Saturday July 27, 1985, will go down in history as a day when, together with my brother Kelly Wanda, came face to face with death!
President Milton Obote was overthrown by his soldiers, who were led by his own army commanders Tito Okello Lutwa and Bazilio Olara Okello. The weeks leading to July 27, 1985 were full of in-fighting within the national army, the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA), which had been formed after the overthrow of Idi Amin in April 1979.
Oyite Ojok, the chief of staff of the army, hailed from the same district as then president Milton Obote. After the disputed 1980 general elections, which many believed were rigged in favour of Uganda People’s Congress, there was a lot of tension in the country. The rigged elections angered many people who included Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM) candidate, Yoweri Museveni. UPM was one of the political parties that contested the 1980 elections.
The other being Mayanja Nkangi’s Conservative Party. During the campaigns, Museveni promised to “go to the bush” if elections were rigged, which he did, launching his five-year protracted war on February 6, 1981 with the attack at Kabamba. As chief of staff of the UNLA, Lt Col Oyite Ojok was a constant feature in the war zone of Luweero. On one of his encounters in Luweero, he was involved in a fatal helicopter crash which killed other people as well.
This death brought a lot of uncertainty within the army, creating divisions of Obote’s loyalists with those for Lt Col David Oyite Ojok on the one hand and Army commander Tito Okello Lutwa and Bazilio Olara Okello on the other. Oyite Ojok was Obote’s tribesman while ‘The Okellos,’ as they were referred to at the time, hailed from Acholi. Because of this difference in places of origin, the conflict took on tribal connotations.
Like I have pointed out, after Oyite Ojok’s fatal accident in Luweero, Milton Obote delayed to replace him, creating a big gap in the administration of the army. In one of these skirmishes, there were a lot mutineers in the army and the famous “uncoordinated movement of troops” as described by then vice president and Defence minister Paulo Muwanga. This led to the withdrawal of soldiers loyal to the Okellos to Gulu district.
There was tension in the country, which pointed to a potential mutiny in the army. Listening to BBC evening program Focus on Africa at 6pm of Friday July 26, 1985, correspondent Henry Gombya, a Ugandan, reported that soldiers led by Tito Okello and Bazilio Okello were driving southwards to Kampala armed to the teeth.
In the morning, we planned to stock food as we had been advised by our mother Amooti (may her soul rest in peace) whenever we sensed impeding danger. I got Shs 6,000 to go and buy food. However, I got entangled in a discussion with neighbours at the ground floor because of what was happening.
In a few minutes, we saw Milton Obote’s convoy driving fast past our flat heading eastwards to Jinja. Thereafter, a hail of bullets and all sounds of loud gunshots followed, emanating mainly from Kololo hill. We ran fast into our respective flats in Naguru housing estate to hide.
This meant that I still remained with the Shs 6,000 in my pocket, which layer saved my life and that of my brother as I will elaborate afterwards. And from that time, at about 11am, only sounds of bullets and huge guns engulfed Kampala.
I still recall listening to a popular music program on Radio Uganda every Saturday morning called Saturday Club whose presenter was the flamboyant Andy Simon Kaweesa (ASK). He repeatedly played a song whose chorus was “EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE.”
At about 3pm that day, we heard heavy footsteps coming upstairs towards our flat, which was on the top floor. This was followed by heavy knocking on our door. My brother Kelly and a friend Solomon Kaboyo, who were staying with us, ran and hid in the bedroom. I realised that if we did not open the door, the person knocking was going to break it forcefully. I opened the door only to have the person knocking put a gun on my stomach, squeezing and pushing me to move backwards.
Meanwhile, Kelly and Solomon came back to the sitting room to see what was happening. The gunman sweating profusely and smelling alcohol with a new gun ordered us to sit in the sofa set. He asked loudly: “Why do you support Langis?” We had a friend of ours in the neighbourhood, who was the sales manager of Dairy Corporation, a factory that packed milk in Industrial area, called Jack Oyugi. He was from Lira, a place inhabited by the Langi.
The Oyugi’s house did not have water at the time; therefore he used to collect water from our flat. This is why the gunman thought we were supporting the Langi.
THE GUNMAN
Ironically, this gunman was a neighbour who was staying with his relative Jack who was an employee in the President’s Office! This confused me because he was known to us!
I remembered the Shs 6,000 in my pocket. I reached for my pocket, got our the Shs 6,000 and threw it in front of the gunman. He looked at the money, picked it and pocketed it. He then moved backwards, cocked his gun, pointing at us and fired a bullet.
With a lot of dust raising, the bullet had gone through the space between my legs. I looked at Kelly and Solomon. Surprisingly, no one had been hit. The gunman walked out of the house and disappeared.
More than 39 years later, I still thank God for a second chance at life. Our immediate neighbours all came to our flat (W60) to check on us
and know what had happened. We explained and our neighbour Mr Kayondo asked us not to sleep in our flat but to go and spend the night in his flat (W58) because he thought it was dangerous for us to spend the night in our flat.
There were non-stop gun shots in Kampala the whole night. At about 1am, we heard steps of army boots climbing upstairs up to our flat. We later heard heavy knocks on our door like those we had heard during the day by the lone gunman. We all kept quiet and later heard the steps going back downwards. We think he had come back to finish us off.
On the morning of Sunday, July 28, 1985, we thanked Mr Kayondo for saving our lives and escaped to our cousins’ house in the estate in Group J6, a distance of about 300 meters. What followed was a lot of looting by people of factories in Industrial area. Because we had survived death, I never got out of the house to go and loot.
People were being shot by gunmen indiscriminately all over the place. After two weeks, we went home to Mbale. Our mother Amooti was not happy to see us because she said even in Mbale, government soldiers were still killing people.
We explained to her what had happened to us and agreed that we escape and go to our sister Violet (now deceased) and Joy who worked and resided in Nairobi West surburb of Nairobi. The next day, we went to the immigration office in Mbale to get temporary travel documents because we had no passports. The boss at the passport office refused to give us the temporary travel documents. We went back home and briefed our mother.
EXILE
Because, we had been to Nairobi before and knew the loopholes at the Malaba border post, we agreed with our mother not to carry any luggage but just walk across the border undetected. The next day, we left for Malaba and walked across the border separately into the waiting Mawingo bus.
Into the bus, we gave each other hi-fives for succeeding in our mission. In Nairobi, we found Violet and Joy. They called home and told mum that we had arrived safely. Violet was an employee of the Royal Thai embassy Nairobi, while Joy worked with Dunlop East Africa, having joined after the East African Airways.
For the first few months in Nairobi, I would get shocks whenever I remembered the ordeal with that gunman in our flat. Violet and Joy lived separately in the surburb of Nairobi West. Interestingly, whenever it approached 6pm, I would panic and run back home, thinking it was not safe, only for them to remind me I was not in Kampala.
During our exile in Nairobi, we made many friends. We also used to sit and discuss a lot of issues with some people who are prominent today in Uganda politics. I also remember that we attended the 1985 peace talks in Nairobi by sitting outside on the opposite side of President’s Office, the Harambe House in Nairobi.
Another activity we got involved in were demonstrations for peace in Nairobi streets. Ugandans living in exile organised many prayer sessions for peace in Uganda at St Peter’s basilica and All Saints church in Nairobi city.
It’s because of this experience that I do not want anybody to burn Uganda. This is why I think we should have a peaceful presidential transition, constitutional and electoral reforms, national dialogue and national reconciliation. May the souls of all those who have died while fighting for democracy in the world rest in peace!
The writer is a member of the Democratic Party.
