The Obote I knew

Looking frail with greying hair and beard, Vincent Obodo, still possesses the charm to crack jokes for his visitors, his memory still stands out, and he passionately recounts childhood memories of his home village Agora, Soroti District.

Since his return home in May 2021 through the help of United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the 81-year-old former bodyguard to president Milton Obote is restricted to his home. He walks with the support of a stick.

At home, in Agora village, one sees a strong person in spirit but physically feeble. Obodo’s vision is blurred after undergoing a couple of eye operations while in exile in Tanzania to correct his eyesight.

Seated on a wooden chair at the home of his elder son, John Ekoyu, 56, Mr Obodo, points at an incomplete two-roomed permanent house which has been handed to him, as a place where he will spend the evenings of his life, “Imagine it is in there where I am accommodated, I don’t have a house of my own, it’s my son’s house now given to me,” he sighs.

From an accountant at the Ministry of Works, Soroti station, and later assistant commissioner for Bukedi region, as was the policy then, Vincent Obodo was called for national service. This would qualify him for placement as one of the inner security personnel for President Milton Obote’s security.

Obote was selfless and loving

“Serving Obote was something I had never dreamt about, but as it was the policy at that time, every civil servant was mandated to take part in national service. In 1963, I was picked from ministry of works where I was an accountant at Soroti station. I was trained, later placed to serve in the office of Obote, then president,” Mr Obodo, narrates.

“As a staff in his office, I became acquainted with the person of Obote, I was listed for training in Israel, later Russia, which was a twist in my life, from being an accountant, to a new world of security in 1965, three years after independence.

“I can’t necessarily claim to be the first to serve Obote from Teso, Obote’s bond with the people of Teso reigned back to the struggle for independence with notables like late Cuthbert Obwangor, Anyoti and captain Ousi being the epitome of Obote’s trustees from Teso.

“From my peasant background, I found myself in the office of the president. It seemed strange, for there was no obvious connection with my area of specialisation but Obote being a man of all feats, selfless and loving, it took me little time to adapt to my new locale. I caught his eye and that of his intelligence handlers like Jeremiah Opira, deputy director of intelligence,” Obodo says.

Obote mistakes that led to 1971 coup

On January 23, 1971, as Obote was away in Singapore before the coup took place on January 25, 1971, Mr Jeremiah Opira summoned Omoro Duli, sergeant Owino and Keli to the state lodge in Kampala.

“We were not privy to what he intended to tell us, but that week before Obote departed for Singapore for the Commonwealth summit, intelligence handlers had briefed Obote about a plot to topple his government by Idi Amin,” recalls Obodo.

 “Obote downplayed the imminent danger, on grounds that Amin was an officer he recruited from junior ranks and it was unlikely that he would stage a coup against his master,” Obodo adds.

In the time he served as bodyguard to Obote,Obodo says,“I noticed a man who cared less about intelligence reports; this gave [allowed] ambitious people like Amin to lay ground for the 1971 coup.”

“Obote lived on ethos that every man was good, every man had room to change. This was wrong based on all the gymnastics at the time, and he had a hostile Buganda at play, the international politics of that time, and socialism versus capitalism.

“What Obote foolishly did upon being served classified intelligence on a plot by Amin to topple him, was to order for the return of all arms to the armoury. This left Amin’s soldiers armed at the expense of an elite force from Teso, Lango, which should have thwarted the coup. It was a big mistake, which Amin exploited,” Obodo explains.

Irrespective of the hostility Amin showed towards Obote, including disappearing and switching off his communication on the day of attempted assassination at Lugogo, as well as his role in the death of Brig Pierino Yere Okoya, the deputy army commander, Obote still failed to read between the lines of the danger Amin posed Obodo states.

 Earlier, before the coup, Brig Okoya foiled an attempted coup, by deploying a brigade from Jinja to Kampala, and that further widened the feud between him. Brig Okoya, intelligence leads indicate, was murdered by Amin together with his wife.  

“Obote viewed human beings as good, he always wanted naughty officers to be given chance to reform, Obote harboured no grudge against anyone, and lived on the ethos of forgiveness. He was of the belief that every Ugandan was good, deserved better from the state but unfortunately his goodwill was used against him,” Obodo recollects.

