September 9, 1977, remains one of the darkest dates in Uganda's history, when 12 prominent Ugandans were publicly executed at the Kampala Clock Tower during the regime of President Idi Amin.
The executions followed the failed Operation Mafuta Mingi, an alleged coup plot launched on June 18, 1977, by dissident Uganda Army and Uganda Army Air Force officers and their civilian associates.
The plot was reportedly intended to assassinate Amin and overthrow his government.
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The attempt failed after information about the conspiracy reached Amin's intelligence apparatus. While some of the alleged military organisers, including Major Patrick Kimumwe and his associates, escaped or went into hiding, the regime embarked on a crackdown against people suspected of supporting or financing the plot.
Among those arrested was Abdalla Anyuru, a senior civil servant who had served as chairman of the Uganda Public Service Commission.
Anyuru and 11 others were brought before a summary Military Tribunal chaired by Juma Butabika and convicted of high treason.
On the afternoon of Friday, September 9, the 12 men were taken to the Kampala Clock Tower, where thousands of people gathered as a military firing squad carried out the executions. The spectacle was reported internationally as "Death in the Afternoon."
Those executed alongside Anyuru were Y. Y. Okot, a former chief inspector of schools; Daniel Nsereko, a former assistant commissioner of police; Elias Okidi-Menya, former general manager of Lake Victoria Bottling Company; and John Leji Olobo, a senior industrial relations officer.
Others were Lt Ben Ogwang, a military intelligence officer; Peter Atua, a former principal officer at Murchison Bay Prison; E. N. Mutabazi, a former superintendent of prisons; and John Kabandize, a former senior superintendent of prisons at Mubuku.
Also executed were businessman Ben Ongom; former Lira Technical Institute teacher Julius Peter Adupa; and Garrison S. Anono, former principal of Bobi Foundation School.
The public nature of the executions was widely seen as an attempt by Amin's government to intimidate civilians, civil servants and other officials suspected of sympathising with opponents of the regime.
The episode became one of the most enduring symbols of the repression and state terror that characterised Amin's rule, demonstrating the extreme consequences faced by those accused of challenging his government.
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