The 1966 attack on the Lubiri was the peak of the souring relationship between Mengo and Obote. Months after the attack, an attempt on Obote’s life was made only to hit his deputy John Babiiha. Sunday Monitor’s Henry Lubega tracked down Dan Kamanyi, the brain behind the first attempt on a sitting president’s life in Uganda. When Milton Obote attacked the Lubiri, some of us were not happy that the Baganda had not reacted. I and five friends decided to respond to Obote the best way he could understand. I organised a group of six people, four of them - John Obo, Henry Kyeyune, Capt Mugarura and Katabarwa - were cadets just dismissed from the army and were bitter. Others were Dan Kiwanuka and me. We started planning on how and where we could hit Obote from. Ambushing him was the easiest option but knowing when and where he was going was hard. We identified a spot around Seguku on Entebbe Road, where we planned to mount our machine guns one on each side of the road with the road down in the valley; we had procured the machine guns from Somalia. Luzira pass out As we finalised the details of the ambush, lady luck smiled on us with the announcement that the president was to preside over the pass out of prison warders at Luzira prison. We immediately started planning. Capt Mugarura and I surveyed the road for the ambush spot. Opposite the soap factory where there is a petrol station now was the chosen spot. Having got the spot, on the D-day we parked our machines in bags and carried them to the site in broad day light. Our plan was to get him before he reaches Luzira. Capt Mugarura planned the sketch, how the machines would be placed and the trajectory of the bullets. With everything in place, the five took their positions and I returned to the road. Slightly above the ambush spot on the road to Mutungo was another getaway car after the shooting. The dignitaries started passing and we waited for the big fish. I kept surveying the road while the others kept their positions. Towards evening, we had not seen Obote’s convoy. As I waited around Sliver Springs Hotel, I saw a major coming from Luzira. We knew each other. He was coming to help a female friend of his whose car had broken down around there. We talked briefly and I used the chance to gather some intelligence on what was happening in Luzira. He told me all was going on well and that the president was already there. He also told me the function was likely to end late as there was a dance there after. I learnt we had missed Obote and I passed on the information to my colleagues who decided to wait even if it meant sleeping in the bush. At around 10pm, I was sent to get them something to eat since we didn’t know for how long we were to stay at the ambush spot. Before I came back, a convoy with the police siren car came. When the boys heard it, they got ready and opened fire at the right time. The attack As the firing started, Futali, who was incorporated in the plan last to drive the getaway car, got the car from its hiding near the soap factory. He knew the escape route. As soon as the team jumped in the car, he headed to Namugongo at my father’s farm where they dropped the guns before dispersing. As I turned off at Nakawa to take the food, vehicles from Kampala were not allowed to go towards Luzira. I immediately knew what had happened. I turned and went back home. It was not until the next morning that we heard on the news that it was Babiiha who was shot at not Obote. Different security agencies combed the scene of attack. When they found the sticks Capt Mugarura, who had trained in Israel, used to make a sketch, the investigating team realised the people behind the mission were not ordinary bandits. I also learnt after my arrest that the dogs they had brought to trace us failed due to the powdered pepper we sprinkled around the place. The aftermath I afterwards went back to work in industrial area and life was back to normal. But I never got to know how they got to connect me to the attempt. I suspect they got wind of my involvement in Mutesa’s escape and started following me. For almost a week every morning, there were two vehicles parked near my compound one at each end, trying to find out which people I was in contact with. One evening in March 1967, as I returned from work, I saw a Land Rover parked in the corner of my compound. As I parked, Special Force soldiers got - out all pointing guns at me. I just laughed as I knew it was all over. I don’t know how they got to suspect me but I think my former girlfriend Lillian must have given me away. They had surrounded the house, including the banana plantation near the house. When I entered the house, the plain cloth guys were already searching the house. There was a chicken pen in the compound. When they ransacked it they found a box full of bullets and a pistol. As soon as the news of my arrest got to Namugongo, my mother got rid of the guns kept there by throwing them in one of the cow water drinking ponds at the end of the farm. From my home in Lunguja, I was driven to the farm and the search continued. Realising that the farm was big, the security operatives brought almost the entire police college in Kibuli to search the farm, but they were getting nothing. They must have had an informant, who tipped them off about the ponds. They brought fire brigade trucks to empty them and at the bottom were the guns used in the ambush. When I was arrested, the rest fled the country. And since I was not ready to reveal anyone involved, the operatives arrested my former girlfriend to tell them which people I dealt with. When they learnt that they had fled to Nairobi, she was taken to Nairobi to help identify them. She was taken by a female police woman, Martha. When they left Kampala, word reached guys in Nairobi that Lillian was under arrest and on her way to identify them. Murder in Nairobi The boys in Nairobi waylaid Lillian and Martha, kidnapped, and killed them. Their bodies were put in gunny bags and dropped in Arthi River. A Masai herdsman who had taken his cattle to drink water saw the bags and alerted police The other team which followed had reported its missing partners to the Kenyan police. When two female bodies were recovered they were called to identify them. This opened another lid in the hunt as the Kenyan government had not been alerted about Uganda’s police being in their territory. The Kenyan authorities started looking for five guys, but only three - Obo, Kiwanuka and Kyeyune - were the killers. They were pinned down at Stanley Hotel. At the hotel the boys also had paid off the people at the front desk to tip them off in case police came to the hotel. They were tipped off as police made its way to third floor where they were staying and jumped through the windows and ran away. The group separated. That’s when police started picking them one after the other, and all the three who participated in the kidnap were hanged in Kenya. The events in Nairobi were relayed to me by Senkoma while in Luzira. He had been one of Mutesa’s body guards who had run to Nairobi and was in contact with them before their death. He was arrested suspected to be part of the group but later released and got arrested when he came back. When I was arrested in 1967, I was charged with unlawful possession of guns and sentenced to eight years while my father got six years. Later experts linked my guns to the cartridges collected from the scene of the ambush, and I was charged with attempting to kill the vice president. I was sentenced to life. My lawyers appealed to the East African High Court, which also upheld the earlier sentence. Regaining freedom While in prison, Obote was over thrown. We heard from visitors that Idi Amin was to return Mutesa’s remains. During Duwa prayers at Kibuli on the day Mutesa’s remains were returned, the Banganda royals thanked Amin for the gesture and also asked him to release me, after explaining what I was charged with. The next day in the late afternoon, I heard my name being called. Dan, Dan, Dan, the prison warder called me. As he opened the door, two senior officers, including Kigonya, the commissioner of Prisons came. I was given clean clothes, a barber was called, and after shaving I was put in the commissioner’s Benz and driven to Makindye Presidential Lodge. At Makindye, Amin was hosting delegates who had come for burial. He ordered that I should be taken to Nakasero Officers Mess, present day Kampala Club, where I was kept in the car. When he came he called for me, and I was ushered in a room where Amin was waiting with a pile of papers he called out gwe Dan Kamanyi are you Dan Kamanyi I said yes sir. He started: “kati nze atade gwe naye sagala gwe ademu kukola muntu mubi bwotyo, kakati batwale gwe Bamunanika bagambe bantu nze atade gwe nze maze kutegeka bamunanika”. ( I am releasing you but I don’t want you to do such bad things again, let them take you to Bamunanika and tell people how I have released you
Posted on: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 05:38:50 +0000
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