The remarkable story of a truly exceptional human being.Mpagi Edward Edmary. Sentenced to death in Uganda, he served 18 years on Death Row for the murder of William Wandyaka and his co-accused Fred Masembe died from neglect – he was denied treatment for malaria and in a weakened state, subsequently died from complications. Edmary came close to being executed a few times, but in 2000 he received a Presidential Pardon, because the alleged victim was in fact alive and well!

Edmary tells his exceptional story to Kervin Julien and \Dr David Romei with the assistance of Ronald Katongole and Satish Sekar. Edmary helps people he left behind on Death Row and is a passionate advocate against the death penalty and injustice. He is also involved with Dream One World (see http://fittedin.org/fittedin/?p=1156). He is a remarkable person with an extraordinary story.

–

Mpagi Edward Edmary

by Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (April 30th 2015)
Turbulent Times
It began as any other summerʼs day, but Mpagi Edward Edmary and his cousin Fred Masembe were about to have their lives ripped apart. They had lived through the turbulent rule of Milton Oboteʼs first rule. They had seen Obote overthrown by the vicious tyrant Idi Amin. They thought the political instability and tyranny were but memories of a horrid past.
Little did they know that Paulo Muwangaʼs decision to declare Obote the winner of disputed elections would have consequences for them. The family dispute between Edmaryʼs family and that of neighbour and Obote supporters, William Wandyaka, would destroy their lives in an unexpected fashion – a case that had it been a film script would have been rejected as far too implausible.
Things like this simply do not happen – they canʼt happen. It was just too absurd for words.
Outrage
In early June 1981 – probably the 5th – Edmary and Masembe were arrested at their homes in the Masaka district of Butenge, Uganda – about 130 kilometres from the nationʼs capital, Kampala. Their ʻcrimeʼ was the murder of Wandyaka. But this was no ordinary case. Edmary and Masembe told an incredible story – one that simply could not be true, except it was. They pleaded not guilty at Masaka High Court.

Mpagi Edward Edmary at the school

They met their state-appointed lawyer just twice before the trial. Edmary could understand some English – the language of their trial – and Masembe could not. They were not provided with translators. The State called many witnesses – it would later be shown that those witnesses were a veritable roguesʼ gallery of perjurers, but that would take years and wrecked lives to establish.
On April 29th 1982 Edmary and Masembe were found guilty. They were sentenced to death and sent to the condemned section of the notorious Luzira Prison. The State had apparently proved that they had murdered Wandyaka. Their appeal was dismissed on October 18th 1983.
Mercy
After their appeal was dismissed and the mandatory death penalty upheld, they had little option but to ask for the prerogative of mercy to be extended to them – an abomination in its own right for clearly innocent men. That was refused. Instead, callous indifference resulted in a murder, that of an innocent man through negligence and lack of care.
Masembe was laid low by malaria. He and Edmary begged the prison to provide medication. That did not happen. The pleas for help for Masembe were met with a callous response from the prison authorities. He was denied medical treatment. They told him that as he was a prisoner condemned to death, they would not waste resources, attention and medicines on him.
On August 28th 1985 Masembe died of asthma, stomach pains, depreciation, physical and mental anguish. This illustrated the lack of concern for the welfare of the prisoners – innocence made no difference. If Masembe had been treated he would have lived. It is approaching 30 years since Masembe was judicially murdered.

Mpagi Edward Edmary

Rotten
The prerogative of mercy was denied. It was now a lottery if Edmary would be hanged for a crime that he did not commit. There was little time for goodbyes to family and friends. The lottery was the whim of the guards. Edmary came close to being hanged five times, but guards interceded on his behalf. During his ordeal over 50 people he had known and helped were hanged.
Despite his ordeal he was a calming influence. He helped other prisoners, teaching some of them – a right denied to his own family. He dreamed of one day proving his innocence, being vindicated and then fulfilling his mission. He wanted to build a school to give the poor an education and chances in life they would not otherwise have had (for more information on the school including their urgent needs this week see http://dreamoneworld.org/). But first he had to scale a mountain – one higher than Kilimanjaro.

