On the morning of 6th February 1981, a group of 42 people holding 27 guns and pistols stormed Kabamba barracks with an aim of looting guns that would be used for their protracted war on Apollo Milton Obote’s government.
They attack was a success and the rest is history.
Fast forward, on January 11, 2018, almost 37 years later, the place is as quiet as a grave. Save a few who guard the quarter-guard, you can hardly notice there are soldiers at the place.
As soon as you enter the gates of Kabamba, a giant portrait for the then National Resistance Army commander and now president Museveni with his AK47 rifle commanding his troops welcomes you.
This, according to Gen.Elly Tumwine and Col. Richard Kitatta Sseguya, the place’s current deputy commandant, is the place where the first bullet was fired and marked the beginning of the five year protracted liberation war, that many have always come to describe as the story of 42 people with 27 guns.
Gen.Tumwine, vividly recalls the events on the fateful day as if they happened only a few seconds ago, and he is proud while sharing his story about this day of February 6, 1981.
“Have you ever seen a mango tree full of fruits? That is what Uganda is now. What a wonderful result it was (after the Kabamba attack),”Gen.Tumwine happily says as he shares his story to the Nile Post reporter while at his home in Nakasero.
He says that the journey that led them to Kabamba can be traced as back as their days at Ntare School together with a few of their fellow students discussing pan Africanism.
Tumwine, who was one of the 27 people who started the NRA says that at the end of the 1979 liberation war, he was among the group 0f 300 cadet officers sent to Munduli,( Tanzania Military Academy) for training and from there, he was posted to Masindi as a training instructor.
“We had earlier got in touch and discussed with Museveni who had taught me in primary school that if the 1980 elections were rigged, we could go to the bush as the only way out.”
“We were (after returning from Munduli) slowly contacting some our close friends we trusted to bring their guns. A few days to the attack, we gathered and people brought in their guns at Bukikerezi house in Makindye where we kept them for a night before leaving for Kabamba,”Tumwine narrates.
He says the group had organised a truck through Brig.Lutaaya and left in evening of 5th February 1981 from Makindye with their 27 guns.
“All the guns and pistols we had were 27 and we were 43 including our contacts in Kabamba.”
Tumwine says they also had a pickup vehicle where Museveni and himself plus a few others rode up to Nyendo in Masaka but their car tyre got a puncture before reaching Masaka prompting Museveni to seek assistance from a friend in the area to lend them a small car to be used.
Meanwhile, the group divide themselves into four, each with a specific role towards the attack at Kabamba barracks and Tumwine was assigned to capture the quarter-guard.
“The arrangement was that when we reach the quarter-guard, we capture it and a few people move with the small vehicle and take control of the armoury,” he says.
The UPDF four star general says that because he had a Uganda National Liberation Army Uniform, he was tasked to sweet talk the guards at the quarter-guard.
“There were two Tanzania guards at entrance. I started engaging them in a talk that I was from the headquarters and had brought them supplies. I had a password for my section that when they hear me say I have brought food they start firing. I started talking about supplies as I took my time for the small car to pass.”
“When it passed, the guard got alerted and cocked his gun. I had already corked mine and shot at him. This was the first bullet.”
He says they found a hard time capturing the armoury for weapons because the guard resisted them but said after the attack at Kabamba, they went away with a Land Rover and other equipment that helped them throughout the war.
Tumwine says joining the 1981- 86 liberation war is the most critical decision he has ever taken and has brought fruits not only to him but also the entire country.
The then Kabamba barracks a place where the first bullet for the five year liberation struggle was taken , 38 kilometres from the main road has now been turned into the Uganda Military Academy.
According to Col. Richard Kitatta Sseguya, the Deputy Commandant at the academy and also the chief instructor, the school was established in 1962 by the British to cater for trainees who had been identified to serve as officers and a number of current UPDF commanders have gone through Kabamba.
“Here, we take soldiers through what an officer or leader is supposed to be and some of those who have gone through this place include the current CDF,”Col.Kitatta says.
In 2016, President Museveni said that beginning with the 2017/18 academic year, the Uganda Military Academy at Kabamba will start offering degree programs after running the officers’ cadet course for nearly 28 years.
