On May 12, 1980 Uganda's Military Commission removed President Godfrey Binaisa from office in a bloodless coup, part of the chaotic power struggle that followed the fall of Idi Amin and led within months to the return of Milton Obote. After Amin was overthrown in 1979, Uganda was governed by the Uganda National Liberation Front, whose interim presidents proved weak and short-lived; Yusuf Lule was removed after about two months, and Binaisa, an accidental president appointed in June 1979, clashed with the powerful Military Commission that held real power. When Binaisa tried to remove the influential army chief of staff Brigadier Oyite-Ojok in early May 1980, the Military Commission, headed by Paulo Muwanga with Yoweri Museveni as his deputy, moved against him.
On May 12, 1980 Binaisa was removed and briefly placed under house arrest before fleeing into exile. A commission then governed until the December 1980 elections.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: President Godfrey Binaisa, removed on May 12, 1980 by the Military Commission after trying to dismiss the army chief; he was briefly held under house arrest then fled into exile, not physically harmed.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Godfrey Binaisa (president removed)
Paulo Muwanga (head of the Military Commission)
Yoweri Museveni (deputy of the Military Commission)
Sources
When Binaisa removed the army Chief of Staff, Brigadier Oyite-Ojok, he was himself removed from office on 12 May 1980 by the Military Commission, a powerful organ of the UNLF headed by Paulo Muwanga, whose deputy was Yoweri Museveni.
On 12 May 1980 the army overthrew Binaisa and installed a six-man Military Commission headed by Muwanga, which was the de facto president of Uganda for a few days until the establishment of the Presidential Commission of Uganda that held the powers of the president between 22 May and 15 December 1980.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, Paulo Muwangaopen source ↗
Binaisa's successor Godfrey Binaisa was deposed in May 1980, whereupon the UNLF's Military Commission assumed control of Uganda, even as remnants of Amin's army launched an insurgency in the north that became the Ugandan Bush War.
Binaisa was briefly placed under house arrest before fleeing into exile in Kenya first, and later Britain and the United States, after being removed from the Office of President on May 12, 1980 by the Military Commission.
SOURCE REVIEWEDDaily Monitor, Binaisa overthrown after sacking Oyite-Ojokopen source ↗
Editorial Note
Coding note: the dataset labels this a military coup with a not-physically-harmed fate, accurately, as the Military Commission (an organ of the UNLF) removed Binaisa without violence; he was briefly held under house arrest, then fled into exile, so not physically harmed fits. Arc link: this is part of the post-Amin turmoil, connecting to the April 1979 fall of Amin (batch 31, the fall of Kampala) and the removal of the first interim president Lule; it directly precedes Milton Obote's return, engineered through the Muwanga-led commission that declared Obote's party the winner of the disputed December 1980 election. Trigger recorded: the immediate cause was Binaisa's attempt to dismiss the powerful army chief of staff Oyite-Ojok, an Obote ally, which the military read as overreach. Key figures noted: the Military Commission was chaired by Paulo Muwanga with Yoweri Museveni, later and current president of Uganda, as deputy. Date nuance: sources give the removal as May 12, 1980 (the dataset date), with the underlying army action on May 10 to 11; the December 1980 election that returned Obote is later context.
Cross-Reference
Datasets agree. At least two of the three reference datasets we check against carry this event, and none of them disagrees about its date or its result.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Godfrey Binaisa, removed on May 12, 1980 by the Military Commission after trying to dismiss the army chief; he was briefly held under house arrest then fled into exile, not physically harmed..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
“Picking up the Pieces in Uganda is Not easy,” by Pranay B. Gupte, June 1, 1980
“President’s Ouster Reported in Uganda,” by Pranay B.Gupte, May 13, 1980
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →