Past and present: French book questions Museveni’s role in fighting Amin government

“There is a legend that Mr Museveni was already fighting Amin in the 1970s, but as far as I know, he was a teacher in Moshi [Tanzania] after the disastrous 1972 attack [on Mbarara],” said the Frenchman during the launch of the book on January 25, 1995.

Dr Gerard had been a teacher at St Mary’s College Kisubi but was forced to leave Uganda in the early 1970s after Amin took power. L’Ouganda Contemporain was the second book he had authored about Uganda.

According to the newspaper, the second book was about the Asian Question. The two publications served to portray him among the French as a leading authority on the history and other aspects of life in Uganda.

No response

Neither Mr Museveni nor members of his former guerrilla organisation, the Front for National Salvation (Fronasa) responded to the claims, which were a contradiction of some of the known facts about Mr Museveni’s role and attempts in the 1970s to wage a war against the Idi Amin government.

Details around the September 17, 1972, invasion by Ugandan fighting groups then exiled in Tanzania and the events that followed contradict the author.

As has been detailed in various publications, Mr Museveni was one of the 1,300 armed men who entered Uganda to effect what was meant to be a three-pronged attack that was meant to kick Gen Amin out of power.

It had been planned that about 100 men under the command of Maj Gen David Oyite-Ojok would be airlifted from Kilimanjaro Airport and launch a lightning attack on Entebbe Airport before marching on to Kampala. That part of the plan, however, aborted when the tyre of the plane, a DC-9 jet owned by the East African Airways piloted by Capt James Lalobo, burst.

Oyite-Ojok was then compelled to join the main group of about 1,300 fighters under the command of Gen Tito Okello Lutwa, that fought its way into Uganda via Mutukula border with a view of advancing to Masaka before making an onward march onto Kampala.

Museveni role

Museveni was part of the fighters who attacked Mbarara through Kyaka and Nshungyezi. The actual numbers of that group are the subject of a contest, but it included active members of Fronasa, the formation of which was announced early in 1973. The group of fighters on the Mbarara axis included Mwesigwa Black.

After registering a few successes, including against the Uganda Army (UA) at Kaberebere and Mbarata town, the sting was taken out of their attack at Nyamitobora Forest.

UA forces battered them, sending them into disarray. Some of them retreated into the forest from where they made their way back into Tanzania. Mr Museveni was among those that managed to find their way back into Tanzania. Many of their colleagues were not as lucky. They were captured and killed.

Trading blame

Former president Milton Obote and Museveni traded blame for having caused the debacle that the invasion turned out to be. He claimed that the Fronasa leader had lied to him about the presence of fighters in several Ugandan towns, including Mbarara and Kampala, who were meant to back up the invading force.

“When our troops advanced onto Mbarara Town, there was no Museveni army. The same applied when the troops advanced onto Masaka Town. On Mbarara’s side, only one person, the husband of Frank Mwine’s sister, joined our troops. Museveni had lied! Whether Museveni had an army at all, we never saw any,” Obote said in a 2004 interview with Andrew Mwenda.

The interview was conducted from Obote’s home in Lusaka, Zambia, where he lived in exile until his death in a South African hospital on October 10, 2005.

Mr Museveni, on his part, accused Obote of having misled the government of Tanzania into sanctioning the attack.

“My understanding was that Obote fed them with wrong information which gave them an impression that there was a large fifth column of his supporters within the Ugandan population at large, as well as within the army,” he wrote in Sowing of the Mustard Seed.

Guerrilla activity

Following the failed invasion, Mr Museveni attempted to set up rebel bases in several parts of the country. Most notable are the attempts to open up bases in Bugisu and Busoga sub-regions.

The forays into Bugisu culminated in the discovery by the army on January 15, 1973, of a guerrilla training camp in Mbale.

Rebel leader Museveni told British newspaper The Observer on February 4, 1973, that the camp belonged to Fronasa.

That activity in the region set the stage for the army’s invasion on January 22, 1973, of the home of the late Jack Maumbe Mukwana’s home in Maluku estate in Mbale Town, where Mr Museveni and other guerrillas, including Mwesigwa Black, Wunku Mpima, also known as Kazimoto, and Patrick Bukeni were hiding. Mr Museveni and Bukeni escaped, but Mwesigwa Black and Wunku Mpiima were killed.

The army’s arrival in Mukwana’s home coincided with the capture of other Fronasa collaborators in different parts of Uganda.

Other alleged collaborators that were captured at the time included William Nkoko and Rashid Ntale from Mayuge; Joseph Bitwire and James Karambuzi from Kigezi region; Capt Tom Masaba, a retired army officer; and one Phares Kasoro, a former police officer from Tooro region.

Capt Masaba and Nkoko were accused of harbouring rebels in Lugala Forest in Mayuge.

Eight guns and 15 empty magazines were later, in August 2018, recovered from the home of the late Karambuzi in Mwanjari ward in Southern Division of Kabale Municipality.

Firing squads

It was announced on Radio Uganda on the evening of January 22, 1973, that the captives, who had appeared before a military tribunal chaired by Lt Col Ozo, were to be killed by firing squad to “to serve as an example to the people”.

Nkoko and Ntale were executed in Bugembe Stadium; Capt Masaba was stripped naked before being executed in Mbale Stadium.

Bitwire and Karambuzi were killed in Kabale, while Kasoro was executed in Fort Portal.

Those details around the activities of Fronasa and Mr Museveni’s participation in the war that ousted Amin from power render Dr Gerard Prunier’s questions about Mr Museveni’s role in the fight against Amin a nullity.

ABOUT AUTHOR

Dr Gerard Prunier had been a teacher at St Mary’s College Kisubi but was forced to leave Uganda in the early 1970s after Amin took power. L’Ouganda Contemporain was the second book he had authored about Uganda. The two publications served to portray him among the French as a authority on the history and other aspects of life in Uganda.