Uganda's late former president, Idi Amin, liked women and, by most accounts, was the proverbial fisherman who cast his net far and wide in search of a good catch.

But in the early 1970s, there was one fish that would prove far too clever, far too accomplished, and far too dignified to be caught: Princess Elizabeth Bagaya of the Toro Kingdom.

Tributes paid to Ugandan who exposed Idi Amin's atrocities

Bagaya was described as a beauty, having graced the covers of glossy magazines as one of the era's most sought-after models. She was also formidably intelligent. A graduate of the University of Cambridge, she made history as the first woman from East Africa to be called to the English Bar.

According to a post shared by Onesmas JB and sighted by GhanaWeb on September 20, 2026, Elizabeth had already built a reputation as a roving ambassador for Uganda, a woman as comfortable in courtrooms and cabinet chambers as she was on the covers of international fashion magazines in the early 1970s.

In February 1974, Amin abruptly dismissed his Foreign Affairs Minister, Michael Ondoga, in front of foreign dignitaries at a high-profile diplomatic gathering.

In his place, he announced Princess Elizabeth Bagaya as his replacement.

On paper, it was a historic appointment, a woman with genuine credentials stepping into one of the country's most powerful roles.

But those close to Amin understood that he wanted more than a capable minister; he wanted Bagaya's affection.

Bagaya was showered with preferential treatment. At the expense, at times, of his own cabinet. And still, time and again, Bagaya firmly turned down his advances.

In November 1974, Bagaya delivered what may have been the finest hour of her diplomatic career, fearlessly defending Amin's government before the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Amin was thrilled. He praised her extravagantly, declaring to all who would listen that she was more intelligent than the then-US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, and promised to reward her handsomely upon her return home.

There came a fallout. The reward never came. Instead, the tide turned violently against her.

After some kind of falling-out with Amin, Bagaya was placed under house arrest for a week.

Once released, she was summoned to Makindye State Lodge and fined 15,000 Ugandan shillings.

Days later, she was permitted to attend a cabinet meeting, where she was abruptly called into the President's office. Minutes later, she emerged, silently gathered her bag and papers, and walked out without a word.

That same day, Amin announced to the nation that he had fired his Foreign Minister for "embarrassing" him.

His justification was that she had engaged in a sexual encounter with a white man in an airport bathroom in Paris, on her way home from New York.

By February 1975, with her safety no longer guaranteed, Bagaya fled Uganda for Kenya, then onward to Vienna, Austria, before finally settling in London.

Idi Amin: The 'icon of evil' and 'butcher of Africa' who carried a 42-words-long title

A woman who had briefly held one of the highest offices in her country, undone not by scandal, but by her refusal to be caught.

Her story remains one of the more remarkable footnotes of Amin's regime: a princess, lawyer and model who wielded intellect and grace and lived to tell the tale most of Amin's other victims never could.

@onesmasjb

♬ original sound - Onesmas JB