Kampala — Henry Kyemba was one of the technocrats who served in the Amin regime. He served as Principal Private Secretary and then Health Minister until he fell out with the dictator in May 1977.
He takes us into Idi Amin's administration. January 25th 1971 had seen the coup that overthrew Milton Obote and brought in Idi Amin. For sure, responses to the coup amongst the population were varied but certainly many people hoped for better times ahead. They were all, myself included, to be disillusioned.
I had met Amin around 1965 when he was a soldier stationed near my home at the famous Gaddafi Barracks in Jinja. He was a junior officer in the King's African Rifles.
I knew him because his girlfriend, and future wife Maryamu - was the daughter of my old headmaster, the late Kibedi - and sister to my good friend Joshua Wanume Kibedi. At that time Amin had something of a reputation for his sporting abilities.
He was a boxing champion and was reputed among his English commanders as being a useful member of the regiment, especially on the football field. Since he was six foot four inches and must have weighed well over two hundred pounds he would certainly have been a formidable opponent.
Amin later tried to claim that he had had something of a war-time military record. He claimed he had fought in World war II.
He had infact joined the army in 1946 and his tales of military prowess were merely attempts to dramatise an otherwise undistinguished military career. His VC (Victoria Cross), DSO (Distinguished Service Cross) and MC (Military Cross), like most of his other "honours" were self-awarded.
Similarly self-awarded was his CBE (Conqueror of The British Empire)! It was shortly before independence that Amin first acquired notoriety for ruthlessness. He moved up in the ranks and had become one of the only two senior African officers in the King's African Rifles.
Amin was sent to quell inter-tribal fights in the Karamoja and Turkana and in the process killed a number of innocent civilians. He was almost court-martialed but was saved only because with independence approaching, it was regarded as politically embarrassing to take action against one of the only two Ugandan Officers in the army.
In the first few years of independence, Amin's power and influence grew. Obote, who came to rely increasingly on Amin, distrusted the other senior officer in the Ugandan army, Brigadier Shaban Opolot.
Obote, alas, gave Amin the opportunity to establish his personal fortune. At that time the Belgian Congo, later Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, was in turmoil.
Obote wanted to aid the rebels who were still fighting the new government of Moise Tshombe and Mobutu. The rebels were losing.
Obote, bypassing the Army Commander Opolot, told his deputy, Amin to organise arms and transport for the rebels. Amin did so in exchange for truckloads of gold and ivory, that the rebels had seized in their retreat.
No records were ever kept. Amin received the gold and ivory in his house, used some to buy arms for the rebels and cashed in the rest. He must have made himself something of a fortune at that time. It caused a massive scandal, but events in Uganda made a democratic inquiry practically impossible.
As time went on, Obote's political support dwindled. He began to imprison his political opponents without trial. Amin, now in full command, of the army, was effectively the guarantor of Obote's Government. Uganda was slipping towards military dictatorship.
Obote was of course conscious of Amin's power. Military coups were taking place all over Africa and a powerful military leader would automatically have been seen as a threat to democracy.
Amin knew of Obote's suspicions. Gradually the two became rivals. The showdown came on January 25, 1971. I was with Obote in Singapore for a meeting of the Commonwealth Prime Ministers. Amin thought that Obote was about to have him arrested. He decided to retaliate in advance and take over the Government.
On January 24, he contacted a few of his most trusted officers and told them to take over the armouries, a few tanks and the radio station. Within a few hours he was in a position to announce his takeover.
After the coup, it became more obvious that Amin was grossly inadequate for the high office of president. He was almost illiterate, his English was poor, he read very badly and clearly had a hard time just signing prepared documents! As his first Principal Private Secretary, I never ever received a handwritten note from him! Amin had no idea of governments were run.
He had no experience of civil service procedures or of modern economies. In the early days, the very thought of speaking in public made him break out into a sweat! At first, these very inadequacies, gave politicians inside Uganda and the intentional community some hope this state of affairs would not last.
We all thought - and Amin told us many times - that the traditional political life of Uganda would reassert itself, that elections would be held, that the civil service would not be interfered with, that the country would soon get back on an even keel. Because Obote had been so unpopular, Amin was acclaimed as a hero.
His regime was rapidly recognised by other nations. But disappointments were rapid as well. Rather than attempting to overcome his inadequacies, Amin was determined to eradicate all criticism of them.
He made barnstorming tours of the country with his cabinet. But instead of reading speeches prepared for him by able advisors, he preferred to speak off the cuff.
He began to promise heaven and earth to the crowds who gathered to listen to him. His ministers were expected to take down his promises and fulfil them.
But there was no way to follow up his orders with him and no money to pay for them. He refused to take the advice of his ministers and simply ignored the economic realities of life.
Anyone not complying became a saboteur and enemy. Amin's reign of terror spread rapidly from the barracks to every facet of life in the entire country.
Thousands were murdered and a few managed to escape into exile including myself but the vast majority of Ugandans remained at the mercy and whims of Amin's military machine. In my book, "The State of Blood," which I dedicated to the memory of one hundred friends murdered by Amin, written in 1977 while I was in exile in London, I listed some of those I knew were dead.