Obodo’s last assignment ends in exile

In the meeting with Opira, deputy director for intelligence, on January 23, 1971, Obodo and the team were told to prepare for a sensitive journey to Nairobi. Opira secured Kenyan currency that they were to use. In the briefing, the journey was to thwart the looming danger on the life of president Obote while he was in Kenya for yet another state visit after the Singapore summit.

“Apart from the Singapore summit, there were state visits planned for Kenya and Tanzania respectively before the rumour of possible coup came into play,” Mr Obodo explains.

“Three days to Obote landing at Jomo Kenyatta Airport, I led the team of three on a mission to thwart an attempt on Obote’s life, and also plan how to mitigate the alleged coup back at home, through Kenya if Jomo Kenyatta was to offer any help in that line. Unfortunately it was never to be, on our second day in Kenya, the coup that overthrew Obote happened unchallenged on January 25, 1971,” Obodo says.

“With all the logistics organised, Sergeant Owino, Omoro Duli, Keli and I left for Kenya on January 24, 1971, travelling by road. The Uganda High Commission in Kenya was briefed about our journey as an advance team on official duty to make arrangements to receive President Obote at Jomo Kenyatta Airport.

That was the last time I saw my family, which I left at Jinja road where we had been given a small house for accommodation,” says Obodo.

Obote lands in Nairobi post 1971 coup amid drama

“Upon arrival in Nairobi on January 25, 1971, the coup took place. I smelt danger. Apart from Kenya’s minister of trade, who received us and helped us check into the Pan African Hotel, there were no security protocol officials on our side. On January 26, 1971, in the company of minister for trade in Jomo Kenyatta’s government, we set off from the hotel where we had spent the night, to Kenyatta Airport to receive Obote,” Obodo says.

Amidst this tribulation, President Jomo Kenyatta who had invited Obote for a state visit was not present; he was in Mombasa for holidays.

“I was in touch with Jeremiah Opira on the day of the overthrow of government, but communication later was cut off, so the onus to safeguard Obote was a role I was to lead. On arrival at Kenyatta airport, my three colleagues were arrested. As team leader, I engaged the Kenyan minister who had accompanied us, but their release was prolonged until Obote’s plane touched the runway,” Obodo recollects.

At the airport, Obodo and his group were put under detention. “The minister for trade in President Jomo Kenyatta’s government, a one “Areng”, was by all standards a man of great repute. He stood by the captives (my colleagues) who at that juncture had all their belongings confiscated. With the help of an Indian operative, who was working clandestinely with us to thwart any planned assassination of Obote while in Kenya, I rushed down the waiting lounge while monitoring the events unfolding the other side where my colleagues were held captive.

“Based on the events at the airport, I concluded that the plot to assassinate Obote in Kenya was real, because Kenyan intelligence knew of our presence but their actions at the airport were contrary, I took a brave move from the waiting lounge back to where my colleagues were being held captive,” Mr Obodo recalls. Shortly after, an Indian operative arrived with other plain operatives of Indian origin, and “It is here that an argument almost sparked a gun fight. As this fiasco unfolded, there was a strange onlooker at the runway where the president plane was due to land.

“With the aid of the minister for trade for Kenya, the Indian intelligence officers and I walked towards the runway, to find that the man standing solitary at the runway, was armed. We advanced and made a ring around him,” Obodo says, adding that Obote had good ties with the Indian government.

“He [the man on the runway] spoke Kiswahili. Upon further interrogation he excused himself and demanded to be released. As we watched on he sprinted out of the airport on the watch of Kenyan security operatives. Minutes later, Obote landed, I hurriedly pushed him in the waiting minister’s car, we drove to Pan African hotel Nairobi,” Obodo narrates.

Obodo says President Jomo Kenyatta who was reportedly in Mombasa for holidays still did not show up to see Obote and that on January 27, 1971, a team of Tanzanian attaches to Kenya made a brief visit to Pan African Hotel Nairobi.

Mr Obodo recalls that on arrival, they delivered President Julius Nyerere’s message of sympathy. Nyerere at that time was in India for a state visit. Secondly, they delivered Nyerere’s request for Obote to exit Kenya for safety reasons.

Obote flees Kenya for Tanzania

“While we were still deciphering the visit of the Tanzanian attaches, a second delegation of two Tanzanian officers arrived demanding that president Obote exits Kenya as his continued stay was unsafe. “On the night of January 28, 1971, we left Jomo Kenyatta airport for Tanzania. On touching down at Dar es Salaam, Vice president Rashid received us and we were accorded VIP reception and driven to state house using president Nyerere’s convoy.

