Two brothers kidnapped over fight for city prime land

Sometime in September 1983, two brothers, Moses Nsubuga and Daudi Ssentongo, were kidnapped and were never seen again.

Nsubuga and Ssentongo were kidnapped from a restaurant around Nakasero, Kampala, by unidentified persons. The brothers were related to a Kampala businessman Francis Kyobe.

Kyobe owned a prime plot of land on Burton Street in Kampala’s central business district, which was later to cause the kidnap of his sons (not biological).

While the kidnap and disappearance of the two brothers happened in 1983, it was not until 1988 that the cause for their disappearance was made public.
When the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government came to power in 1986, they instituted a judicial commission of inquiry.

The commission, chaired by Justice Arthur Oder, was assigned to investigate the violation of human rights in Uganda from October 9, 1962, the day Uganda got Independence, to January 25, 1986, a day before the NRM captured power.

It was this commission which later metamorphosed into the current Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) by an Act of Parliament.
The commission investigated cases of extra judicial killings, illegal arrests, kidnap and disappearance, among others.

Why Nsubuga, Ssentongo were kidnapped
On July 7, 1988, Mzee Kyobe and his younger brother Eliazali Musoke, 65, narrated to the commission how Nsubuga and Ssentongo were kidnapped. The session was held at the Uganda Prison Officers’ Mess on Buganda Road in Kampala.

The reason for their kidnap, they said, was connected to Kyobe’s wrangle with someone over Plot No 4B, Burton Street.
Musoke told the commission that Nsubuga and Ssentongo were kidnapped because of John Paul Ochieng, aka Odokomit Enterprise.

Earlier that week, Kyobe, a resident of Katwe Trading Centre, in Kampala, had told the commission that he was given the land by the government in 1973.
In November 1972, then president Idi Amin expelled Asians who held British or Indian passports and had refused to become Ugandan citizens by registration.

The property of the departed Asians included land, companies, houses, commercial banks, shops, cars, schools, as well as cash. They were dished out to some well-connected or lucky Ugandans.
Kyobe told the commission that Ochieng was from northern Uganda, and so had very strong connections with the powers that be.

Kyobe said Ochieng grabbed his land in 1983 after he had obtained dubious documents and presented them in court as the rightful beneficiary of the building and plot on Burton Street. The matter had been in court since 1982.

Kyobe told the commission that having failed to get justice from courts and the Departed Asians Property Custodian Board, he decided to join the National Resistance Army (NRA) rebels led by Yoweri Museveni to overthrow the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) government.

Kyobe further mentioned that before he went to the bush, he had left all the documents concerning the plot in a shop on the very land and had no access to it since Ochieng had grabbed it and the premises were being guarded by police.
He said Ochieng then turned the shop into the famous Odokomit Bar, adding that all his documents were destroyed by Ochieng in attempt to destroy evidence.

Attempt to trace Nsubuga, Ssentongo
Musoke on the other hand told the commission that before Kyobe went to the bush, he brought Nsubuga and Ssentongo to stay with him. The two brothers stayed with Musoke until 1983 when they were kidnapped.

Asked by Justice Oder to explain why he thought Ochieng was responsible the kidnap of the two brothers, Musoke responded that he got information from his friends Moses Ssali and a one Musisi who witnessed the arrest from a restaurant in Kampala.
Musoke said he immediately went to the Central Police Station (CPS) in Kampala, and later Jinja Road and Kira Road police stations to report the matter, but he got no help.

Although, Musoke said, he was informed by a certain police officer at CPS that Nsubuga and Ssentongo might have been detained at any of the military barracks on the orders of Ochieng.
After failing to locate the kidnaped brothers, the family decided to hold their last funeral rites.