Kampala, Uganda
Ugandans have held the first ever commemoration service for former Chief Justice Benedicto Kiwanuka who was kidnapped and killed by Dictator Idi Amin in 1972.
The commemoration service held on Thursday at Lubaga Cathedral in Kampala was one of the activities conducted in the week to commemorate the life of a man considered by many in Uganda as an icon of justice and democracy whose murder affected Uganda’s pace of becoming a just and democratic nation.
President Yoweri Museveni (left) arriving for the Benedicto Kiwanuka Commemoration Day at the High Court in Kampala on Wednesday. PICTURE: State House Picture.
Kiwanuka was one of the early leaders in the independence movement of Uganda and led the country as Prime Minister in the transition between colonial British rule and independence in 1962. He was also the President of the Democratic Party, one of the country’s two main Independence political parties. Kiwanuka was appointed Chief Justice in 1971, the year Idi Amin captured power through a military coup.
He is one of the thousands of Ugandans who were slaughtered during Amin’s reign of chaos and terror. Kiwanuka’s remains have never been located since 1972.
In a 2018 editorial titled “Remembering Benedicto Kiwanuka”, Solomon Muyita, the senior communication officer with the judiciary in Uganda, observed that despite his short-lived period in office, Kiwanuka left an indelible mark in the country’s legal fraternity.
“His mastery of the law, impartiality and zeal for the rule of law have inspired many over the decades,” Muyita wrote. “He fiercely and above self, protected the rights of all for which he paid the ultimate price with his life.”
In his book, Uganda Since Independence: A Story of unfilled Hopes, author Phares Mutibwa asserted that Amin murdered Kiwanuka because he perceived him to be a potential rival leader. Eyewitnesses reports indicate that the army seized Kiwanuka from the High Court although Amin’s military denied the allegations, insisting that government impostors then were behind his disappearance.
During last Thursday’s commemoration service, Kiwanuka was praised for his exemplary leadership while a priest, Fr Richard Nyombi, said there had been calls for the Catholic Church to have Kiwanuka canonised.
Archbishop Augustine Kasujja, a former Apostolic Nuncio, said in a sermon that “we cannot speak of peace and justice as human beings without real effort and determination to create an ethical and moral background for our society”. He urged the flock to emulate Kiwanuka.
In his remarks, Uganda’s current Chief Justice, Alfonse Owiny-Dollo, noted that people like Kiwanuka are very rare in the world today.
“They come to serve a purpose, which is discovered long after they are gone. When you study Uganda’s political history, then you understand the importance of such people.”
Rev Emanuel Sita, the archdiocese’s Department of Peace and Justice, said that Archbishop Paul Ssemogerere had decided to hold a memorial mass for Benedicto Kiwanuka on the day he is believed to have been killed as part of its activities marking Peace Week, which ran from 1st to 9th September.
“Besides being the son of the Catholic Church, Benedicto was also an active and practicing parishioner of Lubaga Cathedral Parish,” he said.
We rely on our readers to fund Sight's work - become a financial supporter today!
For more information, head to our Subscriber's page.
On Wednesday, Uganda’s judiciary held a commemoration to mark the 5th Benedicto Kiwanuka’s Day. President Yoweri Museveni was among those who attended, saluting the former chief justice for being forthright and truthful by opposing chauvinism and the adoption of a tribal agenda in favour of a national position and unity.
But Museveni said Kiwanuka should not have accepted to work under Amin from the start.
“Kiwanuka turned out to be a martyr under circumstances he should not have been in the first place,” Museveni said.
The main opposition political figure in Uganda, Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, said during the service that Benedicto Kiwanuka’s Day came at the time when Uganda was still struggling with political challenges similar to those that existed in Amin’s regime and that supporters of his political party, the National Unity Platform, are being kidnapped, tortured and imprisoned by the state.
