1. Amin released all political detainees that were languishing in Luzira : For example several Baganda notables including one of Sekabaka Muteesa’s sisters, the former vice president had been sentenced to imprisonment for one year bet because Amin wished to address all former monarchs at one seating, he ordered Nadiope’s body had reposed in Kensal Green Cemetery for close to two years.
2. Amin promoted and lifted the sports image in Uganda: He thrilled Ugandans and the entire world when he led his cabinet and leading personalities, including religious leaders in a friendly soccer match shortly after taking power. Among those playing was the late Cardinal Emmanuel Nsubuga of the Roman Catholic Church.
3. Amin also went ahead to provide moral and financial support to sports: In 1972, John Akii Bua won a 400m hurdles gold medal in the Munich Olympics held in Germany the only Gold Uganda has won at the games history. Uganda reached the Africa cup of Nations 1978 and ever since then, has never qualified for the finals
4. Amin hosted the Organization of African Union (OAU): No one seriously believed the Organization of African Union (OAU) heads of state would come to Uganda so soon if ever. But surprisingly, in his characteristic way, Amin pushed ahead anyway with a shortage of hotels and conference facilities. It was suggested that new ones had to be put in place. He went to complete the construction of the OAU conference Centre and Nile Hotel. A Yugoslav company Energy-Project was contracted and worked twenty four hours a day in three shifts and the project was completed in June just ready for the meet. This project had been started in the Obote days in preparation for the OAU summit that was scheduled earlier for June 1971 but it was not until 1975 that the OAU agreed to come. The Heads of State did come to Uganda as planned.
5. The exchange rate of the shilling to the dollar remained steady between 7shs and 7.50shs between 1971 and 1979 and on the black market it was 16shs.
6. Amin is remembered for the constructing, purchasing and maintaining national assets in foreign lands: Prominent among these was Uganda House in New York, Uganda House in United Kingdom on Trafalgar square and Diplomatic properties in Geneva, Brussels, Nairobi, and Mogadishu. All these properties are in Prime location. Also coffee marketing board property and storage facilities in Mombasa.
7. Amin as a deeply Religious man: It is reported that Amin donated significantly to the construction of Church House, a Church of Uganda project. The donation was part of the Church’s centenary celebrations in 1977.
8. Amin also takes credit for uniting’s once fractious Muslims under the banner of the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council: He allocated to the council the land at old Kampala on which the magnificent “Gadhafi Mosque” stands. Amin is also credited with the initiative that finally culminated in today’s Islamic University in Uganda at Mbale. In 1975, he commissioned Lira Mosque but left it incomplete when his government fell.
9. Credit goes to President Idi Amin Dada for the Creation of Uganda’s first and only national flag carrier, the Uganda Airlines Corporation. He rescued ‘The Flying Crane’ out of the wreckage of the East African Airways, and the Crane proudly traversed the international skies and landed at the world’s airports to the admiration and envy of many. All this was for the purpose of ensuring availability of air transport for Ugandans, visitors and air cargo at affordable charges. Amin saw to it that Uganda Airlines started to the Middle East and Nairobi. Uganda Airlines flew to Nairobi, Rome, Frankfurt, London, Dubai (in Obote II), Bombay, Internally, it had flights to Gulu, Arua, and Kasese. Today, Uganda Airlines is no more, having plummeted from the skies in May 2001 and leaving Uganda shamefully unpresented in the air transport sector and granting the government –owned Kenya Airways (KA), Rwanda Airways, Air Tanzania virtual ownership of our skies to say nothing about regional dominance. KA runs five flights to Uganda per day on a route reckoned to be one of the most expensive but profitable in the world. A known fact is, of the 150 airlines worldwide 70 have majority government ownership, 20 have minority government share holdings. In the European Union, Five major EU carriers presently have government holdings ranging from 90-100 per cent. It’s not true that governments cannot properly run ventures like Airlines. Kenya has Thailand, Singapore, Rwanda and South Africa.
10. Under Amin, Uganda had 65 air force planes. These included L-29 trainers, Twin Otters, MIG-17 and MiG-21( My Late Brother In Law was one of the pilots, a brillliant Guy. Whenever he arrived in Gulu in his MIG 21, he would announce this by flying over our house at a very low altitude, and that was ear drum busting LOUD!!!, Then arrive to our house in a CHOPPER and give us a RIDE of our llives in the Chopper!!!. My first expirience in a Helicopter! ) fighter bombers. Uganda Air Cargo (the cargo unit of Uganda Airlines) 2 Hercules C-130 transport aircraft. Police Air Wing, a full squadron (12) of helicopters. Uganda Airlines, six Fokker Friendship F-27 propeller planes for domestic flights to Nairobi. Two Boeing 707 jetliners. Presidential jet, a G-2 Gulfstream.
11. Early 1970, according to National Housing Statistics, NHCC built flats, marionettes and bungalows in top class residential areas of Bugolobi (872). Bukoto White (130), Bukoto Brown (180), Kololo (80), Nakasero (44), Wandegeya inter alia (136). Middle to low housing estates were built in Luwafu (51) and Mulago. Idi Amin had plans of having apartment blocks like those in Bugolobi in places like; Kawempe, Mutundwe & Kansanga.
12. Amin expanded the Uganda Railways Corporation: The railway transported heavy equipment for inland with relative ease, for until that time the main form of transport into the interior was ox-drawn wagons. It also expedited the export of coffee and tea and encouraged other types of commerce.
