{UAH} ‘I was made minister through the window’

'I was made minister through the window'

Mr Mugwisa says he has chosen business since his release from Luzira decades ago. 

In Summary

Samwiri Mugwisa joined active politics after the 1966 Buganda Crisis when he was appointed the deputy secretary general of UPC in Mubende District. He told Sunday Monitor's Henry Lubega how he fled the country, started globe trotting, selling handcrafts and later joining the struggle to remove Idi Amin from power.

After the 1966 Buganda Crisis, Milton Obote created four new districts in Buganda region; East Mengo, West Mengo, Mubende and Masaka. That is when I was appointed the assistant secretary general of UPC in Mubende, deputising Sheikh Buwembo.

I served in that position until January 1971, when Idi Amin overthrew the government. On that day, I was attending my business partner's wedding in Kampala and I learnt of the overthrow the next day while in Mityana. I then drove to Mubende with my people.

After about a week, the situation started getting worse with information that UPC supporters were being killed in villages. With John Baptist Buyondo, a councillor in Mubende Town, we went to see Col Obura, the commandant of Tiger barracks, about the situation. But the gunfire that afternoon was so rampant that I decided to escape with my family.

From Mubende, I drove to Kakumiro, to Kiboga and then to Kampala, because the Mubende route to Kampala had been sealed off. While at the Kakumiro fuel station, I met the Tiger barracks commanding officer, Col Obura with his three kids, also fleeing. He followed me up to Ntwentwe where we went to the gombolola chief (sub-county)then called Yakobo Kivumbi.

But Kivumbi developed a cold feet; he could not house us. So I decided to move to my uncle, Erica Matovu's, country home. While there, Col Obura told me he had left his wife and asked me to escort him back to Mubende to look for her.

We drove back without headlights up to Katoma. Obura left me behind the water supply and went to look for his wife. He found her at the District Commissioner's place.

However, as I waited for the commander, a group of soldiers fleeing the fight passed by where we had parked. One of them identified Col Obura's car and said: "hi gari si ya commanda?" loosely translated as Isn't this the commander's car? His colleague responded we wacha twende (leave that let us go).

After a short while, Col Obura returned, carrying his wife on his back. We then drove back to Ntwetwe. By the time we got back, rumour had made rounds that I was moving with an army officer. People had started gathering around my uncle's house, threatening to burn the house and the children; my auntie managed to take them out of the house and hid them in the banana plantation. It is at the plantation that Obura and I were able to meet our families and we then drove to Kampala via Kiboga. Along the way, I lost Obura.

The exit
When we got to Nansana in Kampala, I took my wife and two kids to my mother's place and I proceeded to Edward Mugalu's place in Mpererwe, for refuge. He belonged to the Kabaka Yeka political group but he had been a good business friend.

After some days at Mugalu's place word spread that there was a UPC person hiding there. I did not wait for the worst to happen. I moved to Kansanga at Sebana Kizito's place. Kizito had been a good childhood friend from secondary school.

I had a business office on Plot 4 Johnstone Street dealing in exports, which kept working all through this period. I relocated my family from Nansana to Kamwokya.

With the continued talk and harassment of known UPC officials, I knew that it was just a matter of time before I could be caught. With my business partner in Maco International Ltd, we decided to open up a branch in Nairobi, where one of the managing directors was appointed to be the resident director. Armed with supporting documents, I headed for the airport to Nairobi.

Life in Exile
When I got to Nairobi, I booked into Hotel Piggal, which became my home for the next two years. I contacted a one Peter Mburu, a lawyer, who helped me register the company in Kenya, and who also allowed me to operate from his office for some time.

I started exporting used sisal sacks to Uganda. Before I went to Nairobi, my company used to buy them from Kenya. I also started exporting salted fish to Zaire, now DR Congo, while importing sim sim from Uganda to Kenya, but we never made profits on this due to poor quality.

I later joined hands with another Ugandan who had fled the Amin regime, called Henry Semukutu, through his group called HB Semukutu and Company. We started importing cotton seed cake from Mwanza in Tanzania and exported it to Denmark to be used as cattle feed during the winter season.

Late in 1978, while in New York on my business trip, I met Godfrey Binaisa who later linked me up with Adrew Kayiira, after they had formed Uganda Federal Union (UFU). I would later meet people like Luyimbazi Zake, James Namakajo and Kibuka Mukalazi. When I got back to Nairobi I was shocked to hear that they had announced me their agent in Nairobi.

On January 1, 1979, there was a New Year party organised at Prof Tarsis Kabwegyere's residence, where I was invited, and I met people, like Paul Ssemwogere, Ruhakana Rugunda, Andrew Adimola, Akena P'Ojok and others. The New Year party was a cover up for political gathering of Ugandans in exile.

