does not talk about panda gaari (climb the truck) operations, scholars say they started during Binaisa’s regime. During such operations, people were rounded up at random and forced to climb onto military trucks and taken for screening.

It was a post-war period and many people had illegally acquired guns. Binaisa set up a monument at Namanve in memory of those killed during Amin’s regime. The monument was built to mark an end to the rampant murders in the Amin regime.

However, the morning after the monument had been unveiled, corpses were found littered next to it.

To try and fight insecurity, one day Binaisa told a lie that he had acquired a machine that could detect guns even from a distance.

Rumor circulated that if one had a gun in their house soldiers would be able to detect it even without searching the house.

Many people were afraid and surrendered their illegal guns.

During Binaisa’s regime there was a shortage of essential commodities like sugar, salt and soap. Mayengo recalls that Binaisa told citizens to not lose hope, promising that the scarce commodities were on their way.

Mayengo narrates that after a few months in office, Binaisa, Museveni and other government officials survived death while at Nile Hotel.

“Kayiira accused Binaisa of not giving him a ministry to head and yet he had one in Lule’s government.

He also accused Museveni of imprisoning his wife and children,” he said. Kayiira and a group of soldiers parked a fuel tank outside the hotel.

“They later shot at it. Their plan was for the tank to explode and kill whoever was inside the hotel,” he said. The Binaisa’s escaped but since then, Museveni and Kayiira became bitter rivals.

On May 12, 1980, when he was toppled, Binaisa had attempted to appoint the army Chief of Staff, Oyite Ojok as Uganda’s ambassador to Algeria. At the same time, Muwanga, the chairman of the little-known Military Commision, was being sent to Geneva as an ambassador.

Mayengo and Prof. Frederick Ssempebwa had warned Binaisa against firing Ojok and Muwanga hurriedly. They had advised him to use of an interim report to remove the two men who were a threat to the regime.

Unfortunately the report leaked.
“Binaisa wanted to consolidate his Presidency which he couldn’t because Ojok and Muwanga had established their own armies,” Mayengo said.

Ojok had accepted to take on his new office, but Muwanga advised him against it. “Muwanga asked Ojok whether he was a boy who could easily be pushed around. He then suggested that they topple Binaisa’ government,” Mayengo said.

Before Binaisa knew what was happening, soldiers stormed State House, forced him out and locked him in a small house at the old airport.

Muwanga’s Military Commission then took charge of the country. After months of being under house arrest, Binaisa escaped. “On Christmas Day he asked for permission to visit a relative at Kibuli.

The soldiers who went with him left him there hoping they to come back for him later. Binaisa dressed like a Muslim sheikh and sneaked out of the country.”

Unlike some other former Presidents who went into exile with lots of money, Mayengo said Binaisa went with nothing. Friends and relatives contributed money for him to escape and funded his stay abroad.

His presidency can be summed up as 328 days of headache, contrary to his popular quotes

ends