Has this individual been arrested yet?
EM
On the 49th
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Gwokto La'Kitgum
Sent: Sunday, September 15, 2013 1:37 PM
To: ugandans-at-heart
Subject: Re: {UAH} I tried to kill Obote for attacking the Kabakas palace -
Commentary - monitor.co.ug
Why has nothing much been said of the woman who could have been the first
Ugandan liberator when her attempts at taking out Obote at parliament's
entrance only resulted in dismembering his mouth? I hear it was carried out
by a woman, is that true?
___________________________________
Gwokto La'Kitgum
"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower
On Sun, Sep 15, 2013 at 1:20 PM, Ocen Nekyon <[email protected]> wrote:
http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/Commentary/I+tried+to+kill+Obote+for+attacking
+the+Kabaka+s+palace/-/689364/1992330/-/sl8vmxz/-/index.html
I tried to kill Obote for attacking the Kabakas palace - Commentary
Mr Kamanyi with his grandchild during the interview. Photo by Henry Lubega
The 1966 attack on the Lubiri was the peak of the souring relationship
between Mengo and Obote. Months after the attack, an attempt on Obotes life
was made only to hit his deputy John Babiiha. Sunday Monitors Henry
Lubegatracked down Dan Kamanyi, the brain behind the first attempt on a
sitting presidents 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 Obotes 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 didnt 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 fathers 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 Mutesas 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
dont 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 Ugandas 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. Thats 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 Mutesas 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 Mutesas remains. During Duwa prayers at Kibuli on the day
Mutesas 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 commissioners 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 dont want you to do such
bad things again, let them take you to Bamunanika and tell people how I have
released you.)
That night I was driven in a convoy of vehicles all the way to Bamunanika
where Mutesas body was. My mother came and asked Kigonya if she could talk
to me. Thats when he told them that the president has set me free. I joined
the mourners as a free man leaving the life sentence on paper.
What Obotes principal secretary says
It was in late June 1966, when the tempers over the Lubiri attack were still
high in Buganda, when the incident happened. We left Luzira Upper Prisons
where the function had taken place at night. I directed the police lead car
to switch off its warning lights so that we did not attract attention.
We left the venue almost an hour before the vice president. I was in the
same car with the president. When we reached Entebbe, we were told that the
vice president had been attacked around Silver Springs Hotel on his way from
Luzira. I suspect that had the lead car on our convoy not switched off its
warning lights, we would have been the target. We were uncertain the attack
was in retaliation for the Lubiri incident.
Henry Kyemba
I tried to kill Obote for attacking the Kabakas palace - Commentary -
monitor.co.ug
http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/Commentary/I+tried+to+kill+Obote+for+attacking
+the+Kabaka+s+palace/-/689364/1992330/-/item/1/-/ri8hvg/-/index.ht
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