Milton Obote
Prime Minister of Uganda
Died when: 80 years 286 days (969 months)Star Sign: Capricorn
Apollo Milton Obote (28 December 1925 – 10 October 2005) was a Ugandan political leader who led Uganda to independence from British colonial rule in 1962.
Following the nation's independence, he served as prime minister of Uganda from 1962 to 1966 and the second president of Uganda from 1966 to 1971, then again from 1980 to 1985.
He founded the Uganda People's Congress (UPC) in 1960, which played a key role in securing Uganda's independence from the United Kingdom in 1962.
He then became the country's prime minister in a coalition with the Kabaka Yekka movement/party, whose leader King Mutesa II was named president.
Due to a rift with Mutesa over the 1964 Ugandan lost counties referendum and later getting implicated in a gold smuggling scandal, Obote overthrew him in 1966 and declared himself president, establishing a dictatorial regime with the UPC as the only official party.
Obote implemented ostensibly socialist policies, under which the country suffered from severe corruption and food shortages.He was overthrown in a coup d'état by Idi Amin in 1971, but was re-elected in 1980 a year after Amin's 1979 overthrow.
His second period of rule ended after a long and bloody conflict known as the Ugandan Bush War, during which he was overthrown a second time by another coup d'état in 1985, prompting him to live the rest of his life in exile.