{UAH} Mbabazi on 1980 elections

The fraudulent elections of December 1980 saw former president, Milton Obote once again come to power. I and many others saw this election as an early warning sign of the new regime's anti-democratic tendencies and it's this singular event that birthed the NRA and NRM.

On February 5th, 1981, I (together with the late Sam Magara and the late Akanga Byaruhanga) led a reconnaissance mission to prepare for the events the NRA had planned for February 6th. On that day NRA fighters attacked Kabamba Barracks and obtained additional guns for the guerilla war that was to ensue. Remarkably, this would be the second liberation war to be fought in Uganda in under a decade. The raid on Kabamba meant that the environment would become even more dangerous for Ugandans and for my family.

Very soon after the events of February 6th, my home was raided by Obote's soldiers and my children held hostage at gun-point for four days. Neither my wife nor I were at home. At the time, I was working in Kampala under concealment and mobilising NRA soldiers to go the bush. Jacqueline, upon hearing the news that Obote's soldiers had surrounded comrade Enid Kanyengyeyo's home across the street, had fled to James Musinguzi Garuga's house nearby with Eriya Kategaya in tow.

It was this raid on my home, coupled with other events, that forced my family into exile. First, the family went to Nairobi (mid 1981) and eventually Sweden (1983). In Nairobi, we started the External Wing which coordinated the activities of NRM/NRA outside Uganda and in the rest of the world.

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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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