Daily Monitor
Sunday January 24 2021
Summary
I can remember vividly the weekend before that reactionary putsch took place. My uncle, Lt Col Michael Ombia, had just returned to Uganda from a one-year course at a Staff College in the UK.
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Tomorrow, January 25, marks the 50th anniversary of a military coup d’état which brought to power Gen Idi Amin Dada who ruled Uganda with an iron hand for eight years until he was overthrown in April 1979 by Uganda exiles backed by the Tanzania People’s Defence Force.
I can remember vividly the weekend before that reactionary putsch took place. My uncle, Lt Col Michael Ombia, had just returned to Uganda from a one-year course at a Staff College in the UK.
Daily Monitor
Sunday January 17 2021
One of the first messages I received on New Year 2021 was from a friend, Dr William Worodria, a senior consultant at Mulago hospital. He texted to inform me that, “Retired ambassador Paul Orono Etiang has passed on at IHK of Covid-19.”
I was shocked by the sad news and remembered my last encounter with Etiang on December 14, 2020, at Rubaga Cathedral where we had gone to attend a requiem mass for our colleague and good friend, William George Naggaga (RIP).
Paul Etiang was my boss, mentor and friend for many years. He was a distinguished career diplomat, gentleman, statesman, patriot, pan-Africanist and a devout Christian.