Andrew Kayiira - UK and USA

UK and USA

He completed his studies in U.K. with a diploma in Criminal Justice. He was awarded a scholarship by the United States Government to attend the University of Southern Illinois, where in 1971 he achieved his Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice. In Albany, the capital of the State of New York, at the State University Lutaakome Andrew Kayiira worked and respectively obtained an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice. His doctoral dissertation titled "Kondoism in Uganda" has internationally contributed an addition of "kondoism" as a new terminology in criminology.

Pressed by the vicissitude of the Idi Amin conditions, Dr. Kayiira found himself being forced into exile in the U.S.A. He gained an Assistant Professorship of Criminal Justice at the University of New Haven in Connecticut, USA. With this base Dr. Kayiira reached out to Ugandans in the USA. It was his practice that whenever he arrived in a city or town he was not familiar with one of the first things he did was to pick up a telephone directory, look up Ugandan names and try to link up with them.

He founded the UFU, that is Uganda Freedom Union, which he enunciated by means of a Newsletter called "SASA UFU". An Executive Committee was established in 1978 the chair of which was Attorney Godfrey Binaayiisa. It was then sensed by the Boston group which included Henry Bwambale (RIP), Kalu Kalumiya, Olara Otunnu, Justine Sabiti, Mubiru Musoke, Aloysius Lugira that UFU needed a new leadership. It was Dr. Kayiira nominated to stand side by side with Attorney Binaayiisa. At the general meeting which was held in New York, Dr. Kayiira was unanimously elected chairman of UFU.

At the meeting he stood up and articulately clarified the position that "I will accept to be president of UFU on condition that membership of the executive committee has to reflect and represent the four regions of Uganda. Thus his executive committee included Olara Otunnu, Justine Sabiti, Okoth Nyoromoi, just to mention a few of the then Ugandan liberational activists obtaining in USA.

Following in the line of the great former Speaker of the USA Congress the late Hon. Thomas P. O'Neill, Kayiira became convinced that "All politics", worth the name, "is local". Dr. Kayiira made sure that he talked to Ugandans and all Ugandans in the USA. The convention was held at the Elma Lewis School in Roxbury of Greater Boston, USA. Present at this Convention were Attorney Godfrey Lukongwa Binaayiisa, the late Bishop Festo Kivengere, Brigadier Toko, Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda, the late Hon. Grace Ibingira, former Ambassador Perezi Kamunanwire, and many others.