Henry Kyemba: How I fled from Idi Amin regime

Series. In the last 50 years of Uganda as a sovereign independent state, there have been five major waves of political exile – in 1966 after the attack on Lubiri, in 1971 following Obote’s overthrow, in 1979 after Amin’s fall, in 1985 following Obote’s second fall and in 1986 when NRA came to town. In between these flash-points, however, many Ugandans have still been forced to flee to exile due to political factors.

But fleeing one’s homeland was never easy both emotionally and in terms of planning. Many things could go wrong, but many did make it to safety abroad

This may have caused suspicion why I had not travelled with my wife and why she had caught the plane in Nairobi and not Entebbe. As soon as I arrived in Geneva, Amin called me telling me he had heard rumors that I had run away. He said: “These imperialists say you have run away, they are telling stories that you are not coming back.”

And I told him I had just been elected the vice chairman of the World Health Organisation. I asked him if he did not want me to represent the country and I come back, and he said: “No you are doing a good job, continue.” But by that time, I had been informed that my second wife had been arrested and taken to Gaddafi barracks.

When he [Amin] didn’t ask me to speak to my wife on phone confirmed my fears that she had been arrested. My house was turned into another of his military property for some time as my young children were subjected to military harassment with their auntie who had stayed behind as the care giver when their mother was taken away.

I will be ever grateful to ambassador Akisoferi Ogola, Uganda’s ambassador to Geneva at that time. He was sent to spy on me, and he came and told me exactly what he had been told to do. He told me he could not report back home about me since he knew what could befall me when I went back.

During the two weeks I stayed in Geneva, I was buying time to have my children and their mother escape to Nairobi. After a week in custody at Gaddafi barracks, my wife was released and she went back to her job at Jinja Hospital in Walukuba.
One night, they were picked from home and driven to the border under the cover of the night. Once in Kisumu, the team responsible informed me that the family had safely crossed to Kenya. That’s when I left Geneva and headed for London.

Life in Exile
It was in May 1977 when I started a new life in exile in London. My brother Nabeta had already got there and had secured a flat. Amin got to know about my not returning after being approached by Harold Evans, then editor of the Sunday Times, asking me to write a series of articles about my experience working with Amin.

Evans gave me a journalist, Russel Miller, with whom I worked with to do the series. It’s in one of these articles that I came out to say I had left the government. When the articles were well received, I decided to write a book about the regime. I presented the book to the UN and all the UN ambassadors received a copy. I even sent one to Amin through Uganda’s ambassador to the UN.

I moved to the US and by 1979 when the Amin government was overthrown, I was at North Western University of Evanstone doing a masters in History. When I heard of the news, I immediately made arrangements to return home.

I got home when Lule had just been overthrown. I kept a low profile all through the Godfrey Binaisa, Paulo Muwanga, Obote II, and Tito Okello regimes.

When the National Resistance Army took over power in 1986 and started the National Resistance Council elections, I was first asked by my neighbours to stand as the RCI and I evolved from there to get up to the NRC from where I was spotted by President Museveni to be appointed state minister for Animal husbandry.