Looking at the current rivalry between the National Unity Platform (NUP) leader Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine and President Yoweri Museveni,one would get tempted to believe that the situation has been so for ages.
On the contrary however Kyagulanyi’s family once enjoyed a friendly relationship with the current regime spanning from the early 1980s when President Museveni was leading an offensive against the Obote 11 government.
Late Maj. Gen Wasswa Kasirye Gwanga repeatedly asserted that Bobi Wine’s father was a rebel collaborator who provided food to the guerrillas, a report that Bobi Wine’s elder brother Eddy Yawe Ssentamu confirms as true.
In a one on one conversation with Watchdog Uganda recently, Eddy Yawe, a popular musician took us through the unbelievable sacrifices that his family has had for this country, insisting that what is done under NUP/People Power is just a tip of the iceberg.
According to Yawe, their paternal grandfather Joseph Walakira was killed during the war in which he surrendered their Bulaya ranches in Gomba district with over a thousand cattle willingly to be eaten by the NRA combatants during the war.
Besides his father Mzee Jackson Willington Ssentamu who suffered the wrath of the Obote two regime leading him into exile for his links with the guerillas, Yawe also revealed that his other uncle paid for his love for President Museveni with his dear life!
Yawe said the regime intelligence learnt that some NRA rebels had visited the home of his now late uncle Daniel Mukasa one evening in late 1983 with the current leader – Museveni believed to be among them. They stormed the residence and asked him to handover his visitors, knowledge of whom he sternly denied.
Meanwhile, he had asked them to hide in the ceiling as he went to engage his unfriendly visitors that would later take his life.
The Obote II soldiers who were not ready to take Mukasa’s “No” for an answer insisted to carry out a thorough search of the house as they were sure of the existence of the rebels in the vicinity.
Sternly observing his fear gripped body soaked in a river of sweat, Mukasa’s tormentors believed that indeed he was hiding something.
As both a combination of a search and intimidation failed to yield the desired results of the intelligence officers, Mukasa was asked to choose between surrendering the rebels and paying with his life where he kept silent suggesting the latter for an answer.
As such, a famous soldier in Gomba then known as Sergeant Sokolo ordered for Mukasa’s hands to be tied from behind and he personally pierced his neck with a sharp knife which led to his death instantly.
Eddy Yawe, noted that their family’s painful historical sacrifices in search for a better Uganda is the reason for their unending resolve to stick with other change enthusiastic Ugandans to kick out Museveni and pave way for a new democracy.
” We are here to carry on with the aspirations of our forefathers who stopped at nothing to have a better country. That’s the reason we shall continue fighting regardless of the friction from the regime,” he said.
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