Yusufu K. Lule, 72; Briefly Led Uganda After Fall of Idi Amin

Yusufu K. Lule, who briefly was president of Uganda after the fall of dictator Idi Amin, died at a London hospital after surgery for kidney failure. He was 72.

Lule died Jan. 21 in Hammersmith Hospital, where he had received treatment periodically for six years.

Lule became the East African nation’s president after Ugandan rebels and troops from neighboring Tanzania overthrew Amin in April, 1979.

Two months later, he was replaced by Godfrey Binaisa and was exiled to Tanzania, where he spent three weeks under armed guard before being allowed to fly to London.

In exile, Lule became a prominent critic of Uganda’s current leader, President Milton Obote, the man Amin had overthrown in 1971. He accused Obote of killing hundreds of thousands of Ugandans and of being even more brutal than Amin.

Lule was was a lecturer at Uganda’s Makerere University before becoming a minister in Britain’s colonial administration of his native country.

When Uganda became independent in 1962, Lule became chairman of Uganda’s Public Service Commission. Later he became head of the Ugandan National Liberation Front, pledged to Amin’s ouster.