“A couple of days later, President Julius Nyerere returned, and secured us a residence at the state house where we were accommodated until 1981 when Obote regained power. Nyerere being a confidant to Obote, life at state house in Tanzania was much more relaxing though we felt a sense of unease. We had lost power back home. We beckoned Nyerere for support to overthrow Amin.

“At state house in Tanzania, I was in charge of Obote’s security, though Nyerere had granted Obote additional security. My roles were to oversee president Obote’s safety and that of his children Jimmy Akena, Akaki, and their mother Ms Miria Kalule Obote.

“Nyerere showed all willingness to support a rebellion against Amin, but the outstanding defence pact Nyerere had with China on matters of arms, brought all our desperate quests crashing. China which was at loggerheads with Russia demanded Obote sign an agreement with them, but Obote rejected an arms deal with China, saying he needed an act of parliament to assent to it,” Obodo recalls.

Mr Obodo says Obote’s rejection was anchored on his leftist ideas (socialism), and being an ally to Russia, needed a shift of allegiance to China.

“Nyerere was left in confusion on what to offer, but President Jalle Mohamed Said Barre of Somalia was willing to offer troops for Obote. But he needed a proxy country to launch attacks on Kampala. This failed as China protested the move based on her defence pact with Tanzania,” he narrates.

“Under the arrangements, we travelled on 19 March 1971 to Mogadishu in Somalia for a meeting on how to topple Amin. This high level delegation comprised of me, Obote’s secretary Pepetra Elong, and Sam Odaka, minister of foreign affairs. After meeting with the Somali president Jalle Mohamed Said Barre, it was agreed that we use Sudan as a proxy country to train elite force of attackers.

Mr Obodo says with a nod from Somalia’s president, Odaka travelled back to Tanzania to brief Obote and Nyerere, about the readiness of Somalia to offer support, and Sudan’s willingness to offer sanctuary. But things did not go as planned.

“Amin got wind of our presence, attacked our bases, and also declared Uganda as a Muslim country, this prompted Khartoum government to change their mind with Amin having declared Uganda a Muslim state.

Mr Obodo says, sergeant Owino, Omoro Duli and Keli managed to escape back to Tanzania unhurt.

“At that time, as we tried to set bases in Sudan for period of six month, Museveni had set camps in Morogoro in Tanzania, upon return from Sudan with help of the Tanzania army commander David Musuguru. In October 1972 we moved to join Museveni towards the border of Tanzania and Uganda in Bukoba national service camp. This was for a common cause, at that time Libya and Uganda were planning an assault on Tanzania.

“In October 1972, Museveni conducted an attack on Mbarara town in Uganda, Tito Okello, Oyite Ojok and I marched towards Masaka town but met a well-planned ambush on the way to Masaka. We withdrew to Tabora JKT camp, and so did Museveni’s camp.”

Obodo says the rationale to attack the two towns was to try to sway Amin’s soldiers out of Kampala to the two fronts of Mbarara and Masaka, while Tanzanian Airforce airlifted commandos to attack Entebbe, but the aircraft to be used crashed, ending the plans prematurely.

In September 1973, Obodo says he was recalled to Dar es Salaam to guard Obote and family and, at the same time, supply logistics from Dar es Salaam harbour to the fronts in Tabora JKT camp, but in doing all this, the struggles at Tabora JKT camp further exposed the friction between the Lango and Acholi.

According to Obodo, in 1978, when Amin felt so pressed by the looming attacks from Tanzania, he staged an unsuccessful attack on Tanzania. That unsuccessful attack exposed Amin’s weaknesses which the Obote camp capitalised on for the assault of 1979, which overthrew Amin.

The 81-year-old says between 1973 and 11 April 1979, Uganda National Liberation Front whose troops were trained in Tanzania and Uganda borders continued receiving shipment of arms through Dar es Salaam port where Obote had secured him a job to oversee delivery of ammunition, and equally clear goods for companies in which Obote had shares.

He says most of this ammunition came in from Somalia.

“Majority of the arms which UNLF used to topple Amin passed through my hands. When Amin fell, I knew my boss would regain power, so when elections of December 10, and 11, 1980 were held, UPC had 76 seats out of 126 seats, allowing Obote to bounce back to power,” Mr Obodo explains.

