By Aggrey Baba
In one of the quiet corners of Busoga, Iganga district, an elderly man is revisiting a story he says has followed him for more than 40 years (a story of a bicycle, a gun, and the early days of the bush war that gave shape to Uganda’s political history).
According to reporting by journalist Ryman Agaba of the New Vision, the account comes from Hussein Batambula, 78, a resident of Nabisere village in Nakalama parish, who says his life was permanently altered in December 1981 at Bukona trading centre in Kakongoka B parish.
The old man says the trading centre was lively that evening, with villagers gathered after work, talking, drinking and preparing to return home. He had arrived on his bicycle, which he describes as his main means of transport and livelihood.
He recalls that the atmosphere changed abruptly when rumours spread that armed rebels had been sighted nearby. Within minutes, tension replaced the usual evening noise.
Shortly after, Batambula says a man approached him and demanded the bicycle, telling him it would be picked from a police station in another trading centre. He says he refused, questioning the demand, something which escalated the situation immediately. The man allegedly pulled out a small gun (pistol) sending people fleeing in panic and leaving Batambula alone, and faced with the gun, forcing him to surrender his most treasured asset (the bicycle).
As the man attempted to ride away, Batambula says he raised an alarm which forced the man to stop, raising the gun and firing two shots into the air, triggering further panic among those who were still nearby and those who had attempted to return and rescue a colleague.
He says the man then rode off with the bicycle and disappeared into the night.
Batambula says the identity of the armed man only became clearer to him years later after hearing President Museveni publicly narrate an incident involving the taking of a bicycle from a man in Iganga during the bush war (a description he says closely mirrors his experience).
Since then, he says he has pursued clarification through different government offices, hoping for acknowledgement or redress. However, those efforts have not yielded results.
He also claims that at times he was approached by individuals who promised to connect him to senior offices in exchange for money, but nothing materialized.
In recent years, his account has drawn renewed attention as officials linked to the Office of the National Chairman (ONC) reportedly visiting him in Iganga after hearing of his story. The team, including Yusuf Kiganda, Ibrahim Ekupo and Muwanda Kibirango, is said to have indicated that his narration could align with previously public references to the same incident.
For Batambula, the visit has renewed a sense of hope that his long-standing claim may finally be receiving attention.
He now lives quietly with his family in Nabusere, but says the memory of that evening has never faded.
He describes the bicycle as more than property (calling it his mother and father, that supported his daily survival) and its loss as a turning point that changed his economic path.
More than 40 years later, Batambula says the story remains unresolved in his memory, even as the country’s history has long moved on. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