“We have been offering a one-year course for our officer cadets and this time, we intend to change to a three-year course to award degrees in Defence and Security [Studies] because the demand for our courses is growing tremendously,”Museveni said in October 2016 at Kabamba.
Comparatively; had one bullet gone to the right direction on January 23, 1973, Ugandan politics would completely have taken a different direction.
To those who would rather take different angles, we would never have had the constitutional amendment to have the age limit removed, or more closely, today would never have been named the National Liberation Day, may be to the satisfaction of many from the opposition that have accused the ruling NRM and Yoweri Museveni of vainglorious infallibility, Yoweri Museveni would never have been president of this republic.
On the day, forty two years ago, Museveni, then a young guerilla fighter camouflaging as a student from Tanzania had visited Malukhu Estate in Mbale with two of his colleagues; Martin Mwesigwa and a one Kazimoto (Originally called Mpiima Wunku).
The visitors were hosted at the home of their key mobiliser, Maumbe Mukhwana. According to records and Museveni, the house was numbered 49.
“In the 1970’s I had occasion to fight Amin’s soldiers in Mbale two times, I was actually almost killed in Malukhu estates on the 23 Jan 1973 in house number 49, I think it is still there,” Museveni narrates.
While Museveni and his colleagues chatted about at the house, they were joined by a one Patrick Bukeni Namatiti who was coming in from Tanzania where he was a trainee. Namatiti is alive and he has collaborated the story.
Namatiti had carried messages from Prof Dani Nabudere and James Wapakhabulo who was then the principle legal officer of the EAC. On arrival, Namatiti was diverted by Museveni and he did not pass on the messages immediately, instead an inquisitive Museveni started cross-examining him to find if his information coordinated or if he was not a set up.
The cross examination took about an hour, and before they could now settle for what their intention was, they were joined by other visitors- government soldiers.
Amin’s soldiers surrounded the house and they had Museveni and crew in their custody, albeit temporarily.
“The soldiers surrounded the house in a very unprofessional manner, they did not cock their guns,” Museveni narrates later.
“We don’t know who tipped off the soldiers but at that particular moment, Maumbe’s wife came because she was concerned that I did not have a local identity card. At that time, I had an ID from Tanzania. She warned me to get out of the house through the backdoor. Museveni was still in the sitting room with his colleagues,” Namatiti narrates.
“As I was getting out, I remembered that I had come with a bag which had Museveni’s messages. Maumbe’s wife insisted that I get out of the house as fast as I could but I told her that my bag was still there, angrily, she replied: “No get out of here.” Namatiti continues.
Namatiti adds that he had less to see as he started speeding off towards Malukhu forest.
Meanwhile Museveni and his colleagues were being quizzed by the army that had deployed heavily at the residence. They asked Museveni and colleagues to walk out and head to a waiting car. Half way, the commander of the operation asks Museveni who owned the private car that had parked in the compound (a Volkswagen), Museveni replies the car was his, he was then ordered to get in the same car with his colleagues and drive ahead to the barracks.
“One of the soldiers, poking a rifle into my side, told me to open and enter the car. Taking them by surprise, I jumped over the hedge, hoping that my colleagues would follow my example and scatter in different directions. At that time, I realized that they had not done so.”
A quicker younger Museveni, pursued by a quite older, Amin soldier burdened by gumboots, sprinted several yards ahead of his would be captor. The soldier would neither shoot, nor run faster and Museveni used the opportunity to tear away.
When the soldier saw Museveni widening the distance, and of course realizing the fact that he would not make it with the footrace, he started shooting.
The soldier’s bullets could have written a different story for Uganda for each bullet went out with a future written on it, but they did not meet their target, allowing Museveni sprint off and later land in a chair at state house as the president of Uganda.
“I managed to escape and slept in a lodge near Bugema barracks,” Museveni narrates.
Museveni says that a young boy by the name Namirundu died in his place.
“The boy by a name of Namirundu who was publicly executed in Mbale, he used to give me food, he died in my place.” Today Uganda celebrates NRA/NRM liberation. End