“On recapturing power, Obote retained me in Dar es Salaam to oversee the security of his family that was yet to join him back in Kampala. Secondly, I remained to oversee the liquidation of some of his companies in Tanzania. His dream was to have them liquidated and re-registered in Uganda. Unfortunately that process dragged on until he was toppled again by Tito Lutwa Okello in 1985. Obote had shares majorly in construction companies like Vadgama building contractors and others doing clearing at the port in Tanzania.”

Life in Tanzania after Obote

“In 1982, I was granted citizenship in Tanzania; I left the state house, and started fending for myself after Obote’s family joined him in Kampala,” he says.

Mr Obodo says he remained in employment at Dar es Salaam port until around 1985 when Obote was toppled again. Obote left for Lusaka in Zambia, where he died.

“Among other things why I never thought of an immediate return home, was the glaring friction in the liberation army, the Acholi had bad blood against the Langi, so the Obote II government hung on a string.

“With my citizenship I did all kinds of odd jobs, after I was moved out of Dar es Salaam port. I joined a brick making company (Arid Salim manufacturing block company) where I served as manager. In the latter years of 1990s, I became sick and went blind. At that time, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) provided me with medication, I was operated on and my eyesight was partially restored.

“I lost contact with Obote immediately he was toppled in 1985. He left for Lusaka, Zambia. The only person who ever contacted me at that time was Francis Opolot, one of the officers who served in special police. I gave him a few items to deliver to my family back in Kampala. Those were the last items from me to my family.

“Around 1990, I applied to return home through UNHCR to Uganda high commission in Tanzania, but my request was turned down, the same with 1997, and early 2003. At the time, life was extremely difficult, age had caught up with me, I had no proper job to call my own and so life was extremely harsh for me.

“I started emptying sewer pits in Dar es Salaam to make ends meet. That is from the early 2000s. More devastating and frustrating was when Obote died in 2005. I always wished to be reunited with Obote, but it never happened, maybe in heaven,” Obodo says.

Mr Obodo says it’s his wish that someday, he will be able to talk to Obote’s children and Obote’s wife. “I was part of their family while in exile in Tanzania. I also struggled both for the safety of their father, and them as children,” he says.

The Obote I knew

“From 1965, when I got to know Obote, I never heard him bark at anyone. Obote always wore a jolly face; tales from people tagging Obote to have been brutal are not true, all such machinations to taint Obote were acts from negative forces within and externally, which wanted him out of government. Obote loved humanity,” Obodo narrates.

He says, the police special force under Obote was the most regulated and civilised. There was never a killing Obote sanctioned as president, Obodo repeats that Obote lived on ethos of love.

On the Lubiri crisis, Obodo says the Kabaka then had assembled forces armed inside the Lubiri, “That is a fact, which many historians keep running away from, we ought to glorify Obote not to demonise him,” he insists.

Back home after exile

Albeit all that Obodo says, “It is glorifying to return home after 51 years, but my family has gone through that trauma of knowing that I was dead, I know it’s a different thing, they missed out on the education that any father ought to have offered his children. I left when my elder son was four years, only to return back when he is 56 years, it wasn’t my making, God’s will had it that way, I hope my family understands my situation.”

The former Obote bodyguard, says at the time of his departure from Uganda on national duty, he left behind two wives Josephine Ariamo and Anna Loyce Ideta with four children, the eldest being Ekoyu. While he was away they had other children, whom he says, are of essence to his survival now because they tend to him, for which he is grateful, having returned home destitute.

The 81-year-old says he is happy to return to find some of his age mates still alive. Once in a while when they have time off their daily chores, the elderly colleagues congregate and share events of the past, which keeps Obodo occupied and his high blood pressure in check.

In his white coat, and brown shirt, Obodo smiles but after five decades away from home, the 81-year-old, has plenty to worry about. Apart from his return with nothing but a bag of clothes, there is the lost family bond, the education he should have given his children and the bond with his wives. Instead, he is now a dependent, with nothing to show for his years in the presidential service and the subsequent long exile in Tanzania.

 Timeline

1963- 1965: Joins civil service at Ministry of Works Soroti station as an accountant

1965: Promoted to clerical officer, transferred to the office of prime minister, handed six month course.

1967: Taken to Bukedi as assistant district commissioner in charge of agriculture, selected for national service, trained by the Israel army for three months.

1968: Selected for a nine-month course in northern Moscow at the academy for military sciences

1969: Selected for VIP protection department and posted directly to president’s office, given to work as senior VIP installation protection officer