Friends, our country (NRA/ UPDF) celebrated the milestone of reaching 44 years (Feb 6, 1981 to Feb 6, 2025) since a 36 years old Yoweri Museveni led his charges, among whom was Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, and attacked the restive central Uganda barracks called Kabamba.
This Kabamba attack launched the second liberation war in Uganda the first one being the 1978-79 border war with Tanzania. This brought an end to the tyrannical regime of Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada.
The young men and women who attacked this barracks were at first thought to have been 27 fighters but later revised to 41 by their leader Yoweri Museveni.
The number of rebels was actually much bigger but wars are largely fought on propaganda that is why the idea of 27 men attacking and overwhelming a Garrison made more scaring news. Yoweri Museveni would ride on such mysteries until he captured power in a record five years on January 26, 1986.
His coming to power heralded a fundamental change for country Uganda. 40 years later we are still smitten with that absolute change.
Surprisingly I was somehow connected to this Kabamba attack because many of our village folks who had joined the Milton Obote-led ‘Kikosi Malum- Main force” in 1979 had ended up at that barracks.
I am from Kyotera district a land which has been a pioneer in seeing and facilitating not one but two liberation wars. It is here that the monument for our country’s liberation should be erected.
After February 6, 1981, many of my village soldiers deserted and returned home to avoid getting killed by their Nilotics comrades. They were blamed for being ‘relatives’ of Yoweri Museveni therefore hounded out of the UNLA.
Therefore these senior boys had returned and narrated the Museveni attack on Kabamba; stories I used to find very intriguing. In a way I wanted to be part of such an heroic outfit.
One 18 year old called John Mbulo narrated how he nearly killed Yoweri Museveni with an RPG rocket. He had him in his crosshair only for the launcher to malfunction.
“Museveni alina edogo- Museveni has black magic!” John Mbulo would repeat this until he became an old man.
These boys had trained at a place called Bigada and later at Kassaali in Kyotera a stone-throw away from my own village of Sagala. Others were trained at St. Henry’ College Kitovu to bolster the UNLA numbers.
I don’t know what happened to this class of 1979 fighters, but only Major Gen. Elly Kayanya made it to the top. Gen. Kayanja trained at Bigada in 1979 and we trained together in 1985 with Col. Lauben Mugenyi at a place called Lwengo.
Of course I had to be restrained from joining the nicely-dressed “wakombozi – liberators” whose gifts like canned beef, chocolate and biscuits enticed many children of my age to try and join the fight.
I knew in my heart that one day I will become a soldier.
There was this anti- aircraft gun (37mm gun) which was stationed near Kyotera mosque and I would go there for days. The gunners became familiar with me and I would seat on the gun as they traversed it. I later trained on this gun when I joined the NRA.
But the Tanzanians didn’t allow “Kadogo – child soldiers” into their army. This would change however when a Tanzanian- raised and trained Museveni invited kids into his NRA outfit.
The Tanzanians and their Ugandan collaborators were a highly disciplined group who never committed any crimes or revenge killings despite the fact that Idi Amin’s Uganda Army (UA) had entered Tanzania and massacred its citizens. Anything moveable was hauled to Uganda including the unique Wahaya long-horned cows. Some soldiers even got themselves Tanzanian wives.
I recall how all our village folks burnt their grass-thatched houses and instead build one with iron sheets. They would buy these iron sheets from soldiers returning from the Tanzania Frontline.
After Tanzania had launched a huge counter attack to push out the Ugandan army which had annexed a huge chunk of land (28 km from Mutukula to Kyaka bridge), Amin’s men went on rampage. They nonetheless expended much of their energies on looting as the Tanzanian soldiers ambushed them with abandon.
A gun called Katyusha or ‘Saba-Baba’ as we nicknamed this Russian-made rocket launcher, was the defining gun of the entire 1978-79 campaign. It had such a devastating effect (effective range) that Amin’s men had to abandon their vehicles and run on foot.
But Idi Amin was a misguided nationalist. He ‘loved’ Uganda so much that he was lost in his own egoistic dreams.
Up to this day I don’t comprehend Idi Amin’s rationale to annex Kyaka! I mean he himself was born in West Nile before it was added to Uganda by the colonialists. He was therefore supposed to return West Nile to Sudan before trying to reclaim Buganda Kyaka!
Recorded history tells us that, the 28 km long stretch of land (Kyaka) was once a Uganda territory but the British had exchanged it with the Germans for Zanzibar and Pemba Islands. That is why the inhabitants of this area are at times refered to as ‘Baganda Kyaka’.
Even the magnificent Kilimanjaro Mountain was once a Kenyan mountain until a British royal gave it as a birthday gift to his German cousin. The Germans run Tanzania as their colonial property.
More bizarre was the idea of Germans cutting through southern Africa to form the Caprive Strip, a 450 km long stretch of land running through Namibia, Botswana, Angola, Zimbabwe and Angola. They wanted to join their two African territories: German West Africa (Namibia) and German East Africa (Tanzania).
They only abandoned this crazy attempt after realizing that joining Namibia to Tanzania would require a stretch of land some 3200 km long!
King Leopard 11 of Belgium had nearly cut Zambia into two in the Devine name of giving copper to his de facto territory called Congo. The Berlin Conference presided over by German’s Von Otto Bismarck, declared Congo a personal property of King Leopard 11 of Belgium.
Did you know that Congo is 80 times bigger than Belgium?
Imagine giving away Rwandan territory, being already too small notwithstanding, to Uganda (Kisoro) and the land now under conflict (Kivu) to Congo. Rwanda lost to DRCongo an area bigger than its present territory!