I went back to my crafts business, and while in New York again, I got a call from Paulo Muwanga, asking me to urgently fly to Dar es Salaam. He said: "Tanzania is going to chase Amin and I am the only one from Buganda who is here."

I first went to Nairobi were I linked up with Rurangaranga, Chris Rwakasisi, Christopher Sebuliba and another young man, Francis Kizito, who offered his car to take us to Tanzania. We found people waiting for us at Namanga and they drove us to Msasani Bay where Obote was staying.

Meeting Obote
Obote briefed us about our mission. He told me: "Samwiri Mugwisa, you will be responsible for the Masaka axis as the political commissar reporting to Major General David Msuguri". Rurangaranga was assigned the Ankole axis.
Two days later, we were flown to the frontline where there were the 201, 206, 208 brigades. I belonged to Brigade 208 where I met Maj Msuguri, and other officers who spoke Luganda like Mupere'asoka who gave me my last briefing before crossing into Uganda.

With the help of Henry Lukonge, the first Ugandan I saw, I got a drum and sounded the Gwanga Mujje to call people from their hiding for a meeting. More than 300 people turned up. I told them about the war and its purpose and I also asked them to tell us where Amin soldiers were hiding. They did not tell us.

After the Moshi Conference of 1979 was concluded and the head of the UNLF was put in place, word went around that the Ugandans at the battle front were misbehaving, and we were recalled to Dar es Salaam. We were flown to the regional office in Bukoba, where we were told to hand over our guns and uniforms, before we could board a plane to Dar es Salaam. I told Rurangaranga not to remove the uniform.

We got to Dar es Salaam Airport at night and we were handed over to the intelligence people who drove us around the town for so long. When I got tired of staying in the car, I insisted that they take us to Obote's home. When Obote saw me, he was very shocked and he wanted to know why we had been recalled. After listening to what had happened, he called then Tanzania's president Julius Nyerere, immediately telling him what had happened.

The next day, we were directed to go and meet with the new president in-waiting, Yusuf Lule, at the police officers mess in Dar es Salaam. I had known Lule before, and when he saw me, he asked where I was coming from. When I told him I had been on the frontline, he was shocked as he had been earlier told that there were only two Ugandans on the battle field - Tito Okello and Oyite Ojok – and that the rest were Tanzanians.

He tasked Eteker Ejalu and Akena P'Ojok to explain why they had never told him that there were Ugandans fighting. He called for the list of the new political appointees. He cancelled out Samuel Magezi's name as the DC for Kyotera and put my name, while Rurangaranga was made Kategaya's deputy.
He immediately signed a letter appointing me as a district commissioner. Armed with Lule's appointment letter, I was flown back and proceeded to Kyotera where I stayed for a few days before going back to Mityana and continued with the war. As Kampala was falling, I was asked to go to Radio Uganda to announce Amin's fall, but I feared.

I served as the DC under Lule, and I saw cliques developing. I left Apollo Hotel where I was staying and went to Nile Mansion to talk to Sam Sebagereka, the then Finance minister to help me meet the president, but he did not. Maybe had he known about the discontent, he would have corrected them and stayed in power longer. The same thing happened to Binaisa when he refused to listen to me and Fred Makanya in Nairobi when we tried to stop him from replacing Oyite Ojok and Paulo Muwanga.

Joining cabinet

During the Binaisa regime, I was appointed deputy minister of agriculture until his fall, but I became a full minister under the Military Commission. Much later, Paulo Muwanga told me that my name had been deleted off the original list and replaced by Mathias Ngobi, He told me Tito Okello had said: "chacha iyo jina ganni, Ngobi ndiyo nani.

Agriculture si ya Chamwiri Mugwicha (what name is that who is Ngobi, isn't the agriculture ministry supposed to be for Samwiri Mugwisa)
During the 1980 General Election, I stood on the UPC ticket in Mubende North East constituency where they say there was a lot of rigging. After the election, I went to State House to report to the president what had transpired. Obote saw me from the window on the first floor and said: "Samwiri, remain in your ministry". I held the same post until the 1985 coup.

I stayed out of politics from that time until late November 1986 when about 20 soldiers came to my residence in Kololo to arrest me. I was taken to Jinja Road Police Station before being transferred to Central Police Station. IT is from here that I was sent to Luzira, where I spent six months on the charge of having ordered for the kidnap and murder a one Siituke. After a six month trial I was found not guilty. I have been in business since then.

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H.OGWAPITI
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"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that  we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic  and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
---Theodore Roosevelt

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