Growing up, Allan Ddungu nursed a dream of serving his motherland, the Pearl of Africa in uniform. The dream was far-fetched as none of the people around him or relatives, and neighbourhood had been recruited in the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), let alone the Uganda Police Force (UPF).
Despite his desire to serve, it was certain that without a reasonable level of education, he would not even come close to being the officer he had always dreamt of being.
With a poverty-stricken background, the only way out for the Primary Seven dropout to raise tuition for high school was to do odd jobs such as digging people’s gardens, fetching water, collecting firewood for sale, and vending fruits on the streets for three years that he would later be able to raise some money to go back to school.
Light shines
In 2003, the youthful Ddungu enrolled in high school and attained both the Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) in 2006 and the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education in 2008.
February 14 2009 was the long-awaited day for the mass recruitment of would-be soldiers from Wakiso, his home District.
“We had a fantastic military training at Kaweweta Military Training School in Luweero District in the Northern Central part of Uganda. During the training, it is a practice that every trainee is chosen as a leader of a platoon to attain some commanding skills.
This was after the first phase of four months and this meant that the remaining period would practically give each trainee barely two weeks to acquire leadership skills,” he recalls.
When his turn came in August of that same year, he made a record of commanding without being changed the former platoon commander Lieutenant Olumbi would retain him each time they changed command, arguing with fellow platoon commanders that he had been over-impressed by Ddungu’s leadership quality and this ultimately made him enjoy the training that he completed and passed out on January 31, 2010.
Having emerged as the best trainee in Air Force entry exams, he was selected with 16 others out of 3500 trainees and deployed in the Air Force at the airbase headquarters in Entebbe.
Getting close to the cake
Stepping into Entebbe at the airbase, a much-coveted destiny for every trainee was to me more than what Ddungu had long asked for from God since childhood.
However, what he did not know was the sheer fact that he had Ironically joined a career that would see me desperately flee for his life, abandon his family(parents and siblings), his much-beloved country almost a decade later because of the ideas he held about his fellow soldiers and civilians.
In the build-up to the 2012 general elections, while still a Private, he was handpicked with another comrade Lieutenant Corporal Farouk Ntanzi, and driven to a secluded location near the Jinja Road Division Police Headquarters.
Here, they met other three plain-clothed men who later identified themselves to be from the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) and Internal Security Organization (ISO). These were Bataringaya from ISO, the other two from CMI Private Peter Masaba Peter, and Corporal Julius Baluku, who was made their commander of a task they would later learn as guarding a house where government officials would convene at night for their meetings.
“Through conversations, I learnt that Corporal Baruku was a member of the black bomber that had infamously stormed the court and seized retired Dr Col Kizza Besigye, the then-expected contender in the coming elections who had been granted bail in a previous world stunning scene. This chilling discovery about whom I would be submitting to while on the line of duty, a total fanatic and a sycophant of the ruling regime commander who would be willing to execute any command from our bosses regardless of its consequences made me start doubting the real motive of our unofficial deployment,” he shares.
Dreading the uniform
Nine days into their deployment were enough to bring Ddungu to one of his worst experiences as what he witnessed was in sharp contrast with the ideas he had always held in his imagination.
The place he was meant to believe was meant for secret meetings of top government officials would be turned into a torture place for those thought to be against the government including civilians and soldiers who would be picked from various barracks and command posts in the central part of Uganda.
“On the 8th day at night, I approached my commander and told him of how the actions of torturing our fellow soldiers and civilians were inhumane and a gross violation of their rights. To my surprise, he did not argue with me and I never knew that he had called back at the headquarters in Entebbe informing them of what I had opinionated to him.”
He recalls how they were harshly called to the gate on the ninth day at the facility by the unending noise of a hooting car that wanted its way inside. The number plates on the vehicle were DAF for Defense Air Force and he immediately told himself that something was wrong when the door opened and he identified Sergent Vincent Ssempijja who was an Air Force Regiment Police commander.
Ssempijja quickly ordered him to the vehicle from where he was handcuffed and driven to Katabi Military Barracks in Entebbe where he was detained without being charged for two weeks without food for most of the days and subjected to daily beating.
“Whenever I would demand to know why I was being detained without being charged, I would be told that my case would be handled after elections when the commanders would not be busy.”
With much pain from the daily torture and hunger, he was transferred to Makindye Military Barracks which is the headquarters of UPDF martial.
While in Makindye, the 37-year-old was subjected to the worst form of torture both physically and mentally as he was made to drink human urine as tea that he would depend on since he received a posho every four days for six months.
“I still bear visible scars on my left lower medial foot from the wounds that I sustained during my detention. Since I had lost a lot of blood through the large open wounds that I had sustained during the last days of the sixth month, my lawyer successfully secured my bail so I could go for treatment. I was admitted at Mengo Hospital for two weeks where I received treatment with blood transfusion.”
Trying out leadership
Ddungu asked for a study leave from the Education Service Board in early 2015 to go back to school. To his surprise, the sabbatical was easily approved because they thought they would have some time without his constant intrusion of holding them accountable for violating soldiers and civilian human rights.
In 2017, with a natural calling for leadership, while pursuing a diploma in clinical medicine, Ddungu contested for the guild presidency at the College of Health Sciences which he won overwhelmingly.
It is here that he grew more urge to fight for the rights of fellow soldiers and civilians upon returning to Entebbe on duty as he had tested his ability when he won the electorate.
At the workstation, fighting for a cause that he always knew was his moral call would always land him in trouble, making him a regular visitor to the detention centers.
“In the days leading to the January 2021 general elections saw the worst treatment of civilians and soldiers who were perceived not to be supporting the government. Soldiers’ resentments were known to the bosses included poor working conditions (awarding houses to the highest earners in the army and sending the lowest earning soldiers to pay accommodation for themselves), mistreatment from bosses which they knew would not make such groups of marginalized soldiers not vote for the government,” he recalls.
Ddungu explains that during campaigns, so many civilians were apprehended, detained and others tortured to death. When he voiced his opposition to the kind of ill-treatment that was being subjected to people, he was labeled a dissident, and he was influencing soldiers to mutiny.
“To my consternation, challenging the actions of my commanders made me get arrested, and charged with disobedience where I would spend five months in detention. While in jail, I would receive threats of being killed if I continued with my actions. Even after my release in June, I continued to be threatened to be killed and I would receive various phone calls warning me to stay away from challenging my commanders.”
After his release, Ddungu began to seek justice for soldiers who had served for a whole year on a foreign mission in Somalia and came back without any pay.
To him, it was shocking to find that after three months of frustration, only around USD800 of the USD10000 annual contract pay was deposited in their accounts.
“This was still one of the gross violations of the soldiers’ rights perpetrated by a group of greedy officers in the military top brass and some defense contractors. I had to seek an explanation because I had managed to siphon some classified information from the Ministry of Defense and Veteran Affairs (MODVA),” he says.
Ddungu’s informant at MODVA intimated to him how there was an issue of ghost soldiers claiming to have been part of the foreign mission. To stand in solidarity with fellow agonizing fighters who had never received a considerable fraction of their pay, he leaked the details to the media who divulged the information to the community as most of the soldiers’ properties were being confiscated since they had taken loans, hoping to service them when they are paid thus causing a lot of depression.
“Upon seeing the news making rounds, they invested USD 2000 to find out who had leaked the much-buried information to the attention of the world and I strongly believe they managed to know that I had done it,” he explains.
He shares that this made him fall victim to the hunt, being threatened every day about how he would pay for his actions.
“I started receiving calls of death threats and I knew my life was in danger.”
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