How my operation in Tanzania turned deadly

Mwalimu Nyerere with the then Chief of Defence Forces, General Abdallah Twalipo (left), and Major General David Musuguri during the Kagera War. PHOTO | FILE 

By Henry Lubega ,The Citizen Reporter

Posted  Tuesday, June 3  2014 at  00:00

In Summary

• In this third part of our series on the 1978-79 Kagera War that pitted Tanzania and Uganda, culminating in the overthrow of dictator Idi Amin, one of the commanders who twice led Ugandan troops into Tanzania territory, Lt Col (rtd) Abdu Kisuule, recalls early tensions and events that laid the ground for war.

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Kampala. A few months after Gen Idi Amin’s coup in 1971, Ugandan troops under Kisuule, who was then a Lieutenant, entered Tanzania to rescue their colleagues who had sneaked there in search of water. Kisuule, who was later promoted to Lt Col, was to enter Tanzania again seven years later but this time commanding the Ugandan troops into the Kagera Salient for a full-scale war between the two countries. Below is the commander’s account:

The Uganda-Tanzania relations were characterised by a number of military skirmishes between 1971 and 1978 when the conflict erupted into a full scale war. After the 1971 military coup, a number of Milton Obote’s men -- both military and civilians -- went to Tanzania and this obviously made it Uganda’s enemy.

1971 incursion into Tanzania

I don’t recall the date and month, but it was a few months after the January coup of 1971, when president Amin went to open the newly constructed Ntungamo-Kabale road. I was commanding A Company of the Marile Mechanised Specialist Recce Regiment. We were ordered to go to Kikagati where we stayed for two days before being told to go to the Mutukula border.

This was my first time to go to Mutukula. We instead pitched the company headquarters in Rakai District for a couple of days before orders came that we move closer to the Tanzanian border.

Soldiers kidnapped

That very day I moved the company to Kasambya on the road to Minziro, where we reached at night. In the morning I ordered some of my boys to go and fetch water to prepare breakfast. As I waited for the breakfast, I got a report from Officer Kenneth Onzima that four of my men had been kidnapped in Mutukula. That was on August 24, 1971.

I had to analyse the situation and to not report to the headquarters in Kampala. I had to do all within my means to rescue my men. I told Onzima to be my reconnaissance officer as I made arrangements with the security people on the Ugandan side of the border at Mutukula. I told them “when you see APCs (Armoured Personnel Carriers) coming, just open the gate”.

I mobilised six APCs, arranging them in numbers and putting my senior and most experienced APC driver, Sgt Hussein Doka, in the lead APC where I was myself. The plan was that when the security guards at the Ugandan side see the APCs coming, they just open the border gate and we go through at full speed to force our way into Tanzania.

With all the six APCs ready, I entered the lead one and raised the other five on radio: “Hullo all stations moving now.” Each APC was calling its number 2-6, all saying “over” and I said, “Move out now.” That’s was the last order I gave and we moved at full speed towards the border. The security did as we had planned, opening the border entrance long before we reached. We went straight into Tanzania.

I was looking through my binoculars when we entered Tanzania. The last thing I recall was seeing a small red light at a distance. The APC was hit and I was badly wounded. My rib cage was blown open, leaving my lungs hanging, with the diaphragm destroyed.

Before I lost consciousness, I asked Sgt Doka: “Are you hit?” he said, “No.” I told him to turn left or right and take my body back to Uganda. By the time I regained consciousness, the APC had been stuck in mud inside Tanzania. Sgt Doka and the gunner had run away, leaving me and a few recruits in the APC. Fortunately, the recruits were not hurt.