Basil Kiiza Bataringaya

A Ssaza was the equivalent of a county in the newly created administration divisions after the absorption of the Ankole Kingdom in to the British Protectorate of Uganda, as a part of the Ankole Agreement of 1901.

The Ankole Agreement set the boundaries of the Bunyaruguru Ssaza as "On the north-west by the Dweru Channel; on the east by the Chambura River, the recognized Bunyaruguru-lgara and Kamsura-Igara boundaries; on the south by the Rwenchwera River; on the west by Lake Albert Edward", and gave Bataringaya's father a powerful position in southwestern Uganda during the early 20th century.

Basil Kiiza Bataringaya was born in 1927, in the village of Kantojo, in the county of Igara, in the Bushenyi District of the Ugandan Protectorate.

His father was Marko Kiiza, who was the Ssaza Chief of Bunyaruguru at the time.

Bataringaya attended St. Leo's College, Kyegobe, a residential boys' secondary school of Catholic curriculum, located in Fort Portal, Kabarole District in the Western Region of Uganda from 1945 to 1947.

He then attended the Government Teacher Training College of Uganda (TTC) from 1948 to 1949.

He then attended Makerere University, Uganda's top university, from 1953 to 1956.

It was at Makerere University that Bataringaya began his political career, becoming the University College Guild president for the 1955 to 1956 term.

After graduating from Makerere University, Bataringaya became a secondary school teacher.

He taught at Ntare Secondary School, a residential single-sex all boy's secondary school located in Mbarara, Mbarara District, Uganda.

He then became the school supervisor of the Ankole Catholic schools from 1959 to 1961, when he was first elected to the Parliament of Uganda.

Bataringaya ran as a member of the Democratic Party of Uganda for the legislative seat for the Ankole District to the Uganda Legislative Council in the transitional government between the colonial-era Uganda Protectorate and the Republic of Uganda in the first Ugandan nationwide direct elections, the March 1961 Ugandan general elections.

Bataringaya quickly became popular within the Democratic Party of Uganda that controlled government following its win of 44 of the 82 contested seats, and Bataringaya was appointed to be the first Minister of Local Government for Uganda's first post-colonial independent government under Benedicto Kiwanuka.

Bataringaya was recently elected Secretary General of the Democratic Party of Uganda in 1961, and became the second most powerful member of the Democratic Party after the Prime Minister of the transitional government between the colonial-era Uganda Protectorate and the Republic of Uganda, Benedicto Kiwanuka.

Following agreements made by 48 Ugandan representatives, including prominent Ugandan politician A.G. Mehta, at a September 1961 Constitutional Convention meeting in London, England, the Ugandan Legislative Council of the transitional government between the colonial-era Uganda Protectorate and the Republic of Uganda became the Parliament of Uganda, which was then formally dissolved so that the 1962 Ugandan general election could occur on 25 April 1962, the first elections held under an entirely independent Ugandan government.

Bataringaya ran again as a member of the Democratic Party of Uganda in his Ankole constituency and was reelected.

Bataringaya lost his ministerial positions as a result of the election, as the Ugandan People's Congress won 37 of the 82 seats and formed an alliance with the Kabaka Yekka party that won 21 of 82 seats, giving this new alliance 58 of the 82 seats in the Parliament of Uganda, taking control away from the Democratic Party of Uganda who won 24 of the 82 seats and became the official party of the opposition.

Benedicto Kiwanuka did not run for the Parliament of Uganda in the 1962 Ugandan general election and thus was ineligible for any parliamentarian positions in the first government of the Republic of Uganda.

As the highest-ranking member of the Democratic Party of Uganda still in the Parliament of Uganda, Bataringaya became the second ever Leader of the Ugandan Opposition, replacing newly elected prime minister Apollo Milton Obote, and the first ever Ugandan Opposition Leader of the new Republic of Uganda.

As Opposition Leader, Bataringaya worked as the chief representative of the Democratic Party of Uganda which was operating as the resistance to the Apollo Milton Obote regime and the joint Ugandan People's Congress and Kabaka Yekka government.

Bataringaya had little power as opposition leader, but worked during his tenure as Leader of the Ugandan Opposition to protect opposition MPs from censorship, arrest, and violence.

