By Ahmed Kateregga Musaazi
At one of the Mauled ceremonies to celebrate the birth of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) in Kasawo, Saza Kyaggwe, now Mukono District, in December 1970, the then Chief of Defense Forces Maj.Gen. Idi Amin Dada called upon the Muslim congregation to pray for the late Sir Edward Muteesa ll who had died in exile in England in 1969.
The Mauled was organized by the Uganda Muslim Community Juma and Zukuri Sect under Prince Badru Kakungulu, who, and his Sheikh Islam, Ali Kulumba were under detention without trial suspected to be behind the plot to murder Obote in 1969. Yet Amin belonged to the rival National Association for the Advancement of Muslims (NAAM) under Obote’s cousin Al Haji Akbar Adoko Nekyon deputized by Sheikh Abdul Obeid Kamulegeya, whose Mufti was Sheikh Shuaib Ssemakula.
After the ceremony, Amin posed in a group photograph with prominent Kibuli based sheikhs, which was the cover picture for almost all local newspapers including Musizi Magazine of January 1971 published by Munno Publications.
A slow and reluctant Obote failed to take action against his mutinous general and by January 25th 1971, with the help of the Israelis under the command of Col. Barley who was Israel’s military attaché in Uganda, Amin had taken over, declared himself Military Head of State and subsequently President.
Although Amin later abandoned the Judeo-Anglo-American network that had switched him to power in favor of the Libyan-Soviet Axis, to use President Yoweri Museveni’s phrase in 10 point program, ( Articles on the Resistance War 1985), in his heart and mind, Amin remained a Queen’s admirer. This is well reflected in his master bed room at State House Entebbe, where Tanzanian forces under Gen. David Msuguri and journalists found only two pictures hanging; The one of the late Col.Muammar El Qaddaffi of Libya, and that of Queen Elizabeth ll of England (War in Uganda 1982).
That’s part of our post independence history as Uganda and as Africa. According to Prof. Samwiri Karugire, (Roots of Instability in Uganda 1988 published by The New Vision), Ugandans study history only to pass exams but cannot stop history from repeating itself.
Over the weekend National Unity Platform Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine, while at the duwa of Haji Mirundi, father of the Lord Mayor, Al Haji Ssalongo Erias Lukwago, paid tribute to Sheikh Jamil Mukulu Alilabaki Kyagulanyi, who is on treasons, terrorism and murder charges and is on remand in Luzira maximum prisons, for armed struggle he spearheaded under Allied Democratic Forces and regarded him as a political prisoner.
What Bobi did not acknowledge was that Prince Dr. Kassim Nakibinge Kakungulu, the titular head of Muslim Community in Uganda, who was present, was one of Jamil Mukulu’s targets who was missed target and the government had to provide him maximum security of uniform and plain clothed officers and men of UPDF until Jamil Mukulu was arrested in Tanzania and repatriated to Uganda.
Bobi reiterated he is the one behind the European Parliament’s resolution that sought to block construction of the oil pipeline from Hoima in Uganda to Tanga in Tanzania (but one of his MPs told us that Bobi is overrating himself for he has no such capacity as the issue was partly as a result of Western plot to check on growing Chinese and to the extent Russian influence in Africa).
While many land owners and bibanja holders in Greater Mubende and greater Masaka, in whose land an oil pipeline and an oil road is going to pass and they are waiting for compensation are up in arms against Bobi Wine. The European Union Commission has said it has no problem with the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) Project. They said it should go ahead according to head of the European Union Delegation to Uganda, Caroline Adriaensen.
Uganda’s post independence history is characterized with, to borrow from Akena Adoko (From Obote to Obote 1983), conflicts and battles, monarchies swept away, an experimentation of socialism, the regime of murder and despair, liberation against heavy odds…: While the whole of Uganda is secure thanks to gallant sons and daughters of UPDF under the command of President Yoweri Museveni and National Resistance Movement, the discovery of oil is the most significant land mark in our post independence times and anybody against is a traitor.
While we always differentiate between authors and misled, Bobi may not be the author of the unpredictable public utterances he is making these days. But if he cannot be called to order, at least he and other political party leaders be taken for patriotic lessons at National Leadership Institute (NALI) Kyankwanzi.
Failure to do so, they will be either arrested and prosecuted for treason terrorism, economic sabotage and other crimes or the country will go back to anarchy of Obote and Amin’s days.
Happy Independence.
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