Benedicto Kiwanuka

Benedicto Kiwanuka
1st Prime Minister of Uganda
In office 1 March 1962 – 30 April 1962
Preceded by	None, position non-existent
Succeeded by	Milton Obote
Personal details
Born	11 May 1922
Died	22 September 1972 (aged 50) Makindye Military Prison
Political party	Democratic Party
Alma mater	University College London
Religion	Catholicism

Benedicto Kagimu Mugumba Kiwanuka (8 May 1922^[1] – 22 September 1972) was the first prime minister of Uganda, a leader of the Democratic Party, and one of the persons that led the country in the transition between colonial British rule and independence. He was murdered by Idi Amin's regime in 1972.

Biography

A member of the Baganda ethnic group, Kiwanuka was a member of the Roman Catholic Church.^[2]

He was admitted to the bar association at Gray's Inn in February 1956.^[2]

As a result of the September 1961 Uganda Constitutional Conference held in London, Uganda achieved internal self-government on 1 March 1962. Kiwanuka became Uganda's first prime minister in the new National Assembly.

New elections, however, were held in April 1962, with Kiwanuka's party losing to the alliance of Milton Obote's Uganda People's Congress and the Buganda traditionalist party, Kabaka Yekka. In addition, Kiwanuka's Catholicism made him unpopular with his fellow Buganda, a mainly Protestant people.^[3] Uganda achieved independence on 9 October 1962, with Obote as the first prime minister of a fully independent Uganda.

Kiwanuka was imprisoned in 1969 by Obote's government, but was one of 55 political detainees released by Idi Amin immediately after the coup that brought Amin to power.^[4] Amin appointed him as chief justice of Uganda on 27 June 1971.^[2]

Kiwanuka soon came into confrontation with Amin's disregard for the rule of law. In the immediate aftermath of Obote's abortive counter coup of 1972, Kiwanuka was arrested at gunpoint by Amin's men as he presided over a session of the High Court.^[2] As well as countermanding from the bench some of Amin's more draconian orders, Kiwanuka had also secretly agreed to support Obote's return to power, with the proviso that Kiwanuka would be involved in constitutional reform.^[3]

Kiwanuka was killed by Amin's forces on 22 September at Makindye Military Prison in a prolonged execution which, according to eyewitnesses, involved Kiwanuka ears, nose, lips, and arms being severed, a disembowelling, and castration before he was finally immolated.^[3] Kiwanuka's death was not acknowledged as an execution, with Amin instead publicly blaming it on Obote's supporters and even launching a police investigation.^[2] Kiwanuka's killing was the first of a series directed against leading figures in the Baganda and Ankole tribes, aimed at curbing their power.^[5]

Kiwanuka's grandson, Mathias Kiwanuka, played defensive end for Boston College's American football team from 2001 to 2005 and was the New York Giants' first round pick in the 2006 NFL Draft.^[6]

References