Gen Musuguri Who Commanded The 1979 War ‘Dies’ To Meet Gen Amin

Gen Musuguri Who Commanded The 1979 War ‘Dies’ To Meet Gen Amin

By Angel Lubowa

KAMPALA

WHEN Gen Idi Amin Dada was trying to settle in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia after a stay in Libya after his government had been toppled by Tanzania forces , he urged his henchmen to take fate.

Deep in his mind, the deposed dictator and a servant of Allah weighed on what he was going through realizing that time couldn’t draw back they had to accept reality. Though with a heavy heart especially towards Tanzania.

Fourty five years down the road the Tanzanian General who commanded
the joint forces who ousted Gen Amin dies and his ghost must literally be engaged in a fist fight with the man he deposed whose body was laid to rest in Saudi Arabia.

We are talking about Gen David Musuguri the then
former Chief of Defence Forces at the time. He was
104 and passed away in Mwanza hospital last month (October) after a long illness.

Musuguri a formidable commander was instructed by the then Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere to command the joint force of Tanzania People’s Defense Forces (TPDF) and other forces to attack Uganda.

The joint force was made up of mostly Tanzania army battalions locally dubbed ” Bakomboozi’ and Ugandan militia groupings led by FRONASA of Mr Yoweri Museveni now Uganda’s president, “Kikosi Maalum” of late Dr Milton Obote and late Oyite Ojok and other smaller armed desidents from Uganda.

The Uganda _ Tanzanian war also known as Kagera war lasted between October 1978 and June 1979 when Amin’s government fell.

It had come about as a result of a series of provocation by Gen Idi Amin including the invasion of Tanzania territory bounded by Kagera river causing multiple death and destruction.

Amin the open dictator had got power drunk and fooled by his forces who kept Ugandans in fear as they carried out extra judicial killings unchecked and the country was everywhere in the foreign press.

Amin’s anger at Tanzania was looted in the fact that he and Nyerere were sworn enemies especially that Tanzania welcomed Milton Obote when Amin deposed him in a 1971 coup and Tanzania was home to.all forces which were working to overthrow Amin.

Therefore when Uganda forces overran Kagera in late 1978, Nyerere saw a golden chance to fight out Amin.

But perhaps most happiness went to Mr Yoweri Museveni and Obote group because they had longed for such an opportunity to see Amin fall but were weak against his forces.

Amin had quashed all rebel attacks by FRONASA and groups retreating to Tanzania.

With Gen Musuguri’s war at hand , Nyerere asked all rebel groupings on Tanzania soil to form a front and work with Tanzania forces to invade Uganda thus the infamous Moshi conference which brought them together.

After the conference the Gen Musuguri’s army with powerful guns like the ” Sabasaba” would lead the war as additional fighters of the then formed Uganda National Liberation Front ( UNLA) would back Tanzania.

The UNLA it self had groups with in the likes of FRONASA, “Kikosi Maalum”, among others.
Gen Musuguri moved steadily defeating Amin’s weakening army through Mutukula, Masaka, Mpigi and Kampala.

Amin must have registered alot of casualties , desertions and prisoners of war forcing him to seek help from his Libyan friend late Muamar Gaddafi though they did little to stop the attack force.

Seing defeat first coming his way, Gen Amin drove out of Kampala towards Arua and later fled to Libya before settling in Saudi Arabia from where he died.

Meanwhile in Kampala late Lt.Col Oyite Ojok announces the overthrow of Idi Amin on Radio Uganda.

The TPDF led by Maj Gen David Musuguri was now all over Kampala and Uganda at large ,backed by UNLA which had ‘then Col. Okello Lutwa and Oyite Ojok with Mr Yoweri Museveni as an under dog but with a big foresight which makes him president for almost fourty year today.

Born in Butiama, Mara Region, General Musuguri served in the military from 1942 to 1988 and retired as the Chief of Defence Forces from 1980 to 1988.

He began his military career in the King’s African Rifles (KAR), beginning as a private where he later served with the KAR in Madagascar.

By 1947, he became a sergeant and acted as an instructor at Kahawa Barracks in Nairobi, Kenya.

While there, he met future Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, who was his pupil. Thereafter, he joined the Tanzania People’s Defence Force (TPDF) and later in
1978, he led Tanzanian forces in the war against Idi Amin and overthrow him into exile.

Among the wars he fought are the Second World War, the Battle of Madagascar, the Kagera War, and the Battle of Simba Hills.