BY AHMED KATEREGGA MUSAAZI
In the afternoon hours of April 11th 1979, as l was grazing cows and goats near our home at Nambiriizi village in Mawogola County now Ssembabule District, my adopted brother Asumani Ssali, came with breaking news saying that Kampala had fallen to Tanzanian forces and Ugandan exiles.
I quickly dismissed him because I had heard the Uganda army spokesperson say in the previous Luganda news on Radio Uganda that, “Omulabe awedde okwebungululwa, ennyonyi zisigadde kwokya bwokya,” (the enemy has been surrounded and what was remaining was for the jet fighters to burn them off).
I also said that Uganda was allied to Libya and Russia (defunct Soviet Union) and could not be easily defeated. I was an innocent victim of Idi Amin’s war propaganda despite the fact that l with my parents used to listen to Luganda news on Radio Tanzania Dar Es Salaam which showed that Uganda Army was suffering from defeat and desertion as Tanzanian forces and Ugandan exiles were making advances.
However, upon reaching my grandfather’s home, l confirmed that Uganda, which l had supported, out of patriotism, had been defeated. My parents and grandparents were opposed to Idi Amin because of his 1975 Land Reform Decree that had abolished Mailo Land tenure and loss of control of our village mosque which was built along traditions of Africa Muslim Community Bukoto Nateete, now under leadership of imams from another sect, with the support of Uganda Muslim Supreme Council.
My father, Sheikh Abbaas Kimera and my grandfather Zuli Arabi Mukasa, were said to be secret collaborators with Wakombozi, as Tanzania solders were called as opposed to another group led by Rashid Katende, who was a Mutongole Chief, but later retired as a Muluka Chief under NRM Government, were actively supporting Uganda Army and even made local recruitment, at the peak of the war. However, those recruits some, my relatives, eventually ended up in Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA) which became the national army after the overthrow of Amin..
Two weeks earlier, a one Saturday evening, a stranger came riding a “China” bicycle telling people to leave the village as it was going to be a battle filed the following day. None took him seriously, but in the middle of the night an artillery of the Wakombozi “Saba Saba” that had been stationed at Kitaasa in now Bukomamasimb I District, was hitting Ssembabule rapidly and widely, and by morning, Nnambiiriizi was battle field between the Tanzanians that had stationed at my village in the night, and Ugandan Army that was based at Bugaba and Banda villages with the support of a tank that was at the home of the Ssaza Chief, Corporal Francis Kasozi.
By afternoon, the Tanzanians had lost the battle but not the war, as two weeks later, they did not only capture Ssembabule, but also Kampala and Amin’s eight year government fell.
We had spent a month without schooling as Uganda Army Mechanized Reconnaissance Regiment based in Masaka under the second command of the then Maj.Bernard Rwehururu, had stationed in Ssembabule, after the fall of Masaka, in order to block the Tanzanian advance. Fierce battles raged in Ssembabule which are well documented in War in Uganda (1982) by David Martin and From Cross to Gun, by Brig. Rwehururu.
The civilian deaths and causalities were a few in Ssembabule like Nakasagga, the only student at Ssembabule P.7. School, we lost by a stray bullet, and Ssembabule town mosque imam, Abbaas Bukenya, who was beaten to death by Uganda Army soldiers, but his body never decayed until it was found and buried, and some old men including Lupiyazitta and Wookulira shot dead by Tanzanians suspecting them to be collaborators with Amin’s solders since they had not run away and were cooking for the soldiers stolen chicken, and several brothers from one family at Bukaana, who were killed by Amin’s soldiers, suspecting them of collaborating with Tanzanians.
Masaka became a ghost town as it was razed to the ground so were Mbarara and Arua. The political commissars of the Central Axis, from Mutukula to Masaka, Samwiri Mugwisa, who later became Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, made an empty promise when he said that walls to be assembled to restore destroyed buildings including the magnificent Town Hall, had been ordered from US Rehabilitation and Development Corporation which were never imported.
However, under NRM 10 and later 15 point program, five year development plans, and NRM election manifestos, Masaka is no longer a ghost town but a city due to the peace and security ushered in by NRM/NRA under President Yoweri Museveni’s leadership, where the private sector has played a significant role.
While Masaka was one of the cities to be created in the last phase, Kabaka demanded that let it is in the first phase and Cabinet and Parliament did the needful and thus it doubles as Kabaka’s city and an agricultural city. Hadn’t President Museveni’s restored institutions of traditional and cultural leaders in areas where people cherish them, at a meeting he held at Liberation Square in Masaka in 1985, not fulfilled, probably by now, Masaka may not be yet a city.
As we mark 43 years of the fall of Idi Amin regime, we should ensure that we don’t repeat Amin’s mistakes, including a failure to build a people’s army. When the war broke out, Tanzanian People’s Defence Forces which were 54,000 strong according to President Yoweri Museveni, found it easier to defeat Uganda Army which was only 20,000 and anti -people recruited along sectarian lines. There were no democratically elected leaders in Central or local governments, as it is the case now and Ugandans saw the government as an occupation force.
For example the first Mayor of Masaka Municipality was imposed by Obote’s Government in 1968 so were the councilors. But, now the first Mayor of Masaka City Florence Namayanja, was democratically elected by Masaka citizens so are city and divisional councilors. With democratization and popular participation, infrastructural development especially on city roads, street lights and markets are going on. Let us be patriotic and not rebellious or partisan and we benefit in government programs including poverty alleviation ones like Emyoga and Parish Development Model.
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