{UAH} GRENADE ATTACK: NSAMBYA POLICE GROUNDS

A bright sunny Ugandan day is ongoing. It's the passing out of officers who have just completed police training.

Idi Amin has cancelled his attendance and asks his Vice President, Major General Mustapha Adrisi, to represent him and officiate on his behalf.

Everything is going on schedule.

Expected Senior officers and dignitaries have arrived and the ceremonies are about to start.

Suddenly information is recieved by venue security that Idi Amin is already on his way to the function.

He has decided he will attend.

He arrives in a military jeep. His driver is one of our favorite we fondly call Moses.

Moses is a presidential bodyguard, an Israeli trained soldier in combat uniform with a red beret. His real names are Musa Muhamad, a half-cast (mukyotara as they are called) with Asian and Ugandan parental lineage.

Amin is also in combat military uniform, sleeves rolled up with a special white-handled magnum 357 revolver.

The police band is playing and the traditional dancers who grace almost all public functions are sweating gleefully as they entertain guests.

The function has already begun and Amin is greeting the dignitaries.

The newly trained officers hold a parade and display their crime fighting skills.

That is followed by the presidential speech.

So far, all has happened according to plan.

In his speech, Amin warns the public that all the guns that had recently been seized from coup plotters by state security couldn't be for killing one person, Amin. These folks are planning to kill many Ugandans he says.

He asks the population to be extra vigilant and work with security to foil the rebels plans.

At the end of his speech, Amin prepares to leave and starts chatting with two senior military officers. Colonel Sule and another.

He heads towards his jeep where Moses has the engine already running.

The President decides to drive himself.

As he sits in the drivers seat, he continues to chat with a few other officers who have gathered around him as Moses walks quiclly around the vehicle to the passenger seat.

The security guards for the venue are now redeploying for his exit.

Amin proceeds to drive out of the venue with his driver/ bodyguard and two security vehicles following him.

The jeep is an open top vehicle and Amin waves to the crowd that has gathered around the venue.

He drives towards the exit gate of Nsambya Police training grounds where the guards prepare to salute him as he passes by.

Suddenly, as they stand in attention, a grenade is hurled from the bush near the entrance.

It falls about 4 feet from the guards.

"Grenade!" one shouts, and the four guards at the gate area hit the ground in unison.

A civilian lady standing nearby reacts slower than the combat soldiers.

As she turns to hide behind the tree next to her, machine gun fire is heard coming from a vehicle parked at some distance up the road.

The lady is hit and collapses. She dies from the shot.

Another civilian pushing his bicycle up the road unknowingly towards the assailants, is also caught in the cross fire dies.

By this time Amin drives onto that road and is in full view of the attackers. He has drawn his Magnum revolver and is driving with the left hand.

The grenade that was first hurled doesn't explode. Amin sees the device and drives around passed it.

Then a second grenade is thrown.
It hits the communications antennae at the back of the jeep, bounces off the vehicles engine hood in the front and lands on the road.

It also doesn't explode.

A volley of bullets from the assailants` machinegun wizzes around him as he drives off.

The guards are the first to return fire and immediately shoot dead the grenade thrower.

As Amin drives away, a gash of blood splashes onto his uniform and on the right side of his face.

He turns his head and sees his bodyguard/driver Musa Muhamad alias Moses falling out of the jeep. Amin grabs him, pulls him back in, lays him on his lap and drives away in full speed.

The bodyguard has been hit in the head. That's the blood on Amins clothes.

The security vehicles drive out of the venue behind the president's jeep but turn towards the vehicle from where the machinegun fire is coming.

They provide cover for Amin to drive away. They also return fire heavily.

The assailants vehicle is hit critically. It blows up...with its occupants.

All this has happened in a flash of around a minute, from when the first grenade was hurled until when the attackers vehicle explodes.

In the meantime Amin is alone driving at high speed with double indicators flashing and full lights on.

All the vehicles move off the tarmac as he approaches the clock tower round-about gesturing at on-coming traffic to clear the way.

He drives past the crowded UTC bus park area in downtown Kampala, up towards Bombo road and heads for the National Referral Hospital, Mulago where he finally stops at the emergencies entrance.

The bodyguard is still alive. He is murmuring as Amin carries him and lays him onto the empty standby stretcher at the entrance.

Medical personnel come running and take the bodyguard for emergency surgery.

But he has lost alot of blood and the injury is critical.

He dies three hours later.

"When your time comes, you can't live a second longer. If it hasn't yet, nothing can kill you." - Hussein Juruga Lumumba Amin.

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