The Overthrow of Obote II, 2nd of 72 Stories of DP@72
Unco- ordinated movement of troops” was a phrase that came to light prior to the overthrow of the Obote II regime in 1985.
A lot of uncertainty ruled Kampala, the NRA guerilla war raging on and the 6:00pm BBC program “FOCUS ON AFRICA” the only authentic news source we had giving us updates every 6:00pm.
Of course, you had to tune in with very low volume fearing to be heard by UPC functionaries then.
As a bonus Ugandan stringer Henry Gombya always fed us with the latest news on the bush war.
The appointment of Brigadier Smith Opon Achak as Chief of Staff of the then Uganda Army (UNLA)had brought to the fore, the underbelly fights within government and the army particularly.
Sections of the army led by the Okellos (Tito & Bazilio) had emptied Kampala of all soldiers loyal to them towards the North.
BBC’s Henry Gombya reported on the 26th July 1985 that soldiers led by then Army commander Tito Lutwa Okello and Bazilio Olara Okello were moving southwards to Kampala in multitudes of vehicles with no resistance.
We quickly kept our selves indoors in Flat W60 of Naggulu Housing Estate opposite present day Uganda-Chinese Friendship hospital.
Nightfall came and we could hear sporadic gunshots oozing through the quiet Kampala night life. On the morning of 27th July 1985, we gathered around our homes conversing in whispers when a convoy believed to be that of Milton Obote found its way around the potholed Naggulu roads northwards towards the police barracks.
We quickly fled indoors as bullets and other unfamiliar sounds rained across Kampala. Obote was fleeing and like Henry Gombya had reported the day before during Focus on Africa BBC evening news, reality was before us.
From inside the house, then popular Radio Uganda weekly 11:00 am music show SATURDAY CLUB presented by the amiable Andy Simon Kaweesa a.k.a Uncle ASK was repeatedly playing the song “EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE”.
Bullets filled the Kampala skies nonstop throughout the night, till the next morning!
My Journey to Exile in Nairobi
In the evening of 27th July, 1985, I together with my brother Kelly and a visiting friend “kissed death by a whisker” when a gyn man shot at us!
An armed but also heavily drunk young man in a new army uniform brandishing a new gun which I had learnt from the UNLF days was an SMG, stormed our flat!
After a very heavy bang on our door, I went and opened from inside and was immediately put at gun point with the nozzle in my stomach. He used the gun nozzle to push me backwards.
Of great surprise was that the gun man was an immediate neighbor on the ground floor who had a brother JACK working with the President’s office!
He ordered me, our visitor Solomon Kaboyo and my brother Kelly to sit down. We sat in the long sofa set with our hands raised up but our faces on the ground!
He made one step backwards, gun pointed at us and the next thing we heard was a bullet released which raised dust in the sitting room!
The Bullet struck the floor between my spread Legs!!!!
I looked on my either side of me expecting to see blood oozing from one of us but that wasn’t the case! Without looking at him, I pulled 7,000/= I had planned to buy posho (Maize meal) and beans with out of my trouser pocket I threw it on the table.
To buy dry food, was my mother Amooti’s (RIP) advise whenever we suspected chaos in Kampala. Because of the many gunshots the day before, I had failed to rush to the shopping centre 200 meters away, near Naggulu Remand Home.
That failure to buy food could have saved our lives because the gunman without uttering a word, grabbed the money from the table and briskly walked out!
Neighbors rushed to our flat to find out what had happened but were surprised to find all the 3 of us alive! One neighbor a family man Mr. Kayondo formerly working with Uganda Airlines advised us to find refuge in his house lest the gunman came back.
Indeed, as we sat in Mr. Kayondo’s sitting room past midnight, we had footsteps of boots of a single army man ascending the ladders to our top floor.
This was followed by loud bangs on our door for about 10 minutes until he went away. We did not know what he would have done, had he found us at home. Your guess is as good as mine.
The next day after thanking Mr. Kayondo for providing a safe haven, we walked 300 meters to house No: J6 in group J where our aunt Abwooli (RIP) lived with her daughters/ our cousins MARJORIE BAMUNDAGA, FATUMA BAWJI, MWENI BAWJI & MARIAM BAWJI.
We stayed indoors and after a week of looting around Kampala, we decided to head home to Mbale. We were not prepared for what our mother Amooti (RIP (told us because she was not happy as usual to see us.!
She was not happy for the first time asking why we had come home! She suggested that the next day we immediately escape to Nairobi because marauding gunmen were indiscriminately killing people in Mbale streets.
Our looks of being very tall and slim, betrayed us to look like some of the guerillas who were fighting in the bush war at the time. For that reason, without any clothing’s, we boarded a taxi from Mbale, a short distance of about 50 kms to the Malaba border post.
We successfully fooled the border guards and walked across without reporting to immigration or the same guards thought we were locals walking across the border like the practice was.
After booking and securing seats inside the AKAMBA bus, we gave each other a Hi 5 and off we set off to Nairobi. Amooti (RIP) had the day before called our sisters working in Nairobi to receive us.
Betty Joy Kasozi the elder one worked with DUNLOP(Kenya) Ltd while Violet Mutenyo Turyamubona (RIP) the younger of the two worked with the Royal Thai Embassy.
Both of them lived in Nairobi West, where we stayed until we came back to Uganda after 26th January after President M7 and the NRA captured power.
While in Nairobi, we participated in demonstrations organised by Uganda exiles resident in Kenya as well as prayers for peace to prevail in UG at All Saints Church and St Peter’s Basilica in the city of Nairobi.
Our song I remember went like “ALL WE ARE SAYING, IS GIVE PEACE A CHANCE”!!!!!
During the ill fate Nairobi peace talks, we used to gather opposite HARABEE HOUSE, the office of the President (KENYA) where both delegations used to meet.
This is my story, this is my song remembering 27th July 1985 exactly 41 years ago today. May the souls of all those who lost their lives during the period 1980 to 1986 rest in peace and may their memory be a blessing
Praise be to God, I am still alive.