Tragedy and Farce

Milton Obote had regained power as a result of the Commission headed by Paulo Muwanga declaring him the winner of the December 1980 elections. Many believed that the poll was rigged. Yoweri Museveni returned to guerrilla warfare to bring down Obote’s government. Muwanga’s decision to join Obote’s cabinet as Vice-President justified Museveni’s decision.

In his first term Obote was intolerant of opposition. Dissent was seen as a personal betrayal. His policies and actions isolated him, making him vulnerable for overthrow. His protégé Idi Amin, proved to be one of the continent’s most brutal dictators. That paved the way for Obote’s return, but Obote’s flaws had not deserted him. They had become worse in some ways.

Obote had been betrayed once – he feared treachery. The notorious Luzira Prison and others were filled with opponents. Torture was rife. It appeared that Obote had learned nothing from his previous overthrow. Nor had his régime. Muwanga’s Nile Mansion Office was notorious. A summons to it was to be feared, but Muwanga sometimes interceded for those about to be arrested if asked to. Nevertheless, he was feared.

Injustice

Opposing Obote or even Muwanga came at a price and there was the corruption that had overtaken the criminal justice system too.

No case illustrates that pervasive corruption better than the appalling miscarriage of justice suffered by Mpagi Edward Edmary and his cousin Fred Masembe. Police and a pathologist conspired to allow William Wandyaka and his family to pervert the course of justice. Edmary and Masembe were wrongfully convicted in 1982 of the murder of Wandyaka – a crime that had not occurred.

A year later their appeal was dismissed. Masembe fell victim to malaria. He was denied medication by the prison authorities – why waste resources and medicine on a man they were going to execute anyway? Edmary and Masembe appealed for clemency which was denied.

They could have been judicially murdered at any time, but there was a problem – a huge one. Not only were Edmary and Masembe innocent, but the supposed murder victim William Wandyaka was in fact alive and well throughout their ordeal. They were victims of a corrupt judicial and political system. It cost Masembe his life – a crime Edmary had to watch, but was powerless to prevent.

Photo of Mpagi Edward Edmary courtesy of Scott Langley.

The Sudan Problem

Obote quickly faced rebellion. Museveni had returned to the armed struggle – this time against his former ally – and two years into his term Civil War broke out in Sudan again. Sudan had played a role in his downfall, as some took advantage of Amin’s ties to southern-Sudan to join the Ugandan army.

They were involved in Amin’s atrocities against Ugandan citizens. Obote never forgot nor forgave it. Inevitably the Sudanese conflict affected the north of Uganda as well. It continued despite changes in government, especially in Sudan. Gafaar Nimeiry was overthrown in a military coup. The governments that followed were unable to resolve the issues. Uganda echoed Sudan’s experience too as both countries militarily affected each other’s affairs. That continued until further coups in both contries brought Omar al-Bashir and Yoweri Museveni to power in 1989. A year later both signed non-aggression pact in Kampala.

The Seeds of Discontent

Muwanga was an influential and powerful man behind Obote’s throne. He had powers of life and death. Muwanga wasn’t all bad. Even the opposition say that he occasionally interceded and secured the release of prisoners that they [the opposition] were concerned about. Nevertheless, Muwanga wielded considerable power and an accusation of helping Museveni from him came at high price.

Obote’s second term left many victims, dead, maimed, falsely imprisoned, fearing when the security forces would come for them. Suffice to say, the human rights abuses were legion. Having been overthrown by his former protégé, Idi Amin, Obote was slow to trust and very quick to see plots against him. Some were genuine, others not, but Obote had learned little from his first overthrow. Indeed, he sewed the seeds of his second overthrow. After the brutality of Amin, this was inexcusable.

The Return

The Chairman of the Presidential Commission of Uganda Paulo Muwanga declared Milton Obote the victor of the election of December 1980. The decision was rejected by among Ugandaʼs current President Yoweri Museveni. His supporters conducted a five year guerrilla war as a result.

Muwanga had played a part in the fight to achieve independence. He had also contributed greatly to bringing down the bestial régime Idi Amin, but so had many others, among them Museveni and Obote, although the latter benefited greatly from the support and assistance of his friend the then Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere.

