Life as wife of an NRA fighter

Ms Elizabeth Maumbe. PHOTO BY FRED WAMBEDE

What you need to know:

  • Jack Maumbe Mukhwana, one of the founding members of the ruling National Resistance Movement party, died early last month and was buried in Mbale District.
  • This newspaper sat down with his widow, Ms Elizabeth Maumbe, to reflect on the life she shared with a man who was always at loggerheads with government until President Museveni took power in 1986. She gives insight into her incarceration at Makindye Barracks for three months in 1973 and narrow escape at her house in Malukhu Estate, writes Fred Wambede.

A month ago, the ruling National Resistance Movement party lost one of its founding members, Jack Maumbe Mukhwana, your husband. To begin with, what kind of person was he?
My husband was honest, principled and hardworking. Those values were embedded on my husband’s entire life. I believe that was also responsible for his political problems. If not in exile, he would be in prison. He was not willing to give up until he got what he wanted and that is why he lived a better part of his years on earth fighting and struggling for a better country.

On January 22, 1973, at your house on Plot 49, Malukhu Estate in Mbale Town, Idi Amin’s soldiers surrounded the house. It is said Mr Yoweri Museveni, his colleagues Mwesigwa Black, Wunku Mpima aka Kazimoto and another who was recently identified as Patrick Bukeni, were inside the house. What really happened?
It’s true, but I don’t want to be dragged further into it because it will be politicised. I request that we do not discuss such an issue. It has been well written about and details can be found in books that have been authored.

But what do you remember from events of that day?
I had just come back from school, North Road Primary School, where I was teaching then, and found them in the house. I was hungry, so Mr Museveni sent me out to buy sugar and bread. What happened after that, I hope you know everything.
(Editor’s note: Idi Amin’s soldiers surrounded the house and demanded the occupants, including Museveni, to move out and identify themselves. Museveni managed to flee. But two of his colleagues; Mwesigwa Black and Kazimoto, were not as lucky as they were killed in the ensuing gunfire. The third person, identified as Patrick Bukeni, managed to escape through the back door.)

Where there any other people in the house?
Yes, my two children.

Maumbe Mukhwana (left) and President Museveni. FILE PHOTO

Did the soldiers question them?
No, they were neither injured nor interrogated. The soldiers left them untouched and I also escaped uninjured. I even talked to the soldiers outside (before they interrogated her guests), little knowing that they would become violent.

Where was the late Maumbe during the attack?
He was not at home. He was out on his political voyages. He was always out on political missions, but that did not stop him from being a nice and caring husband.

Later in 1973, I am reliably informed, you were detained at Makindye Barracks for three months by the Amin government. Was it in relation to the Museveni incident at your house?
When Amin’s government failed to get my husband, who had then run to Tanzania, they decided to arrest his friends and relatives. Many were arrested, including the late Masaba Natalo, the late Yusufu Wadenga, my father and myself.
On that day, I was picked from my home in Malukhu Estate and transferred to Makindye Barracks. I was accused of marrying a rebel.

How were you treated and under what circumstances were you released?
Life in Makindye was hell on earth; you could not know whether you would live the next day. Soldiers used to kill people like rats. You could see a bunch of prisoners being brought in and the next day you would not see any of them.
Bathrooms and toilets were dirty and I used my hands to scoop faeces to unblock the toilets. That is the reason why the President [Museveni] refers to me as a steel woman.
But while in prison, some few soldiers were kind to me. They used to say, “Teacher, we will not kill you because you will have to go and teach our children.”
In April [1973], I was released on condition that I stay within the country and that if caught trying to run away to join my husband, I would be slaughtered.

What did you do next?
I decided not to go back to Mbale. I sought refuge in Kampala because I believed it was better to hide in the city since it is big and has many people. I had a cousin brother who helped me settle in Kampala. I lived in a single room in Old Mulago.
Later, I started teaching at Buganda Road Primary School. In 1976, I got chance to upgrade from Grade III teacher to Grade IV at Makerere University, graduating with a diploma in education in 1980. I started teaching at Shimon Teachers’ College in 1981.

And how many years did you spend without meeting your husband?
In 1973, he sought refuge in Tanzania up to 1980. He came back briefly following the overthrow of Amin’s regime. But after one year, he was again arrested and detained for five years by Obote’s government.
If our marriage was not built on strong love and deep understanding, it would have collapsed. I never at any point betrayed my husband.

Some of the grievances highlighted by NRA historical leaders, especially in Bugisu sub-region, are that the President has not helped them much despite their instrumental role in liberating this country. Is it the same for your case?
I do not want to discuss the President, but what I know is that he is a good servant because I have been in many governments under different leadership in this country. I can reliably say his government has done a lot.
They have lifted this country to where it Is now. We have improved health, education and infrastructure sectors, among others. There is freedom of speech than ever before. We have more girls in school and doing well compared to our days where we were curtailed by negative attitude and lack of government will toward girl-child education.

Your husband was part of a group under Fronasa that overthrew Idi Amin’s regime with the help of Tanzanian forces in 1979. He was even a member of the UPC Youth Wing in the Obote II government. Why was he sent to Luzira prison for five years?
The UPC government accused him of introducing Uganda Patriotic Movement party (UPM) in Bugisu sub-region and mobilising grassroots support for the party. He was arrested in 1981 and visiting him as prisoner was a tug of war.
Tito Okello, who freed all prisoners after taking over power, released him in 1985 following the overthrow of the Obote government.

But why did he change his mind and join UPM yet he was a staunch UPC cadre?
That is a difficult question, but what I can say is that my husband wanted a government that can maintain and sustain peace. That is what I can tell you, my son.

About Maumbe Mukhwana

Maumbe was among the first recruits into the Front for National Salvation (Fronasa), a rebel group started by Mr Museveni in the early 1970s to fight the Idi Amin’s government.
He was also a Member in the National Consultative Council (NCC) and a Deputy Minister of Information and Broadcasting.
Maumbe also served as Deputy Information minister in the Obote II government, Bungokho County MP and later Kumi and Pallisa RDC.