NRM BUSH WAR MEMORIES: Untold story of the Mukono bush war

The Mukono-Namugongo operations did a lot of havoc to the army, but it is one of the fighting units least written or talked about.

Consolidating in Luwero

In December 1981, Mzee Museveni came back from Nairobi where he had been since June organizing reinforcements in Libya and other places. You probably heard about the story when Obote’s soldiers were arresting anyone with jeans and canvass shoes. This is because that is what Museveni returned wearing from Nairobi.

Someone in Nairobi had leaked the information to government. But Museveni’s group were helped by Al Hajji Moses Kigongo to sneak through Kampala and join us in Luwero.

During that time, the government forces had stepped up their offensive and had flushed us out of the Namugongo area. We had all run to join our colleagues operating in the Matugga area. Actually the day after Mzee joined us on December 10, 1981, the UNLA had apparently got the information and launched a massive attach on us very early in the morning. They actually forced us out of the Matugga area and we moved towards Semuto.

Narrow escape

One day towards the end of 1982, Mzee sent me to withdraw a machine gun we had placed in a certain area. I was riding on his brand new Raleigh bicycle when I fell in an ambush near Bulamba primary school in Makulubita sub-county, Luwero district.

An enemy soldier stopped me and shouted in Kiswahili: “Wewe, leta siraha hapa” (You, surrender that gun). One man held me as the other tried to take the gun from me. I then applied my commando tactics and carried the one holding me at the back and used him to hit the one in front. I then ran with my gun as they pursued me. They could not immediately shoot because their colleagues were pursuing me. I outran them and survived a hail of bullets that followed.

Later, one of our boys who had somehow seen me fighting with the enemy reported to Mzee that I had been captured. Normal practice was that if someone was captured, then we had to move for fear the enemy would use the captive to trace us. I slept in the bush and later located them. Mzee was pleasantly surprised to see me.

Memorable success

After the Bulamba narrow escape, I on Feb.13, 1983, led a force, which went to hit the UNLA detach at Nakaseke hospital. We had camped in a forest at Kanyanda. At daybreak, we matched and hit the army detach and proceeded to take over the hospital.

You probably have heard about Lt. Col. Ronald Batta, who died recently, and Maj. Ondoga ori Amaza, who also died. Ondoga is the author of Museveni’s Long March: From Guerrilla to Statesman and was one of the medical technicians with Dr. Batta. I got Dr. Batta that same day and took him to the bush together with all his nurses and medicine. Among the nurses was Mrs Maria Batta, who later became a serving officer in the army.

We also captured a lorry and later Maj. Kizito Kyamufumba (RIP) drove us to our base. That operation was a major success because we now had medical personnel and lots of medicine.

Fighting two enemies

I consider the whole of 1983 to be the most difficult phase for us. During this time, the enemy launched a massive attack on us. The first major enemy was the UNLA, while the second was hunger. Bulemezi is a scarcely populated area with mainly pastoralists and therefore food is hard to come by.