Career
Akii-Bua began his career as a hurdler on the short distance but he did not manage to qualify for the 1968 Summer Olympics.Akii-Bua finished 4th in the 1970 Commonwealth Games. At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich he was not considered to be a favorite, but, nevertheless, Akii-Bua won the race and , what is more, he set a world record time of 47.82 seconds.Unfortunetely, Akii-Bua had to miss the 1976 Olympics due to a boycott by African nations including Uganda. However, in 1980 he came back to the Olympic arena but did not manage to move on from his semi-final.Ugandan president Idi Amin gave a house to the athlete as a reward for his athletic achievements. After the collapse of Amin's regime, Akii-Bua was forced to escape because of the fear of being considered as a collaborator.
He was put into a refugee camp in Kenya but was freed by his shoe-manufacturer Puma and lived in Germany collaborating with Puma for 3–4 years. Later he came back to Uganda and became a coach.