Muwanga was an important figure in Ugandaʼs post-colonial development, but it is not just his controversial role in the 1980 election that tarnishes his reputation. Having been the Chairman of Presidential Commission that declared Obote the winner, Muwanga became Oboteʼs Vice President. He therefore bears some responsibility for the atrocities which contributed to Oboteʼs downfall.

Independence

The burgeoning cost of the Tanzanian intervention that had brought down Amin came at a high price. The Ugandan government could not afford to pay, so Nyerere withdrew Tanzanian forces. The new government, which included Muwanga had to survive on its own. And it had to deal with a guerrilla war, led by Yoweri Museveni.

Many died in the Luwera Triangle, especially from the Baganda tribe, which largely supported Museveni. There is no question that torture and other atrocities occurred during Oboteʼs second term. Muwanga was accused of complicity in several abuses. The brutality of Oboteʼs second term came at a heavy price. Obote was once again overthrown, but foreign issues played a part, especially those of Sudan.

Sudanʼs Influence

The pervasive problem of Sudanʼs issues. The Anyanya – precursor of South Sudanʼs independence fought a rebellion against Sudan from 1955 to 1972. The rebellion developed into war in 1969. The Anyanya was led by Aggrey Jaden from 1964 -69.

Jaden had rejected an agreement in 1965 with one of the architects of Sudanʼs independence from Britain, Ismail al-Azhari, because there were no international observers. Al-Azhari was no supporter of South-Sudanese rights and had used force to suppress it. Jaden, fearing for his life moved to Nairobi.

Gordon Muortat Mayen succeeded him and this coincided with a change in government in the northern dominated government. Gafaar Nimeiry led a coup dʼétat in Khartoum that ousted al-Azhari in May 1969. Months later al-Azhari died and Jaden was in exile. Open war followed. Mayen was ousted by Joseph Lagu in 1971. Lagu had been part of Sudanʼs army since 1960.

That training would come in useful for the Anyanya later, as would his political nous. The Anyanya were supplied with weapons by Israel but through Lagu. This monopoly of the supply of weapons meant that Anyanya fighters depended on him to be able to fight. He was then able to demand loyalty to him in return for weapons.

That meant that the fighters had little choice but to pledge loyalty to Lagu and his coup against Mayen. Lagu became the leader of the Anyanya and before long it was consigned to history to the disgust of among others Jaden. Within a year of Laguʼs coup the war was over. Nimeiry and Lagu signed the Addis-Ababa Agreement that brought the war to an end.

South Sudan Problem

Jaden was the first to denounce the deal, which ignored self-determination for the South and had settled for far less than the demands that led to the war. He returned to Sudan in 1978 and was vindicated in 1983 when Nimeiry reneged on the Addis-Ababa agreement and tried to impose Sharia Law on the country.

Meanwhile, Lagu had rejoined the Sudanese military and helped incorporate the Anyanya fighters into the Sudanese military.

Consequences

The South was granted some autonomy and Lagu was appointed Nimeiryʼs Vice President, remaining in that position until the coup that ousted Nimeiry in 1985. Among those incorporated into Sudanʼs army was Laguʼs protégé John Garang joined the Sudanese military as part of the settlement, rising to the rank of Colonel. He would later make that experience work in his favour.

Nimeiryʼs decision to renege on the limited commitment in the Addis-Ababa Agreement reignited the war with the added problem of South Sudanese who had been incorporated into the military sympathising with the Sudan Peopleʼs Liberation Army (SPLA). The SPLA wanted an end to Nimeiryʼs régime, which had started off as a ʻsocialistʼ one.

Garang would rise to lead the SPLA. They had support from Libya, Uganda and Ethiopia in the early stages. Garang would later follow the example of Lagu, reaching agreement with Sudanʼs leader Omar al-Bashir to become Vice-President in 2005. He died later that year in a helicopter crash after an unannounced visit to his friend, Ugandaʼs President, Yoweri Museveni.

The Temporary President

With the Bush War nearing its end Idi Amin fled into exile, claiming that his 1979 ouster would lead to a return to colonialism. Dr Yusuf Lule was chosen to lead the country by the Ugandan National Liberation Front (UNLF), even though he had played only a small role in Aminʼs overthrow.