The list included among others my elder brother R.L. Kisajja, the Late Hon Shaban K. Nkutu, Chief Justice Benedicto Kiwanuka, Archbishop Janan Luwum, Frank Kalimuzo, Late Hon Basil Bataringaya, Late Hon John Kakonge, Prof. Emiru, Henry Kagoda, Mrs Dora Block and Bank of Uganda Governor Joseph Mubiru.(See table) Amin's reign of terror will continue to be a subject of debate for many years to come. How can one explain such man's inhumanity to man? Amin's friends and foes alike met the most grotesque deaths.
One could possibly try to understand the fate of the foes but what about his friends and very close relatives - wives included - such as Kay Amin? And simple terror, officially sanctioned against the population! A few cases: Uganda's first Prime Minister and former Chief Justice Benedicto Kiwanuka. I remember his case very well because he was grabbed at the High Court on the same day as my own brother was a bundled away from his place of work at Nytil Jinja for a similar fate.
The Chief Justice is not just any ordinary person. Common sense demands that he must be accorded due respect.
But to have him eliminated in such a humiliating manner! He was seized in broad daylight at the High Court; the Peugeot 504 that took him away was properly identified and yet the citizenry was not able to prevent it or to have justice done after the murder. The Minister of Works, Housing, Transport and Communications in Obote's first government, Shaban Kirunda Nkutu, was murdered by the state on January 11, 1973.
After the coup, he had retired to a quiet life of private business in Jinja and Kampala. Nkutu, who was a personal friend, was a very gentle and law abiding individual.
He had been very close to Obote (they had attended the same secondary school) and was senior in the Uganda Peoples Congress party, as National Chairman. He had risen in the hierarchy and I remember he was one of those ministers whom I, as Principal Private Secretary, did not have to ask the President if he would grant audience, whenever he came to our offices.
A former teacher, he had a huge number of friends and was well known for his calm disposition. Nkutu had chosen not to flee into exile.
He was an uncle to the First Lady, Mama Maryamu and her brother, the then Foreign Minister, Wanume Kibedi. He had been detained at Makindye Barracks after the coup but Amin had later released him and guaranteed his safety.
On that fateful day he was forcefully grabbed by Amin's State Research thugs at his office in Jinja. Ordinary people put up a fight to save him and stopped the security agents from putting him in the boot of a car.
They left but returned with reinforcements. They found Nkutu frantically trying to raise Amin on the telephone. He was taken away and brutally murdered at Gadaffi Barracks. His severely mutilated body was recovered from the Source of the Nile river waters and taken to Jinja Hospital where crowds soon formed.
It was taken away by the army, never to be seen by the family. The murder shocked the nation and Amin was forced to disclaim responsibility by announcing that Nkutu had "fled to Tanzania." A massive reward was placed on his head.
Everybody knew he had been murdered. Kibedi was in Ghana and when he confirmed the killing, he resigned as Foreign Minister and did not return.
The murder of Shaban Nkutu also took its toll on the marriage between Amin and the First Lady, Mama Maryamu who left the State House and fled the country. Perhaps one of the most obscure and horrific deaths related to Kay Amin, Amin's wife number two who was later officially divorced by Amin along with two others at the same time in 1974.
Kay Amin was first arrested early in August 1974 for being in possession of a pistol, a pistol she said belonged to her husband Amin himself. The trial Magistrate, totally at a loss, simply cautioned her and released her.
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But worse was to come later. Around 14th August 1974, Kay's dismembered body was found in the boot of a car belonging to a Doctor Mbalu-Mukasa who had himself committed suicide early in the day! When I, as Minister of Health later reported this grave matter to Amin, he simply ordered me to have the dismembered parts sown back on to the torso and then arrange for him to view the body with the deceased's children after which it was flown to Arua for burial! There was no grieving.
Amin's Cabinet had almost an impossible task to perform in an environment of ignorance particularly as far as security matters were concerned. Disappearances of persons was classified as a security matter.
Internationally, Uganda achieved a terrible image. The East African Community collapsed and the expulsion of the Asian community disrupted our commercial and industrial life to the advantage of our neighbours who turned our country into a market for even the most basic needs such as soap and toilet paper.
In all this, there was clearly no alternative but to remove the dictatorship in its totality. Not merely Amin as a person. The occasion offered itself with Amin invading Kagera triangle of Tanzania in 1978. What followed is a familiar story
The final defeat of Idi Amin on April 11, 1979 found me at Evanston U.S.A., at the Northwestern University, several thousand miles away from the mother country I had been forced to flee.
I knew I would be more useful to my country if I waged my campaign from outside the country rather than risk death at home because of the vast knowledge I had of the happenings in Uganda. But would Ugandans take the opportunity offered or would it be spirited away? You all know or should know the answer as to what happened after the 11th April 1979.
The UNLF and the Tanzania People's Defence Forces ousted Idi Amin who was forced to flee for his dear life. Amin's rule had reduced Uganda to its knees and it was difficult even to imagine that anything could be any worse after him.
What was needed was the spirit of tolerance and compromise after April 11. But Uganda's conspiratorial and violent politics was to live on even after Amin and Obote II to our country s detriment and agony.
The recovery is still incomplete. Kyemba's book, State of Blood, which played a key role in exposing the Amin horror and won international acclaim has been reprinted in Uganda by Fountain Publishers, is available in bookstores.
