{UAH} THE DEAD BODY OF AMIN’S SOLDIER AT KABEMBE

THE DEAD BODY OF AMIN'S SOLDIER AT KABEMBE 

Amin had been defeated and had fled. Kampala had been taken. The Libyan soldiers who had taken over the Bishop Tucker College and ordered the priests and students out had been killed when a missile exploded in their midst. Others had run in disarray. Amin's soldiers were no longer a threat. So, when from my home at Kabembe we heard a burst of gun fire, we ran in the direction of the gunfire to see what was happening. We still had the curiosity and bravely of youth. When we got the "sitenseni", we saw a small crowd of people that had gathered. Some of them were walking in a direction of a small bush where the TPDF "Wakombozi" soldiers had shot an Amin soldier. 

We approached the site. We were not prepared for what we saw. There, lying in the grass, was the body of a large man in military uniform. His head had been blown off. It must have been the hail of bullets that we had heard about half an hour before. I wished I had not seen the body; for the nasty sight stayed with me for months. We gathered what had happened. 

Apparently, a Land Rover carrying TPDF soldiers stopped at Kabembe. They ordered the Amin soldier off the vehicle, ordered him to run, then shot him in the head with a hail of bullets. They ordered the people around to "zika yeye" (bury him). I still remember the sight 43 year later. 

When I go to Kabembe I see many people there, including boda boda riders. They have no idea that there is the body of an anonymous Amin soldier buried just a few yards from where they are standing. There was nothing put there to mark the grave. The man's family did not know where his body is. And I do not envisage any excavations in the area in the near future that would recover the bones or identify whom they belonged to. 

Those doing press up today, flexing military muscle (okupika obunyama) and puffing themselves up like the African puff adder might one day become as weak as the body of the anonymous soldier whose bones lie in an unmarked grave at Kabembe. They will not be able to hurt anybody.

By Amos Kasibante 

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"When a man is stung by a bee, he doesn't set off to destroy all beehives"

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