However, Lule was to become the definition of interim. He arrived in a Mercedes bearing the British rather than Ugandan flag and retained power for under ten weeks. It was the shortest Presidency ever – just 68 days.

Lule was chosen to unite Ugandans – necessary after Amin. Nevertheless, his Presidency made history for all the wrong reasons, but he almost had a second chance. His Uganda Freedom Fighters joined forces with Yoweri Museveniʼs Popular Resistance Army in 1981 to form the National Resistance Army, but he died shortly afterwards and was succeeded by Museveni who led a five-year long guerrilla campaign.

Both Milton Obote and Amin before him had confiscated property from Asians and expelled them. Lule refused to reverse this policy. Lule governed through the National Consultative Commission (NCC), but fatally underestimated where real power lay – Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, Paulo Muwanga, later to become President for a few days and the UNLF.

Coups

Lule tried to usher in reform of the military, which was seen by veterans of the liberation struggle as punishing them. A coup removed him from power in June 1979 and replaced him with Professor Edward Rugumayo, but faced with riots he was rapidly replaced with Godfrey Binaisa.

Meanwhile, Lule was exiled to Tanzania, where he was placed under house arrest. He was allowed to leave for treatment in London and finally died there. Almost a year after Lule was overthrown Binaisa suffered the same fate – the coup that toppled his government was carried out by Muwanga, Museveni, David Oyite-Ojok and Tito Okello.

The Return of Obote

Muwanga was installed as President for a few days before the Presidential Commission of Uganda was established. That Commission was chaired by Muwanga and oversaw elections, which gave Nyerere the result that he wanted – the return of Obote.

Muwanga declared that Obote had won the elections that were held in December 1980. Museveni did not accept the decision and began a guerrilla war against Oboteʼs government. Muwanga would later pay a price for his decision when Museveni toppled Oboteʼs second and last administration in 1985. Muwanga was jailed for kidnap. He was released a few months before his subsequent death.

After announcing the contested result in Oboteʼs favour Muwanga became Ugandaʼs Vice-President. Sadly, his second coming as President showed that Obote had learned little from the mistakes that plagued his first term and eventually would lead to the same end.

by Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (June 1st 2011)

Cyclone of Injustice – Joyce Gilchrist

Joyce Gilchrist was once fêted – the go to analyst, but there was a hidden story. Gilchrist swept through Oklahomaʼs criminal justice system – a cyclone of injustice – leaving a trail of devastated lives in her wake. This included victims of miscarriages of justice and the original crimes too as well as the people of Oklahoma whose interests were betrayed by Gilchristʼs failures.

Among the cases that she got horribly wrong was that of Jeffrey Todd Pierce. He was convicted of rape, largely due to evidence manipulated by Gilchrist. Pierce had a strong alibi and no previous convictions. He lost fifteen years of his life for a rape he did not commit. There is no doubt that he is innocent as the real rapist Omer May Jnr. was identified by DNA testing, but May has not and never will be charged with the vicious offence that he committed.

Why? Because the statute of limitations ran out while Pierce was wrongly incarcerated. That is obscene. There should be no statute of limitations on justice, especially when it expired due the criminal justice system persecuting an innocent man. Whether it takes days, years, decades, or even centuries, there should never be a statute of limitations of any kind on the search for justice.

This is not the only vindication case involving Gilchrist. Even now, after her appalling practices were exposed at the cost of her job and others their liberty – possibly lives even – Gilchrist sees herself as the victim, outrageously claiming that she is being punished for alleging sexual discrimination, rather than her practices, which were hopeless at best and more likely corrupt.

Even the vindication of people like Pierce did nothing to chasten Gilchrist, let alone convince her that she was wrong. As with Michael Heath in Britain, the investigation into her practices slammed the lid shut on a scandal of epidemic proportions, especially regarding those who had already been executed.

Gilchrist could not have thrived in the grey areas of disclosure had there been an integrated approach between the forensic sciences and the judicial processes. Oklahoma put funds aside for DNA testing in the wake of the Gilchrist Affair, but the fallout was controlled, meaning a perfect opportunity to deliver important changes to the system that could have prevented repetition was needlessly lost.

