{UAH} UNCERTAIN DISAPEARANCES IN TANZANIA

Uncertain Disappearances in Tanzania

In Tanzania in the early 1970s, a number of Ugandans who were very close to Museveni disappeared and have not been seen again. They included Mwesigwa Black, Raiti Omongin, Miss V. Rwaheru (Museveni’s housekeeper) and Martin Mwesiga.

In the case of Martin Mwesiga, his sister Margaret, who was living and working in Arusha, personally t talked about his brother’s death in 1974 in Dar es Salaam the murky story about the disappearance of her brother.

 

The gist of Margaret’s story is that on several occasions in 1973, she asked Museveni about the whereabouts of her brother, who until he disappeared, was always with Museveni. Margaret said that on each such occasion, Museveni gave her a different version of where Mwesiga was, ranging from Mwesiga being alive and well but on a mission abroad to Mwesiga undergoing a secret course.

Late in 1973, Margaret said, Museveni told her that her brother had died in a battle in Mbale in Feb. 1973. One of those present when Margaret gave this account was Enoka Muntuyera, the father of the present Commander of the NRA, Major General [Gregory Mugisha] Muntu. Enoka and another Ugandan told Margaret that they had stayed in the same hotel as Museveni and Mwesiga in Tabora, Tanzania, in April 1973.”

We pause here to assess what Obote claimed.

 

Obote quoted Mwesiga’s sister named Margaret Kyogire as saying on each occasion that she asked about her brother “Museveni gave her a different version of where Mwesiga was.” The last version he gave her confirming Mwesiga’s death appears to be the one about a battle in Mbale in Feb. 1973. In the account Mr. Museveni gives in his autobiography that has already been discussed, Mwesiga’s death could have occurred late in Dec. 1972 or at the latest, sometime in Jan. 1973, not Feb. 1973 as he told Kyogyire. As has been stated and made clear already, Museveni is regarded, even by his enemies, as possessing an extraordinary memory and can recall events and places in minute detail.

Museveni, according to Obote, told Mwesiga’s sister Kyogire that Mwesiga died in Feb. 1973 but Enoka Muntuyera and “another Ugandan” had told Mwesiga’s sister that they had stayed in the same hotel in Tabora as Museveni and Mwesiga in April 1973, confirming that Mwesiga was alive after the Mbale incident. Museveni and Mwesiga even came together to Makerere University in mid 1973 to visit Museveni’s half-sister Violet who was staying at a flat of a British lecturer.

As for Raiti Omon’gin, the truth about his death sheds further light on the death of Mwesiga. Omon’gin, from Karamoja, had been a UPC Youth League leader in the early 1960s. He got involved in the anti-Amin struggle shortly after the 1971 coup. According to Museveni, Omon’gin died or disappeared in Sept. 1972 during the guerrilla invasion of Mbarara. This is the way he explains it:

 

“Although nobody had fired at us during this encounter, I lost not only my driver but also a few others of our comrades, including Raiti Omongin, who simply fled into the valley and across the opposite hill. We shouted after them but they did not return. I kept hoping they would find their way back to us, but we did not see them again.” (Sowing The Mustard Seed, p. 66)

Having just explained the disappearance of Omon’gin on page 66 and giving the impression that he lost contact with Omon’gin, Museveni goes on in the very next page to contradict himself. Here on page 67, he gives another version of the death of Omon’gin:

 

“We stayed in the forest until 2:00 p.m., resting and reflecting on our losses, while Amin’s soldiers randomly lobbed shells at us with light mortars. Many of my comrades, not to mention Obote’s supporters, had either been killed or lost in the stampede created by the 106mm gun in the morning.

These included close comrades such as Mwesigwa Black, Raiti Omongin, Kahunga Bagira, and others who were all subsequently captured and killed by Amin’s troops in the days that followed.” (Sowing The Mustard Seed, p. 67)

Having first stated that Omon’gin simply disappeared, Museveni now positively affirms that Omon’gin and others were captured and killed by Amin’s troops. How he came to confirm that Omon’gin was captured and killed, Mr. Museveni does not explain. Margaret Kyogyire traveled to Dar es Salaam from Arusha in 1974 to seek Obote’s help in getting her other brother, Sam Magara, into Dar es Salaam University.

In Obote’s house that day was another Ugandan, Enoka Muntuoyera.

 

During their conversation, Margaret Kyogyire told Milton Obote that Museveni had known if not killed Omon’gin. (Subject to clarification from Mr. Museveni.) She said that her brother Martin Mwesiga had told her that he witnessed Museveni shooting Omin’gin. According to Kyogyire, Valeriano Rwaheru’s sister Hope was also present when the shooting took place. At that time, Hope was Museveni’s live-in girlfriend. Museveni later departed with both Mwesiga and Hope and nothing has ever been heard about the two again.

 

Writing in The Monitor newspaper on 8 Feb., 2004, Yoga Adhola, a UPC member but who for a time had joined FRONASA, recalled a meeting of a few radical Ugandan exiles in Nairobi in 1975: “Something else to note happened at this meeting. At the end of the meeting, the chairman called for the customary any other business (AOB). Museveni who was seated just next to me, on my left, raised his hand to speak. ‘There is this question of the death of Raiti Omon’gin.’ Museveni said. ‘People say I killed Raiti Omon’gin. Yoga here can defend me on this issue…’

‘No. I cannot,’ I interrupted him…”

Museveni’s statement here confirms that rumours regarding his hand in Omon’gin’s death had already become well known.

Secondly, the fact of these rumours and Museveni’s failure during this Nairobi meeting to state that Omon’gin had been killed by Amin’s army — as he would later claim in his book Sowing The Mustard Seed — confirm that Omon’gin was murdered by somebody other than Amin’s army.

Thirdly, Adhola’s blunt refusal to speak for Museveni and defend him during that meeting regarding Omon’gin’s death indicates that Adhola and some other people believed or at least suspected that Museveni murdered Omon’gin.

The inconsistencies in Museveni’s account of what happened to his close friends in the guerrilla struggle are glaring enough to do more than simply question his history and story-telling skills.

EM         -> {   Gap   at   46  } – {Allan Barigye is a Rwandan predator}

On the 49^th Parallel          

                 Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy"
                    Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika machafuko"