In February 1977, Oryema, together with Archbishop Janani Luwum and Interior Minister Charles Oboth Ofumbi, is generally accepted as having been murdered by the security forces of the government of President Idi Amin.
In 1935 he graduated from Buwalasi Teacher Training College in Mbale, after which he was posted to Gulu Primary School in Northern Uganda.
He was born in 1917 to Victoria Abum Daramoi, daughter of a blacksmith, Dwoka Adat, and Owiny Okoli of the Payira (Northern Uganda).
They had 11 children: Gertrude, Mary, Joyce, William, Henry, Pamela, Betty, John, Irene, Anna, and Geoffrey, who went on to become an internationally renowned musician.
In February 1977, Oryema, together with Archbishop Janani Luwum and Interior Minister Charles Oboth Ofumbi were arrested for an alleged coup attempt and died shortly after.
[2] However, Henry Kyemba, Minister of Health in Amin's government, later wrote in his book A State of Blood, that "The bodies were bullet-riddled.