Folks,
Brig. Nyero should be commended for putting the record straight. These are
the kinds of information our older generations need to engage in and
disseminate, especially given some were the insiders like the Brig himself.
This kind of information is very vital, because it enlights and make Ugandans
walk in light, not in the dark.
If more and more of the likes of Brig. Nyero can come out, we shall have a
very clear view of the landscape, including solutions, should time comes.
Nonetheless, I missed his earlier contribution on the issue. Can someone post
it/them on the forum please?
Ocii
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The truth; who killed Brig. Okoya? Brig. George W.A. Nyero This
is the continuation of my response to Timothy Kalyegiras article: Inside
Story of Amin's 1971 Coup.
Another story is worth telling at this point, Amin had selected Okoya to be the
officer-in-charge of the military marksmanship championships that were to be
held in Jinja. Subsequent investigations showed that if the [assassination]
attempt failed at Lugogo, then the president would be finished off in Jinja.
Okoya felt that Amin was trying to set him up as the fall-guy to the
assassination of the president and this did not sit well with the highly
committed professional soldier. These two events led to the complete fallout
between Amin and some of his officers including Okoya, Oyite Ojok and myself.
The meeting adjourned and another meeting was scheduled later that was to be
chaired by the commander-in-chief. The meeting was going to usher in wholesale
changes to the way the armed forces operated. The meeting did not occur because
of the circumstances surrounding Brig. Okoyas death.
Okoya, shortly after the meeting, left to attend a funeral at his ancestral
home in Palaro Division (in Gulu). On the way back to his Western Brigade
headquarters in Masaka, he stopped at his home in Koro, about eight kilometres
from Gulu town. He was assassinated, together with his pregnant wife who had
accompanied him to the funeral.
Mr Kalyegira erroneously states in his series that Oyite Ojok ordered the
arrest of and tortured Capt. Smuts Guweddeko as a ploy to cover his involvement
in the assassination of Brig. Okoya. This is also not true. Oyite Ojok was
never at any time involved in the investigation process. The case was assigned
to the police with Hassan Muhammud, the head of the CID, as the lead officer.
The police team included Festo Wahuyo, the Deputy CID chief, Patrick
Kanyuamusua, Cpl. Kanyankore (who later served as an officer with the UPDF) and
Farouk Minawa (who later became the sadistic head of the SRB facility at
Nakasero).
I was appointed as their military liaison in my capacity as the head of
military police. Capt. Guweddeko was not immediately arrested as intimated by
Kalyegira. It was the highway bandits that Guweddeko had enlisted to murder
Brig. Okoya that fingered him.
It came about through sheer luck. Eight months after the untimely death of
Okoya, the investigation into his murder had come to a dead end. There was a
bank robbery in Kabale town in which the robbers made off with two million
shillings. Some of them were arrested. In the ensuing investigation, led by
Festo Wahuyo, they kept referring to their leader as Brigadier. When asked
why they referred to the leader as Brigadier, they said he was called so
because he was the one who had shot Okoya at his home on Gulu Road.
The leader referred to as Brigadier was one Patrick, a Musoga from Magamaga
in Busoga. Some of his cohorts I remember included a man known as Kapalaga and
another one nicknamed Teenager because of his boyish looks. There were also
others involved in the murder.
At the recommendation of the police, I asked Capt. Guweddeko, who lived in
Entebbe, to report to the military police headquarters outside Bulange where he
was placed under arrest and turned over to the civil authorities at CID
headquarters in Parliament Building. Tito Okellos utterances in Nairobi are
the words of one not clued into the events surrounding the eventual coup of
Amin in 1971.
Guweddekos quick release, after Amin's coup, from remand while awaiting trial
for the murder of Amin's friend is also quite telling of who was really
involved in Okoyas murder. The claim that president Obote and Oyite Ojok were
out to get military officers of Buganda origin because of the fallout from
the storming of the Kabakas palace is an inane albeit clever way to further
exacerbate the north-south divide.
It is not a secret that Amin led the assault on the Kabakas palace and because
of his inherent excessive personality went beyond the established rules of
engagement. Instead of neutralising the Kabaka's forces as ordered by the
civilian authorities, he totally annihilated them sending the Kabaka into
exile. Brigadier Nyero (psc) is a former Provost Marshall (1968-1971) ,
Eastern Brigade Commander
(1981 - 1985).
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To be continued tomorrow
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