The use of Police Laboratories is a case in point. There is no doubt whose side scientists working in those labs were on and were meant to be on. And that creates the conditions where ʻscientistsʼ like Gilchrist can operate, but Gilchrist did not function in a vacuum.[2]

The criminal justice system of Oklahoma is culpable too. Colleagues that opposed her were marginalised and accused of professional jealousy. Meanwhile, prosecutors loved her and senior jurists defended her tooth and nail. She flourished through this dark alliance of injustice.

She wrecked many lives with impunity and the system tolerated it and encouraged it even by failing to heed the warning signs repeatedly. At least eleven sentenced to death in her cases were executed.

Some were freed from Death Row, but the Gilchrist Scandal demonstrates the need for eternal vigilance throughout the forensic science and legal communities. Sadly, there are some experts who not only cannot be relied on to tell the truth, but are also not deterred from shoddy practices even with lives at stake.

Despicable

The death penalty has gone in Britain, but powers of life and death remain. Nothing illustrates this better than cases where there is no doubt about innocence because no crime occurred, or the real perpetrator was caught and convicted, or identified if dead. It does not even require a trial to ruin lives. For example the tragic story of Jaycee Lee Dugard claimed another victim.

Her step-father Carl Probyn witnessed the then 11-year-old girl being kidnapped by two people near her home in Lake Tahoe, California on June 10^th 1991. Nancy Garrido bundled Jaycee into the car that Probyn described, while her husband Phillip, a registered sex offender, drove the car.

School-children witnessed the kidnapping too. Probyn gave chase on a bicycle, but could not keep up with the kidnappers. After an eighteen year ordeal Jaycee was found alive on August 26^th 2009, having been kept captive by the fiendish couple for almost two decades. Her eighteen year disappearance had been resolved, but the girlʼs childhood had been stolen.

Garrido had repeatedly raped her and Nancy was culpable too. Jaycee had two daughters by him, both the result of the rape of a minor. The girls were told that Jaycee was their sister. They know the appalling truth now. The Garridos pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexually assaulting Dugard on April 28^th 2011.

Investigative opportunities were missed and vital time was wasted, investigating Probyn, whose marriage to Jayceeʼs mother Terry was destroyed by the kidnap and suspicion directed at Probyn, who was not only innocent, but had provided solid investigative leads.

Consequently, Probyn is a victim of this disgraceful case too – nowhere near the same extent as Jaycee and her daughters – but a victim nevertheless. He was never charged, let alone wrongfully convicted or charged, but such accusations are soul-destroying.

There was smoke – hot air actually – but no fire there, although the suspicion still managed to burn Probyn, who lost his marriage and family to it.

The State of California let them all, especially Jaycee, down appallingly. She has been compensated and is trying to rebuild her life, but nothing can ever compensate her for that ordeal, or for the failed opportunities to rescue her.

Garrido was a convicted rapist and subject to probation visits and from police over the eighteen years. He had pleaded guilty to several counts of kidnap and rape and was jailed for 431 years on June 2^nd 2011. His wife got 36 years to life, agreeing to waive appeal rights.

While the overwhelming measure of sympathy and support must go to Jaycee, her mother, daughters, biological father and Probyn are victims too.

Vindicated

Horrid as it undoubtedly was to be wrongly suspected of involvement in such an offence as the kidnap of Jaycee Lee Dugard, it doesnʼt and cannot compare to actual incarceration for crimes committed by others. There are, according to the Innocence Project, over a hundred cases in the USA where the real perpetrator has been identified after a miscarriage of justice.

The American definition is however inadequate in our opinion as it does not include people like Probyn, but we have clearer examples that illustrate the point. There is no doubt about the vindication cases, yet there are no investigations of what went wrong – no attempt to understand how justice miscarried and why.

Not even attempts to establish if forensic science could have prevented it with one exception in Britain. But the USA is not alone. It has happened in Canada; it has occurred in Australia and New Zealand too and even in the Netherlands. Spain has suffered it too. Even China, Hungary, Belarus, Russia and a strange one in South Africa too have experienced them.

