AUDIO:I attempted to kill Obote
Dan Kamaanyi was pardoned in 1971 to bury Kabaka Muteesa but he was taken back to Luzira prisons during Obote II until his fall in 1985. Photo by Henry Lubega
Despite the state of emergency in Buganda after the Lubiri attack, a group of five Baganda nationalists were not deterred from planning to eliminate president Milton Obote just a few months after the attack. Dan Kamaanyi was among them.
After the failed attempt he was first arrested for illegal possession of arms before being sentenced to life for attempted murder. Pardoned in 1971 to bury Kabaka Muteesa, he was taken back to Luzira during Obote II until his fall in 1985.
“After fleeing the palace, Kabaka Muteesa went to Rubaga Cathedral before going to Augustine Musoke’s home from where he dismissed his guards except Malo and Katende. I collected the guns from the dismissed guards and kept them. It was those guns and others that were used in the plot to eliminate Obote. He was very elusive to get not until we learnt that he was going to pass out prison officers in Luzira.
We immediately planned and we got a spot at a place called Kusabuni. We camped there early; our plan was to hit him as early as we see him.
We didn’t see his convoy going, we only heard on radio that he was already there. The boys decided to wait. Around 9pm he had not come back and I suggested we abandon the mission, the rest insisted not to.
Around midnight we heard the siren of the police lead car coming and we got in position. As the convoy reached the target area we opened fire. We didn’t know it was vice president John Babiha’s convoy, Obote had passed quietly. We opened fire and fled the scene thereafter. We sprinkled crushed pepper around the place to stop police sniffer dogs trailing us.
Surprise visit
Following that attack, government started investigations until when they got me. The evening they arrested me everything was normal as I drove home from work in Industrial Area. As I got home I noticed a Land Rover parked near my home but did not pay much attention to it.
In the compound there was nothing strange. In the house I found security agents had ransacked the house collecting all documents on Buganda government where my father had been a minister.
There were no guns in the house, but when they searched the chicken pen, they found rounds of ammunitions and several pistols. That is when I realised that the entire backyard had been surrounded by armed men who combed the whole backyard.
My father had a farm in Kyaliwajala were I had hidden other guns. He didn’t know of their existence though my mother did, so much so that when she learnt of my arrest she threw them in the cattle dip and she left the farm.
That night, I was taken to the farm and it was sealed off, my father was also arrested. In the morning, they brought police trainees from Naguru to carry out the search. It was after they had brought a fire brigade truck to empty the dip that they found the guns.
With the guns found my father and I were charged with illegal possession of guns and sentenced to six years in jail. While serving my term, it was found out that the cartridges recovered from the scene of attack in 1966 matched those of the guns recovered from the farm.
I was again charged for attempted murder and sentenced to life in 1968. I was represented by Hunt and Gregg Advocates who appealed to the East African Court of Justice, which also upheld the sentence. My father only served two of the six years and he was released.
Hope amidst grief
When Idi Amin allowed the return of Muteesa’s remains, he was at a Mawuledi (Islamic festival) when Prince Badru Kakungulu and his team, thanked him, and asked him to allow me bid farewell to Muteesa. He asked who I was and why I was in prison. On hearing my plight he agreed to release me.
It was after lock up time in the upper prisons when a warder came shouting my name. He took me to the commissioner general’s office. The commissioner general immediately started congratulating me. He had already ordered for my clothes to be ironed, and he told the OC prisons to drive me to Makindye State Lodge where Amin had ordered me to be taken.
At the state lodge there were many delegates who had come for Muteesa’s burial. Amin directed I be taken to the army officer’s mess to wait for him. After a short wait at the Officer’s mess Amin came.
Among those waiting was attorney general Nkambo Mugerwa who had prepared the release papers Amin was to sign.
When Amin came he called me first, and he said ‘Nze tade gwe todayo kukola mubi yena, bakitwale Bamunanika’ loosely translated as ‘I have released you but don’t commit crime again, you should now be taken to Bamunanika’. I was driven by the prisons people to Bamunanika on orders that I should be taken to the people to prove that I had been released. It was around 10pm when we left the officers mess.
Last respects
At the palace, I was allowed to walk to the casket with the soldiers escorting me and I paid my last respects to Muteesa. It was a very hard moment to see my king whom a few years ago I had driven out of Kampala as he escaped from the palace dead in a casket. I had risked my life to save him only for him to meet his death where he sought safety.
As I was walking away one of my aunties who had known of my imprisonment approached Kigonya then commissioner of prisons and requested to talk to me thinking I was still a prisoner. That’s when Kigonya announced my release.
After the burial, I went back to my old work place in Industrial Area and was given back my job. However, when Obote returned to power I was scared, thinking he may come for me again. It was not until the rebellion started in 1982 that I was picked up from office in Industrial Area and taken back to Luzira.
I stayed there without trial until Obote was overthrown. I was released with many others, we were driven to City Square in prisons lorries, from there I walked back home to Lungujja.
Getting caught
Following that attack, government started investigations until when they got me. The evening they arrested me everything was normal as I drove home from work in Industrial Area. As I got home I noticed a Land Rover parked near my home but did not pay much attention to it. In the compound, there was nothing strange. In the house, I found security agents had ransacked the house collecting all documents on Buganda government where my father had been a minister. There were no guns in the house, but when they searched the chicken pen, they found rounds of ammunitions and several pistols.
