The presidency of Godfrey Lukwongwa Binaisa has been the subject of much controversy. In Uganda since independence (1992) Professor Mutibwa characterises the Binaisa presidency as one of “confusion, destruction and corruption.”  The role Binaisa played in abrogating the 1962 constitution remains controversial. Fred Guwedeko in his serialised biographical account potrays Binaisa as opportunistic in his political views while his fellow lawyer Peter Mulira has wondered weather he was committed to his legal profession. 

Binaisa is no longer around to defend himself. Therefore, there is a need for those who knew him intimately to share his thoughts and what he stood for. Starting with his presidency it is important for Ugandans to appreciate the circumstances at the time he inherited the highest office in the land and the context of the environment he operated under. In 1979 Uganda’s economy was in ruins; the country was under an increasingly unpopular occupational force; an army divided into warlords; law and order had broken down with armed murderous gangs on the rampage.

Coupled with all this there were multiple conflicting parties fighting to fill the political vacuum left by strongman Idi Amin. Even if some superman had inherited the presidency it was practically impossible for anyone to govern Uganda until the various conflicting parties  that had begun squabbling for power back in Moshi sorted out each other.  After the fall of Idi Amin all successor regimes were nothing but caretakers, stop- gap measures, until the final showdown. This, as we know, only happened in 1986 with President Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Movement (NRM) emerging as a victor.

It is therefore surprising that Binaisa, in spite of all this, was able to hold on to power for nearly a year. Ugandans might as well be grateful that here was a man who never craved to be president but once presented the challenge he did not balk from it. He stood in at a time when the nation was on the verge of tearing apart into a failed state, held Uganda together, made her laugh  at a dark hour ( “entebbe ewoma”) and was gradually steering her to normality before the forces of instability struck.  He asserted civilian supremacy by demoting the Army Chief of Staff, General Oyite- Ojok. Later, the very idea for which he was much criticised of promoting an umbrella government was embraced by NRM once it came to power.

Binaisa was also not a corrupt president as his personal life reveals. Immediately after the loss of  his presidency he fled back to New York where he resumed his law practice. In 1986 soon after the NRM government had come to power he returned and put up in an unfinished shell atop Mutundwe hill.  He opened a law firm, walked freely on the streets of Kampala as he had nothing to hide.  After the violent death of former guerrilla leader and Museveni compatriot, Andrew Kayira, he fled back to exile in New York where he took up a lowly job as a state attorney. How many ex- presidents in Africa have had to work for a living once toppled given the predatory regimes prevalent on the continent? As he often pointed out whatever wealth he accumulated it was through the work of his hands. 

Concerning his role in abrogating the 1962 constitution he always pointed that he had to write the “pigeon hole constitution” to fill a void after the 1966 crisis. It troubled him though that the 1967 constitution that followed allowed detention without trial for which he had suffered under the British who incarcerated him for a year in Moroto, Karomoja.  Subsequently he resigned as Attorney General in 1967.

In the matter of being opportunistic in his political views, no one can deny that he was a pan-African nationalist throughout his life.  Mr Binaisa’s nationalism was born out of his personal experiences at the discriminative hands of the British as a student, as an enterprising African miner and resident in the Britain in the early fifties.  Shortly after returning from Britain in 1956 he joined the Uganda National Congress (UNC) under Mr Ignatius Musaazi and when he got disillusioned with Musaazi’s leadership walked out on him to be led by Apollo Obote under the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC).

Though descending from a royal lineage Binaisa was willing to risk the ire of his Baganda tribesmen for his republican beliefs. He always opposed the separatist politics of the Mengo government.  Here he was ahead of his time as the Mengo government has since abandoned the idea of a secessionist government.  The noted political science scholar, Prof. Mahmood Mamdani, has also pointed that the failure of the Baganda to play a leading role in the national affairs of this country, for which men like Binaisa and Luyimbazi- Zake were willing to pay the price, is what has let them down.

 Binaisa was a very committed and excellent lawyer well respected by his peers. How else could he be the first Queen’s Counsel in East and Central Africa, hold a record of virtually winning all political suits, go on to serve on the Judicial Service Commission and head the Law Society of Uganda!  As shown whenever out of political office Binaisa never hesitated to return to the bar and practice his trade.  However, his legal career, much like that of fellow lawyer Nelson Mandela suffered many arrests and exile because  as Mandela points out in Long Walk to Freedom ( 1996) the times could not allow a “normal person to live a normal life.” 

Perhaps to understand Binaisa better Ugandans have to go to his roots. He was born as the eldest child of a missionary couple. His father Canon Binaisa travelled on foot all over Uganda and as far as Congo and Sudan preaching the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ to those who repent their sins (John 3:16). His mother, Nalongo Naoeme, a daughter of a chief, was an enterprising woman being one of the first students at Gayaza High School. These two taught him to treat all men and women equal irrespective of tribe. Later in his youth he wandered away from the faith but in his later years Binaisa returned to the true Christian teachings of his upbringing, rarely missing church at Namirembe Cathedral.

Binaisa’s life was filled with many ups and down but as often he told us that our grannies were fighters. He embraced all his battles, including his last illness with stoic grace, humour, a sunny spirit that was the mark of his life all through. He was a doting father with an abiding and unwavering faith in the goodness of humanity to which he laboured for. Above all he was a Ugandan nationalist.  To the good Lord and his angels he now belongs. Free at last!

The writer is a nephew of President Binaisa, Q C. He is a consultant in management and a head of the department at the Uganda Management Institute. 

Comments (4)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Add Comment Preview