The world is failing to understand that though Kivu was part of Rwanda, it was cut off and given to Congo. Therefore the people residing there (Banyamurenge, Hema etc) are now bonafide citizens of Congo.
The conflict in Goma is therefore not about Rwanda’s hegemonic control or expansionism, but rather the fight for recognition by these Banyamurenge. You can only return them to Rwanda with their land!
Besides, DRCongo is too big for proper management and an embarrassment it long became. I mean Rwanda which has overthrown one Congo government (Joseph Mobutu), is now threatening to overthrow another. DRCongo is 85 times bigger than Rwanda!
That aside; Tarehe Sita had to be celebrated in my district of Kyotera. This was long overdue considering the contribution of Kyotera to our liberation wars.
When President Yoweri Museveni and his son, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, stood to address Kyotera citizens, at a place called Kasasa near Sanje, they were perhaps oblivious of the fact that among the crowd were over 200 now old men, former UNLA soldiers, and about 300 equally aged and retired NRA/ UPDF fighters.
I could see Major Gen. Elly Kayanya; the ghost of Colonel Lauben Mugenyi: Sgt. Nelko Simbwa, Cpl. John Kalema, Wasswa Kibulaniya, Edward Tibagwa, Peter Mukasa, Vincent Kinene, Ronald Settuba, John Mbulo, among many former liberation fighters seated quietly at that Sanje- Kasasa celebration.
Though President Museveni mentioned Sanje in passing, it was actually that Amin’s ambush at Sanje that annihilated the September 1972 rebels who invaded Uganda.
The young Museveni would escape from another massacre at Kigagati and swarm back to Tanzania to regroup. It would take another six years before he led his charges to attack Uganda again.
At Kasasa, I was seated among the crowd unrecognized though the day was celebrating my bravery. I could guess also that the ghost of Lt. Col. GW Kamya (the father of Betty Kamya) was seated among us.
Unfortunately, Kyotera, the gateway to the great Tanzanian market onward to Dar es Salaam port, and the father of our revolution, remains underdeveloped. It has the worst roads in Uganda but across the border to Tanzania, you simply wonder how two peoples can behave vastly different!
Tanzania has built all its roads (huge distances) and Uganda has not (small distances). Yet intra trade between the two countries is vibrant. It is actually shameful to drive inside Tanzania from Dar es Salaam port to Mutukula border (1450 km) using nearly the same time as driving from Mutukula to Kampala (210 km)!
As we celebrated Tarehe Sita, we the fighters and liberators of Kyotera were largely unhappy.
Imagine that since the liberation wars (1979 to 2025), Kyotera has had a handful of ministers or soldiers elevated to high ranks. The highest decorated soldier is Major Gen. Elly Kayanya and the late Col. Lauben Mugenyi.
We have had a few ministers like Prof. Ponsiano Mulema, Maria Mutagamba and now Haruna Kasolo.
I think MK (if he became our president), who was born in nearby Tanzania, will realize the mistake of his father and improve the welfare and infrastructure of Kyotera and sister Rakai District.
So you know, in 1985, our gallant leader- Yoweri Museveni- had returned with an assortment of guns and weapons from Tanzania and passed at Mutukula. I was among the ‘Kadogos’ who escorted him up to Lwengo.
Kyotera, if you were to rank districts by their historical contribution to our liberation, would be placed on top. But, except for the land cruiser belonging to Hon. Haruna Kasolo and Maria Cargo, Kyotera and it’s sister Rakai District remains an orphaned land.
Therefore driving on fast-class roads in eastern Uganda or western Uganda and Kyotera remains orphaned, is an error of biblical proportions.
BY WAY OF CONCLUSION:
Being near the border area therefore the theatre of Amin -Nyerere revenge attacks, we literally became immune to guns and artillery fires. Even our schooling was halted and many people deserted the area and settled elsewhere.
Our people suffered immensely in those two liberation wars but, almost like their Luweero counterparts, remains unappreciated. We need roads, schools and hospitals. We don’t need handouts because we are a hardworking people.
During the 1979 border war however, I remember seeing Paulo Muwanga, Kassendwa Ddumba and Samwiri Mugwisa often visiting the recruits and telling them in not so many words that were part of a future ‘Buganda’ army.
My father would often tell us that Uganda was headed for further trouble because Yoweri Museveni was training in the West; Paulo Muwanga and Samwiri Mugwisa in Buganda while David Oyite Ojok was overseeing the mass enrollment of Langis and Acholi tribes mate in the national army.
This idea later exploded leading to the Luweero bush war. And to avoid the reoccurrence of this insanity is what makes us vote for Mr. Museveni every five years.
At 11 years old, I was fond of listening to army stories especially the Museveni attack on Kabamba and subsequent melting into the Luweero bushes. My elder cousin brother, Judge Mujuluzi Serunkuuma of the Tanzanian High Court, would play a part in demonizing Idi Amin and talking about the bravery of Yoweri Museveni.
It was these Mujuluzi stories that would form my decision to join the NRA (National Resistance Army) a few years later.
BUT MY DISTRICT OF KYOTERA deserves a better treatment from our government. If President Museveni who knows the significance of Kyotera in our wars of liberation is not moved to help, who will then?
The incoming class of leaders (Bobi Wine and group) don’t want to be associated with any talk of LIBERATION. They don’t believe that our generation had to ‘liberate’ our motherland!
They don’t understand that every nation- state has to go through some bitter phases!
LAST WORD: “A revolution is what is left when everything else fails!”
– Author unknown
Sgt (Rtd) Adam Kamulegeya
0779 104 336
adamkam2003@gmail.com
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