{UAH} How the Mengo Crisis shaped Ugandan politics - Magazine
With military training acquired in the Queen's Grenadier Guards in Britain (attaining the rank of colonel) while studying at Cambridge University in the 1940s, Muteesa led his soldiers in wiping out the entire "Special Force" of 2,000 men sent by Obote before he escaped from the palace and fled into exile in the United Kingdom.
A miracle over Mengo
As Muteesa's soldiers battled Obote's army, as providence would have it, a storm moved from Lake Victoria and brought such heavy rain that visibility was reduced to near zero, so you could not see the person next to you.
It was during the heavy rain that Muteesa and a soldier, Abraham Senkoma, ran to the palace perimeter wall on the Ndeeba side. Senkoma lifted the Kabaka onto his shoulders, making it possible for the latter to jump over the wall.
A taxi happened to be driving by and they waved it down. The taxi stopped and the driver took them to Lubaga Catholic Mission where Muteesa found the Fathers having breakfast.
He dropped his gun on the breakfast table and they asked him; "Ssabasajja, what has happened to you?" and he answered, "We have been fighting Obote's army." Among the Fathers present were (the current) Cardinal Emmanuel Wamala and the late Cardinal Emmanuel Nsubuga.
They dressed Muteesa as a Catholic priest and had a young Muganda, Dan Kamaanyi, drive him in a small car to a location in Busiro County where he handed Muteesa over to a local chief who organised his secret travel to western Buganda until he reached the border.
Several days later, Muteesa boarded a ferry across the Kagera River. It is said as the ferry was almost reaching the other side, Obote's soldiers arrived and tried to call it back but the captain of the ferry refused to turn back.
Two soldiers tried to swim across with their guns but they were swept away by the raging water. Muteesa reached Bujumbura in Burundi where he boarded a Sabena Airlines flight to London via Brussels.
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