By Sam Obbo
The video clip, featuring the former Security Minister, Chris Rwakasisi, on the Mwiri and WhatsApp group, has reminded me of the Obote II days. Warning: this is a long post but perhaps worth reading.
– By early 1981, I was a student at then govt-owned Uganda School of Journalism, at the current Uganda Management Institute (UMI).
– At the time, it was known as the Institute of Public Administration or IPA.
– Soon after Museveni’s bush war commenced, in Feb 1981, we witnessed a spectacle, during one evening.
– At about 8.00p.m., we were in the ground level social club, playing table tennis, when we heard staccato gunfire and shouting. Some folks, from different courses, were either playing a game of darts or enjoying kaboozi at the indoor circular counter.
– The gun shots emanated from less than 10 meters away.
– Before a brick or 9×9 cement blocks wall was erected, it’s only a chain link fence that separated IPA from the Jinja Road Police Station.
– Inevitably, all of us were alarmed. We scampered to the safety of our individual rooms.
– One course mate, Ben Ochan, who had been ‘benching’ in the female wing — to the right of the dining hall entrance — reacted a bit late.
– Nonetheless, when sense prevailed, he ran towards the dining room and further down the stairs so that he could access his room via the wing for males.
– As he descended down the stairs, from the dining room, he came face to face with a very scared fellow who was bare chested.
– The fellow — who, days later, got identified as Jim Muhwezi, was sprinting up the stairs.
– He grabbed Ochan and begged: “Brother, help me; they are after me.”
– At the time, IPA or UMI was not as crowded as it is today. We, virtually, knew most of the residents’ faces.
– Alarmed, Ochan asked: “Who are you and who is after you?”.
– Realising that Ochan was more of an obstacle than a solution to his predicament, Muhwezi grabbed Ochan; pushed him down and sprinted upstairs — towards the females’ wing.
– After regaining his composure, Ochan ran to the males’ wing.
– By that time, the gunfire had ceased.
– Now, by coincidence, three UNLA soldiers had been forced onto the Journalism course, by the State.
– The three were: Private Alex Omara, a blood thirsty chap who hailed from Lango; Private Morris Obina; a very humble and friendly chap that hailed from the Acholi region and Sgt. Lule; a somewhat crazy but very friendly and decent Muganda chap.
The latter had fought alongside the Kikosi Maluum guerrilla force and the Tanzanian Defence forces that toppled Idi Amin, in April 1979.
– Ochan knocked at each of our doors and recounted what he had witnessed.
– Mean time, the soldiers had established that some of Museveni’s Popular Resistance Army (PRA) guerrillas who had been arrested, days earlier, and locked up at Jinja Road Police Station had escaped — but not before shooting some policemen dead.
– NB: A day later, it was established that the three guerrillas who had initially belonged to a group of degree holding ASP officers (and had trained as Police cadets in Tanzania, in 1980) had planned and executed the daring escape.
– The three were: Jim Muhwezi, David Tinyefuza aka Sejusa and another whose identity I never established.
– Earlier on that day, their friends had connived with a friendly cop and smuggled a pistol into the cells.
– It was hidden in a mound of cooked matooke, plus beef.
– In the evening, the renegades complained to fellow policemen that the heat in the cells was unbearable.
– They requested to be temporarily allowed to breathe in fresh air, outside the cells.
– However, no sooner was their request granted, at about 8.00p.m., than one of them used the pistol to shoot their captors.
– In the ensuing confusion, each of the guerrillas ran off into a different direction.
– Muhwezi opted for IPA or UMI as a safe haven.
– Back to what unfolded on that night:
– Our soldier classmates put on their uniforms; slung their AK 47s on their shoulders; forced all of us from our individual rooms; and ordered us to walk behind them as they searched for the lone guerrilla that was hiding in IPA or UMI.
– All of us were very scared. Following Ochan’s tip, they marched towards the female wing — with us in tow.
– They kicked doors and ordered the females out of their rooms; and made a search.
– On that night, God spared Muhwezi’s life. When the soldiers forced the occupant of the room that was next to where Muhwezi was hiding, the woman raised hell.
– She was a Musoga lady, called Ruth Mpatawuwa, our lecturer for Sociology.
– The soldiers forced her out of her room when she was in a ‘see through night dress’.
– Incensed, she shouted at the top of her voice: “Even if you are soldiers, you must accord me some respect. How can you, my students humiliate me to this extent?”
– Thankfully, the soldiers were intimidated.
– They apologized to her and declared the search over.
– Muhwezi was in the very next room, which was inhabited by his cousin, Ms Hope Kivengere.
– At the time, the ever friendly Hope was a lecturer of students pursuing certificate and diploma courses in the French language.
– Very early in the morning, at about 6. 00a.m, Hope lent a blouse, clean pair of trousers and a wig to Muhwezi.
– He confidently walked down the stairs, headed towards the upper gate and headed to safety.
– Unfortunately, for Hope, one chap, who was pursuing a post graduate diploma in Public Administration, saw Muhwezi walking out of IPA. Besides recognizing Hope’s blouse and pair of trousers, he also deciphered that whoever was putting on the attire alluded to was definitely not Hope Kivengere.
– He alerted the soldiers.
– Enraged, they arrested Hope. Thankfully, they didn’t shoot her dead.
– They called for backup. Within less than 15 minutes, UC and UNLA vehicles showed up.
– She was driven to the then notorious Nile Mansions (Serena) Hotel for interrogation.
– She was tortured for about two weeks as her father, the late Bishop Festo Kivengere (of Kigezi Diocese) begged President Obote to spare her life.
– What we gathered later was that while Obote sympathized with the Bishop, the Internal Affairs Minister, Dr Micloth John Luwuliza Kirunda was vehemently opposed. He, allegedly, demanded that Hope be severely dealt with.
– Fortunately for her, Obote was more sympathetic. She was pardoned and released.
– She, immediately, fled into exile — where she served in the NRM/NRA’s information wing.
– After January 1986, she resurfaced as President Museveni’s Press Secretary.
– Muhwezi resurfaced as a very senior NRA officer and Head of the Internal Security Organisation.
– Prior to all that, in 1981, the Sociology lecturer, Ruth Mpatawuwa, resented all of us in her class — and yet most of us — non soldiers — had been forced onto the search!
– Since we left IPA, I’ve neither chanced upon nor heard about her.
– That aside, one of those soldier classmates, Omara, was a ruthless killer! All of us, including lecturers and students pursuing other courses were ever scared of him.
– At least once every two weeks, he would announce thus, to whoever care to listen: “Shh, I feel like killing”!
– He would then order one of our classmates — a fellow that hailed from Teso region — to accompany him on a waragi and beer drinking spree, in Nakawa or Naguru.
– This Muteso chap narrated to us, constantly, that whenever they walked back to IPA, Omara — who had a navy blue pistol — would always shoot the very person that they met along the way! He was the devil incarnate!
– He would then announce to whoever cared to listen: “Yeah, I feel much better”!
– After our course, Obote’s government promoted those soldiers to the rank of Lt.
– Obina and Lule were deployed to serve in the UNLA’s ‘Mkombozi’ magazine — which has since been replaced by ‘Tarehe Sita.’
– Since we left IPA, I’ve never seen or heard about Omara.
– Lt. Obina served in Mkombozi magazine till Obote and Gen. Lutwa governments were toppled. I gather that Obina died. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