13. Idi Amin’s government came under great pressure to increase financial support to Ugandans engaged in major economic activities, which pressure increased after declaration of the economic war in August 1972.
14. Amin ensured that electricity reached remote areas such as Arua and Kyaggwe. He did this through UEB.
15. The Textile Sector: The textile sector was another area which Amin Dada took special care to nurture and expand his intention was to make Uganda the biggest manufacturer of cloth and other related items in Eastern Africa.
16. Satellite links: Amin is also remembered for linking Uganda to the rest of the world by putting up earth satellite at Mpoma in Mukono and at Ombaci in his home region of West Nile. By the time it was set up in the 70s, the satellite station was one of the very few of its kind on the African continent, another being in Nigeria. According to one of his widow, Mama Madina Amin, the Mpoma Earth Satellite Station was Amin’s gift to the Baganda.
17. Amin returned the body of Sir Edward Muteesa II for a state funeral with full honors: Muteesa who was Uganda’s first President had died in London on 19th November 1969. His death was attributed to poison administered by his political enemies and his body had reposed in Kensal Green Cemetery for close two years. Amin haters attribute the attack on Lubiri palace on him forgetting that Amin being the army commander then, he acted on the orders of the commander in chief then Dr. Milton Obote it’s like today blaming General Kale Kaihura for blocking Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi from visiting Kayunga, general Kaihura acted on the orders from the commander in Chief Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
18. Amin appointed Elizabeth Bagaya as Africa’s first female Foreign Minister in 1972, before Britain and most of Europe had female Foreign Ministers or woman Prime Ministers like Margaret Thatcher.
19. On 4th August 1972, Amin was touring Tororo in eastern Uganda when he announced a dream he had had and whose implementation would have far reaching effects on the lives of all Ugandans, altering their attitudes forever. In the dream, a higher power had directed him to rid Ugandans of foreigners who were “milking” the economy at the expense of native Ugandans. The President directed Uganda’s 70,000 Asians (mostly Indians) 90 days to denounce their British citizenship or leave the country.
20. The expulsion of the non-citizen Asians in 1972 destabilized the economy for a year but the event laid the ground work for the emergence of a Black Ugandan business class.Idi Amin Empowered Us BLACK Ugandans to manage our economy. Kenyan and Tanzanian businesses are mostly fully foriegn owned! We Ugandans, albeit corruption, manage our own destiny. Thanks to Amin.
21. Unlike what most Ugandans and the world believe, the Amin government valued the Asians’ property, compensated then by mid-1974; all of them had been fully compensated. The belief that their shops were “seized” is false. Bank of Uganda has all the documents to prove it.
22. People have never asked why Asians who arrived without bags in Britain and Canada suddenly became rich in no time and thought it was their hard work. No, they arrived in Europe and Canada with good “entandikwa” from Amin!
23. In 1974, he made Uganda a member of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) without first converting every Ugandan into a Muslim by force. Uganda is the only IOC member that is not an Islamic state. One result of that initiative bore fruit in 2008 when the OIC sat here in Uganda.
24. Genesis of URC: President Idi Amin created the Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) after the 1977 dissolution of East African Railways & harbors Corporation, which had begun after world war.
25. President Amin provided Uganda manufactures with additional support through the Uganda Development Bank, which supplemented UCB. The Uganda Development Bank and the Credit Guarantee Fund were established under the Uganda Development Bank Act, 1972, during Amin Dada’s regime and commenced business on 10th November 1972. UDB was a state-owned development finance institution, which channeled loans from international sources into Ugandan enterprises and administered most of the development loans made to Uganda. By 1986 and up to its closure, UCB was the biggest Commercial Bank in Uganda with nearly 300 branches. Today, the UCB story is a very sad story. The bank was sold in 2000 to NRM/O thieves!!.
26. There have been arguments, especially in Uganda that governments should not engage in businesses. This had largely been based on the philosophy of privatization policy that was in Europe especially Britain, in the early 1980s. But Uganda’s development position can not be compared to any European country. Ordinary Ugandans still need more and more government support in finance, which is not the case for developed countries. The cruelest irony, in Uganda’s case, is that government owned banks of neighboring countries are doing very well indeed! Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) dominates the banking sector in Kenya. As if this is not enough KCB has firmly established itself in Uganda and in 10 years or so, KCB is likely to dominate Uganda. In Uganda, it started with one branch on Kampala Road in November 2007; today, the bank boasts of eleven branches, three being in Kampala. It also has branches in Oasis Mall ( Nakumatt) Mbarara, Hoima, Gulu, Lira, Arua, Mbale, Fort Portal and five others are expected to open in 2009. The entry of KCB into the Ugandan finance market was a major mile stone in its quest to become the ‘Best Bank’(Big Shame!!!!) in the region. This has marked the end of the first phase of the bank’s development and ushered in the ‘Pan African Dream’. The bank is now effectively represented in virtually all countries of East Africa i.e. Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Southern Sudan and promises to cover Burundi soon. KCB is a government bank which was much smaller than UCB when Idi Amin Dada was still president, but the people’s Own Bank is no more.
All these achievements, for a government run by semi-literates like Amin, Mustapha Adrisi, and Yusuf Gowan. Today, with PhDs and MBAs in power and in the private sector, we can’t maintain 20 percent of what Amin left behind.
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