Aftermath of 1975 OAU summit rally and torture of a citizen by Amin’s men

With the change in time zone, where Kigali is one hour behind Kampala’s East African Standard Time, we salvaged an extra hour of sleep. 

In the morning, after all cars had left Kigali and I had filed another report about the start of the second leg of the rally, we set off for Kampala. We made a stopover at the Agip Motel in Mbarara, run by an Italian couple, where we had lunch.

I was particularly keen to have lunch at the Agip because when I was at secondary school, I had often accompanied my nieces Julia and Margaret to Kabale Preparatory School and we often stopped over at the Agip where they made excellent mouth-watering Lasagne and Pizza. 

When we hit the road again, Jimmy Dean sent me a message that it had been arranged with Field Marshall Idi Amin that he would re-join the rally from Masaka to Kampala so I should inform them when I got to Masaka about the departures of the rally cars.

Amin declared winner

The Field Marshall got his head start in Masaka, and his was the first car to arrive on the finishing ramp in Kampala. He was declared winner together with his co-driver, his newly wedded wife Sarah Kyolaba Amin.

While all this tomfoolery by Amin was going on, the disappearance, killings and torture of people continued unabated. After Amin had chased away the Asian population, and handed over their businesses to the Africans, there were some Ugandans who still did not want to see anything being run by some of the few Asians that remained. 

The Deans, although of Pakistani extract, had a Ugandan mother from Mbale District. So, some elements from the Uganda Motor Club had started making life difficult for Gulamhussein Dean. He had been operating a firefighting equipment store but had got fed up with life in Uganda. 

He, therefore, planned to leave Uganda and settle in the United Kingdom. When his adversaries at the Uganda Motor Club heard about his intended departure, they informed the security agencies that Gulam Dean wanted to flee the country with all the money from the OAU motor rally.

On the night of Gulam’s departure, Jimmy invited his friends to his house in Ggaba, Kampala, to share a meal and a drink with Gulam before we took him to the airport. 

We watched Gulam board the Sabena Belgian Airlines flight to Brussels and waved to him. Soon after he entered the plane, a group of men wearing dark goggles rushed up the staircase into the plane and dragged Gulam out and off the plane. 

They shoved him into the back of a UVS car, waiting on the tarmac and drove off at break neck speed. We could not believe what was unfolding before our very own eyes. 

“What had Gulam done?” we asked ourselves. 

We looked at each other, astounded and knew that we had to act fast. We needed to get to a telephone and start calling all the people who could help us trace Gulam. The following day, we established that he had been taken to the Police Public Safety Unit, headed by the dreaded Ali Towili and his equally dreaded deputy, Kassim Obura, at Naguru in eastern Kampala. They were infamous for torturing people, using some of the most gruesome means.

After about a week of mounting enormous pressure, Gulam was released and went to stay with his brother Jimmy. When I went to see him he removed his clothes and told me, “Emmanuel, look at what they have done to me.” 

Thick lines of flesh

His back had thick lines of flesh that looked like it had been roasted where they had beaten him with the rolled leather whip of hippopotamus hide. 

“They tortured me, caned me and wanted to know where I had put the money from the OAU motor rally.” 

Gulam was booked onto another Sabena flight, and again we religiously accompanied him to the airport, apprehensive that he would again be taken off the flight. We watched the plane taxi along the runway and were so relieved when it eventually took off. 

Gulam was never to step on Ugandan soil again, until May 2001, when he came for the burial of his brother, Jimmy Dean.

Kassim Obura became Inspector General of Police but when Amin’s government fell, he was tried, sentenced to death and executed in March 1989, with two other killers, after President Museveni signed their death warrants. 

Ali Towelli escaped to Kenya and is believed to have never come back to Uganda. An official of the Uganda Motor Club who had been the architect of the intrigue against Gulam Dean was tried for involvement in shady trade deals and was sent to the coolers at Luzira Maximum Security Prison, where he spent several years. 

In spite of our history, there are men in police and military uniform today in Uganda, in the 21st Century, who torture, humiliate, maim and kill their victims in broad daylight, believing they serve, an earthly, everlasting kingdom.