Juma Abdalla Oris was born in northern Uganda, and was an ethnic Nubian. He was a Muslim. He received only minimal education, and eventually joined the Uganda Army, becoming a high-ranking colonel by the early 1970s. Following the 1971 Ugandan coup d'état, he rose to one of the leading figures in Idi Amin's government. He first became acting foreign minister, and was appointed full foreign minister on 25 May 1975. He stayed in this position until 1978, while also serving as Minister of Information and Broadcasting. Following his takeover of the Information Ministry, a series of new directives and restrictions were handed down to the news industry. All newspapers had to print Amin's statements in full, and Radio Uganda and Uganda Television had to transmit them in full. In addition to this, the latter two had to open and close every broadcast with a daily national prayer. Oris also sharply criticised Uganda's two private newspapers, "Munno" and "Taifa", for supposedly conveying false information about Amin because they were not printing the same stories as the government daily, the "Voice of Uganda". He was regarded as follower of Vice President Mustafa Adrisi. Oris was fired from his ministerial portfolios by Amin in 1978, probably as part of a political purge following Adrisi's removal from power.