Uganda's first PM dies aged 80
Milton Obote, Uganda’s first prime minister and who served twice as the country’s president, was remembered today as an outstanding leader by some Ugandans, while others said that they would not mourn a man held responsible for the deaths of as many as 500,000 people.
Henry Mayega, secretary-general of the Ugandan People’s Congress, said Obote, 80, died yesterday in a Johannesburg hospital. He had been living in self-imposed exile in Zambia. No funeral arrangements have been announced as yet.
Information Minister James Nsaba Buturo said that the Ugandan cabinet was meeting today and would make a statement later.
Godfrey Binaisa, a former Ugandan president, today said Obote had been a good ruler. “He resolved tribal disputes and handled them skilfully.”
But these feelings were not shared by everyone in Uganda, where Obote’s control of the Ugandan People’s Congress from exile was often used as a spectre to discourage support for multi-party politics.