His most significant act was to protect Democratic Party MP Vincent Rwamwaro of the Toro East constituency from an arrest that Bataringaya described as a political arrest.

On 16 August 1962, MP Vincent Rwamwaro was arrested in his home at 6:20 am, tied with rope, thrown in the back of a pick-up truck, and sent in only his underwear and sandals before a magistrate in the court in Nakawa on charges of failing to pay his graduation tax, a charge Rwamwaro denied.

In both the 19 September 1962 and 26 September 1962 sessions of the Parliament of Uganda, Bataringaya gave lengthy speeches describing the value of opposition in government, decrying threats against the opposition, and attacking both the manner and political nature of the arrest of MP Rwamwaro.

During Bataringaya's time as Secretary General of the Democratic Party of Uganda and as the Leader of the Opposition and the highest ranking Democratic Party member in government, he clashed frequently with party leader and former Prime Minister Benedicto Kiwanuka.

Bataringaya reportedly saw Benedicto Kiwanuka as arrogant and as an obstacle to the Democratic Party of Uganda and their efforts to re-obtain control as the majority party in the Parliament of Uganda.

Bataringaya attempted an intra-party coup and had the top-ruling committee of the Democratic Party call for Kiwanuka to step down, but in the subsequent internal elections Kiwanuka won and retained control of the Democratic Party of Uganda, further exacerbating the conflict between the two men.

This conflict between Basil Kiiza Bataringaya and Benedicto Kiwanuka ultimately led to Bataringaya crossing the aisle along with five other Democratic Party MPs and joining the Ugandan People's Congress, in the first high-profile party-switching in Ugandan history. In addition to the conflict between Bataringaya and Benedicto Kiwanuka within the Democratic Party of Uganda, Bataringaya's moderate political beliefs, nationalism, and desire to serve his country more efficiently have also all been cited as reasons for his decision to defect from the Democratic Party of Uganda.

After Bataringaya's high-profile defection from the Democratic Party of Uganda to the Ugandan People's Congress, Bataringaya was rewarded by the leader of the Ugandan People's Congress Prime Minister Apollo Milton Obote and appointed to be the new Minister of Internal Affairs of Uganda.

Bataringaya quickly earned the trust of Prime Minister Apollo Milton Obote, and earned a spot in Obote's small inner circle of trusted advisors and amassed a large policy portfolio as one of the most powerful ministers in the Obote government.

Bataringaya traveled internationally, representing Uganda on a tour of the United States and visiting Disneyland in Anaheim, California with his wife Edith Mary Bataringaya who headed the Ugandan Council for Women.

One such crisis was the 1966 Buganda Crisis, where Ugandan troops commanded by Idi Amin attacked Lubiri and exiled the Kabaka of Buganda, Mutesa II of Buganda, after the Bugandan regional parliament voted to suspend Buganda's incorporation into Uganda, thus leading to Obote and Bataringaya reunifying Uganda by force and sending Mutesa II of Buganda into exile in the United Kingdom via Burundi.

This use of troops was criticized and faced resistance, and Bataringaya took much of the blame as the implementer of the crisis and the killer of several other Bugandan Kabaka loyalists.

Idi Amin, the Ugandan military official who eventually led a successful coup d'état against the Apollo Milton Obote government and became the third President of Uganda, was the eventual undoing of Basil Kiiza Bataringaya's political career and ultimately his life.

He also represented the Ugandan government to the media of the world following the kidnapping of Brian Lea, a British diplomat who was kidnapped in Uganda in 1970.

As a high-profile Catholic involved in the administration, Bataringaya also served as a liaison between the Catholic Church of Uganda and the Obote regime, helping open Catholic hospitals and Catholic schools throughout Uganda.

Also as one of Obote's five most trusted ministers, Bataringaya was in charge of putting out numerous crises throughout his tenure as Minister of Internal Affairs.

Basil Kiiza Bataringaya (1927 – 18 September 1972) was a prominent Ugandan politician in post-independence Uganda.

He was the Leader of the Opposition at the beginning of the Apollo Milton Obote government, and then he changed parties and was appointed to the powerful role of Ugandan Minister of Internal Affairs.

He was imprisoned, tortured, and was one of the first political prisoners to be executed by the Idi Amin regime.