Uganda after 1986: Insurgencies in the north and east (Part One)

Long story. The subject of the war and various rebel uprisings in northern and northeastern Uganda requires a whole book by itself. Below is an account of what this war was really all about.

As was mentioned earlier in this series, in December 1985, the former president Milton Obote in a phone call from Lusaka, Zambia, to a senior UNLA officer, Brig. Lazarus Orwotho, warned the Gen. Tito-Okello government to do all it could to prevent Museveni from getting to power.

Obote’s warning
Obote warned that should the NRA rise to power, it would unleash a rampage of terror and destruction on northern and eastern Uganda.

The NRA’s initial counterinsurgency operations were led by the Deputy Army Commander, Fred Rwigyema, Chefe Ali, and Matayo Kyaligonza. These three commanders also led a major NRA land and air operation against rebels in northeastern Uganda starting in the first week of October 1987.

Rwigyema would return to Kampala from his duties in the north and settle before the TV set at his home along the KAR Drive in Kololo in Kampala. He would then put war film after war film in his video cassette player and spend all day doing little but watching these action films.

A friend watching this obsession with war and war films got concerned about Rwigyema. She asked if there was nothing else he could watch but war films. This was a man who had been fighting almost continuously since his days as a guerrilla in Museveni’s Fronasa in the mid 1970s.

The friend brought videos of the popular mid 1980s American television sitcom The Cosby Show in the hope that this might help Rwigyema not to lose his mind. Later, Rwigyema started to watch the Cosby Show a lot and even took to wearing sweaters like the main actor, Bill Cosby.

What Rwigyema and his fellow commanders were leading in Acholi and Teso was a sadistic campaign against the rebels and the civilian population that almost drove Rwigyema mad and to this day still haunts some commanders who took part in them.

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com

Continues tomorrow