Amin operatives kill journalist over being critical of government

Soon after the coup that brought him to power in 1971, former president Idi Amin endeared himself to different interest groups.

The release of political prisoners made him a darling of many. He hosted different interest groups and promised to right the wrongs of the ousted Milton Obote regime. Among the groups he met were the journalist who he praised for exposing the wrongs of the Obote regime.

Among the journalist he met was Fr Clement Kiggundu, the editor of the Catholic Church-owned Luganda newspaper, Munno. During the meeting with journalists, Amin pointed out Fr Kiggundu and Munno for the job they did in exposing the excesses of Obote. Amin rewarded Kiggundu with a bull for a job well done.

According to Munno of March 13, 1971, Kiggundu replied to Amin, saying: “the relative tolerance under Obote’s regime allowed me to expose his abuses. I hope and pray that you will be much better than he was.”

Unfortunately for the American-trained journalist, he did not know that Amin would not take any form of criticism as the previous government did.

Munno reported on the purge within the military, the detention of civilians in military barracks and disappearance of innocent civilians.

His alleged crimes
When the deadline for the expelled Asians to leave the country reached, they left the country in thousands. Munno was the only media house that did not praise the government for expelling the Asians. Radio Uganda, the only radio station then, praised Amin for the bold move.

In defence of the expelled Asians, Kiggundu insisted that all those expelled were not only businessmen, but they included women, children and the elderly.
“It is like in South Africa,” said Munno in their publication of November 9, 1972, in reference to the apartheid system.
It was also believed that besides criticism of the expulsion of Asians, Amin was annoyed with the newspaper’s publication of a litany of complaints by women whose husbands had disappeared without trace.

The women organised a meeting in Kampala in November 1972. During the meeting, they accused the government of kidnapping their husbands and taking them to unknown places. Others were discovered dead while those whose freedom was bought were found tortured.

During that meeting, the women appealed to government to stop arresting and torturing innocent civilians. They also asked the authorities to release those in captivity.
Government media outlets such as Radio Uganda and the Uganda Argus newspaper shunned the meeting and never gave it publicity. Munno stepped in and gave the women’s concerns prominence. This was the Munno editor-in-chief’s undoing.
A caution is said to have come from the Office of the President stopping the newspaper from writing about allegations such as of people disappearing.
Unfortunately, Fr Kiggundu stood his ground and felt the voice of those affected by the excesses of the government needed to be heard.

Final moments
On Friday January 12, 1973, while at his office in Kampala, according to records at the archive centre of Rubaga Cathedral, Fr Kiggundu is said to have received a phone call. The caller asked to meet him in town.

Records show that he left office alone, leaving his driver behind. Kiggundu told his workmates that he was going to meet someone in town, although he never stated who exactly he was going to meet or where in town.

While on Jean-Bédel Bokassa Street (now Luwum Street) he was intercepted by people believed to have been agents of the dreaded State Research Bureau (SRB).

Kiggundu was pulled out of his car, a red Peugeot 404 registration number UUS-719, put in the boot and the men drove off.
The next morning, Kiggundu’s driver called the priest’s residence in Kisubi on Entebbe Road, only to be told by another priest that Fr Kiggundu did not return home.

Given the prevailing situation where people where disappearing, his colleagues at Munno started making calls to different places, asking about the Father’s whereabouts.
Among those called was the Archbishop of Kampala at Rubaga, Emanuel Nsubuga. Fr Kiggundu was nowhere to be found.
According to Musizi, a Luganda magazine, a priest friend of Kiggundu is quoted saying a day before his disappearance the Father had visited him at Lweza and told him, “I feel that they are pursuing me now, they are about to take me.”
Around the time Kiggundu disappeared, several prominent people such as Jolly Joe Kiwanuka, Paul Bitature and Kalema had been killed.
On the third day after his disappearance, there was an anonymous call to the Munno offices in Kampala in the afternoon. The caller told the people in the office that Fr Kiggundu’s car was spotted in Namanve.

Then Namanve was a notorious place. People with missing relatives known to have been arrested or kidnapped by the dreaded SRB would go there with the hope of recovering the bodies.

Immediately after the call, Simon Mwebe, the paper’s deputy editor, and other employees went to Namanve.
Fr Kiggundu’s burnt car was found and close by was a charred body. With the help of a partly burnt clerical collar around his neck, they were able to identify him. Also part of one of his shoes was not completely burnt.
Archives at Rubaga indicate that upon the discovery of the body, Mwebe contacted a government official and informed him of the death of the priest and how he was killed.

Instead, the government official cautioned Mwebe not to reveal the exact cause of death for his own safety. Mwebe was advised to say “Fr Kiggundu died of natural causes” to protect himself.

From Namanve, his body was taken to Mulago hospital for a post-mortem. The report showed that before his body was burnt, the priest had been strangled by his killers. Fr Kiggundu was buried at the Rubaga Cathedral cemetery.

During his burial, all those who eulogised Kiggundu praised him as a defender of the truth.

In his message, then Archbishop of Kampala Emmanuel Nsubuga praised Kiggundu as “a courageous man who was always ready to die in defence of the truth”.

Munno newspaper, which was founded by the Catholic Church, first hit the streets on January 1, 1911. This was 11 years after the government had started Mengo Notes, later named Uganda Notes, which was the first newspaper in the country.
Munno newspaper closed shop in 1996 after 85 years of witnessing Uganda’s history.

EXPULSION
When the deadline for the expelled Asians to leave the country reached, they left the country in thousands. Munno was the only media house that did not praise the government for expelling the Asians. Radio Uganda, the only radio station then, praised Amin for the bold move. In defence of the expelled Asians, Kiggundu insisted that all those expelled were not only businessmen, but they included women, children and the elderly.