How Amin announced plan to return Muteesa’s remains

Mr Sebastian Kitayimbwa during the interview at his home in Ntete Lwebitakuli, Sembabule District.

PHOTO BY HENRY LUBEGA

What you need to know:

  • Witness special. On November 22, 1969, news begun to filter in that exiled king of Buganda Kabaka Edward Muteesa had passed on in London. He had died in his flat from what an autopsy report called “acute alcohol poisoning”, though others suspected he was poisoned by former president Milton Obote’s agent. On December 3, 1969, Muteesa was temporarily buried at Kensal Rise cemetery in London, but soon after overthrowing Obote’s government, president Idi Amin announced plans to return Muteesa’s remains to Uganda. In the first part of our five-part series, Sebastian Kitayimbwa tells Henry Lubega how Amin broke the news.

I was still recovering from the excitement of being released from jail where I had spent five years as one of the officials of Buganda Kingdom jailed after the 1966 Crisis.
A meeting was called in Kampala [by former president Idi Amin] for former Buganda Kingdom officials. We were now being referred to as the Bataka ba Buganda.

We went for the meeting without knowing the agenda. By then he [Amin] had not shown his true colours. The last thing we had in our minds was the announcement of the return of the remains of Sir Edward Muteesa.
We were invited to the Parliament Building; we all assembled early enough and waited up to around midday when he showed up.

The meeting, which lasted for about three hours, was characterised by tension. It was not until he announced the decision to return the body that many of us felt relaxed.

He started the meeting by explaining to us why he had overthrown the Milton Obote regime, saying Obote had bad behaviours towards the people of Uganda. He went ahead to say they as soldiers were being used by Obote to do bad things to the people of Uganda against their will.

When he told us that he was going to return Muteesa’s remains, there was ululation, clapping, handshaking and hugging among the Bataka ba Buganda in attendance.
Amin went on to say there was no reason as to why the body should not be brought back home and be buried at his ancestral home.

He went on to tell us that despite the disagreement that came between him and the late Muteesa, the former kabaka was his master and they had a good working relationship.
During the meeting, he explained the good that Muteesa had done for people outside Buganda and how he welcomed them into Buganda.

He went ahead and announced the dates during which the body was to be returned and he declared days of mourning which were also declared public holidays.
A committee to oversee the preparations for the return of the remains was put in place. He also told us to go ahead and plan for our traditional functions related to the burial of the kabaka.

Amin went on to advise us not to let Prince Ronald Mutebi stay in Uganda. He said in case anything happened to him, ‘people would blame me, when I don’t know who has done it’.

Following that meeting, we as the Bataka agreed with the proposal and from within us a committee was selected to start the preparation for the return of the remains. Several meetings were held, though I was not part of them.
When the body returned on March 29, 1971, I went to pay my last respect to my king whom I loved so much and had risked my life for.

Seeing him in the glass casket at Namirembe and Bamunanika was very painful, considering what I went through to see him get out of the country after the attack on his palace. I was imprisoned because of helping him go to exile.”

Continues next Sunday