{UAH} I hid rebel Seguya’s body for five years

I hid rebel Seguya's body for five years

Dr Luyombya during the interview. PHOTO BY HENRY LUBEGA 

The inability to freely do his work and sweet-talking from Uganda Patriotic Movement members convinced Dr Jack Luyombya to turn his home into a command post. He talked to Sunday Monitor's Henry Lubega about how he hid the body of the rebel commander for five years in Mulago.

When the NRA war started, I was working at Mulago as an urologist. I was not subscribing to any political party. After the 1980 General Election, the situation started deteriorating with rampant killings. Mulago was receiving many people with bullet wounds.

I would often be forced to spend a night at the hospital if I worked late or fail to turn up for an emergency because bullets were flying all over; not even allowing the emergency team to respond to emergencies at night.

After the attack on Kabamba by the National Resistance Army rebels, a friend of mine, Moses Kigongo, paid me a visit, urging me to join the struggle.

Due to both the political and security situation, I had realised that the government of the time was not going to change through talk; the only language it was going to understand was the gun.
After meeting with Kigongo, Kirunda Kivejinja and Bakulu Mpagi met me with my friend Yafesi Sabiiti in a bid to lure us into joining the struggle. I told them they were all Uganda Patriotic Movement members and if it was about the party, I was not joining any political party. They brought Eriya Kategaya to talk to us, and I also told him that I was not ready to be part of any political party.

Joining the struggle
Later I met now Brigadier Andrew Lutaya, who later became the link between us in town and the fighters in the bush. He convinced us to join the struggle. After interfacing with these people and considering the prevailing situation, I felt I would support the struggle in whichever way.

My home became a sort of command post - a collection point for all the supplies, new recruits waiting to be taken to the bush, hosting planning meetings and a resting place for those coming from the bush.
While I was doing all these, our first commander Ahmed Seguya, who was admitted to Kisekka Hospital with a liver problem, died. We did not have where to burry him. I used my influence in Mulago through Prof Stanley Tumwine, the then head of Anatomy school and also a struggle sympathiser, to have the body kept at the medical school until 1986, when we looked for his parents and took his body for burial.

The exit
Later in 1981 while in UK for a short course, my friend and neighbour Yafesi Sabiiti, who had earlier been arrested, was released. While in prison, he had met Dr Musisi, a former deputy director of Mulago Hospital, also involved in the struggle with Kayira. Dr Musisi told Sabiiti how he was tortured at Nile Mansion (Now Serena conference Centre). During the torture he admitted knowing me.
When my wife went to see Sabitti after his release, he told her to pass on information to me that I should not dare go see him because an arrest was pending.
There was another Ugandan called Dr Mwanje who was working in Liverpool, also interested in the struggle. We often met at Prof Lule's place. He told me people coming from Uganda told him that medical doctors in Uganda were involved in the bush struggle and they mentioned my name. That is when I decided I would not come back home.

Exile life
After the course in 1982, I moved to Nairobi where I immediately got a job with Agha Khan Hospital. This made the start of my exile life easy. I had a well-paying job and my family joined me thereafter. The hard part was that when my father died, I could not attend his burial.

There was a moment that dealt a blow to us, especially when our colleague Balaki Kirya was kidnapped in Nairobi. All of us developed cold feet and some of our friends fled to Sweden and other countries.

In Nairobi, I linked up with the late Dr Samson Kiseka, Matthew Rukikaire, Ruhakana Rugunda, and Amama Mbabazi and we formed the external wing. Our task was to look for guns, do propaganda, clandestine missions and solicit for foreign support; we coordinated the taking of our boys to Libya for training.
In 1984, I relocated to Zimbabwe when I got a job at the Zimbabwe University as an urologist.

While there, I met a few Ugandans whom I convinced to contribute towards the struggle. I also met some ZANU PF members, friends of Kategaya, during the Fronasa days.

My monthly contribution towards the struggle and other monies collected from sympathisers was sent to an account in Britain; from there it would be sent to Nairobi to facilitate the struggle. While in Zimbabwe, my income was boosted by my private practice.
When peace talks in Nairobi started in 1985, I briefly came and met Museveni and Elly Tumwine and promised to comeback during my leave. When I came back, the war had moved from Luweero to the western axis and had reached Katonga.

I wanted to spend my leave treating the causalities at the war front, but getting there meant I had to go through Rwanda. In Nairobi, Kategaya told me to hold my plans, as the war had gone past Katonga and said I would instead go to Kampala. Within less than a week, Kampala fell.
A day after Kampala fell, I came with a team of British Commandos in a chartered plane whose original plan was to train Tito Okello's soldiers.

Settling in
After Museveni was sworn in January 1986, we met and I asked him whether I should go back to Zimbabwe to honour my contract. I told him if I was to come back, the Zimbabwean government would not facilitate my family's return. Museveni told me: "We are the ones in power; that is not a problem." I went back and resigned from my job and packed my bags back home.
I was part of the first National Resistance Council of 37 members through its expansion until 1995. By that time, I had suspended medical practice. When the 1995 Constitution was promulgated, I told my colleagues I was leaving active politics to do medical practice, where I am now.

http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/Commentary/I-hid-rebel-Seguya-s-body-for-five-years/-/689364/1992314/-/view/printVersion/-/7l668wz/-/index.html

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Rehema
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