Absurd

This does not mention jurisdictions where the supposedly deceased people turned up alive and well later. Mpagi Edward Edmary spent eighteen long years on Death Row in Uganda for a murder he not only did not commit, but for a crime that did not happen. His cousin, Fred Masembe died on Death Row awaiting execution for this non-crime, untreated as he was there to be killed – an innocent man!

Meanwhile, George William Wandyake was alive and well, and even thought to have attended their trial. Why did the Ugandan authorities not demand proof that Wandyake was dead before trying, let alone convicting, innocent men of murder? Where was the compelling medical evidence justifying this prosecution?

It disgraces every concept of justice that this shambolic prosecution was allowed to pollute a court of law. It is also interesting that in all the discussion of human rights abuses in China, not a word is spent on vindication, despite a few cases where cases were solved by confessions secured by beating suspects until they confessed.

Notorious

A notorious double murder of police officers – they were executed – was solved in this manner. The defendant showed his injuries to the judge. He was sentenced to death, but it was suspended later.

Du Peiwu could easily have rotted in a Chinese prison for a crime he did not commit, but for sheer luck. The real perpetrators were arrested on other matters and confessed to the crime that Du had been convicted of.

It was a shocking miscarriage of justice in every way, especially regarding its victim. The man police officers tortured into confessing to a crime he did not commit was no ordinary victim of injustice. Du Peiwu was a fellow police officer, but that didnʼt save him.

Tolerating Injustice

There are other extraordinary cases of vindication in that jurisdiction too. If ever a criminal justice system cried out for an integrated approach between forensic sciences, investigative methods and court procedures, surely it was China.

These injustices were secured through torture, but let us not cast the first stone against China until we address the glaring flaws in our own system. We have tolerated rendition and the abuse of our citizens in the name of the ʻWar on Terrorʼ, while condemning other governments over their records.

By what right can we condemn other governments while tolerating these abuses and others that are ignored, undiagnosed even – abuses that shame and disgrace our society? We permit undeniably innocent people who have been wronged in our name to be treated shamefully.[3]

Let us remember Jaycee Lee Dugard and her family. They were betrayed by their own criminal justice system. No compensation can ever make amends. $20m does not return her stolen life and innocence to her.

It does not justify the failure to protect them – rights they had every right to expect and demand. Compensation does not, or at least should not, cater for their care needs. The psychological damage that has been done to them all needs to be addressed at state expense.

They were failed by the system that had a duty to protect them, so it owes each of them restitution to the lives that were stolen from them. And that duty extends to other innocent victims of injustice, especially the vindicated and that should begin here.

[1] An indication of the importance of an integrated approach can be seen in Equality of Arms, at http://fittedin.org/fittedin/?p=690  for more on this case and others too.

[2] I intend to highlight the effect of Oklahomaʼs cyclone of injustice in a forthcoming book.

[3] I am currently researching a book on these cases and others like them, which I hope will be published next year.

Crimes Against Humanity

In January 1971 Idi Amin, the Commander of the Army overthrew the President Milton Obote. Amin was greeted as a liberator at first, but behind the buffoonery, a vicious tyrant ruled with bestial cruelty. Estimates on the casualties vary from at least 100000 to almost half a million during Aminʼs killing fields.

Milton Obote had been deposed and was in exile in Tanzania. His supporters joined him there. Ugandan Asians were fortunate, if that is the right word. Their businesses and savings were seized and they were expelled – many came to Britain, but the nightmare to come eclipsed their suffering. Africans paid with their lives, but the solution, albeit a temporary one was African in origin too.

Amin was not satisfied with murder. The bodies of victims such as Godfrey Kigala, among others were savagely mutilated after death. The price of opposition was very high indeed – even higher than under his former mentor Milton Obote. The bodies of Aminʼs victims were cut open and internal organs used and abused.

Amin inherited and revamped the machinery of repression that he inherited from Obote. That machinery was cleansed of Obote loyalists – many were slaughtered after being imprisoned by Amin – and then utilised to maintain the terror. Torture, murder, disappearances and much more were rife in Aminʼs Uganda.

Decline

Tanzaniaʼs President had granted asylum to Obote and his supporters and its President Julius Nyerere was Oboteʼs friend. Obote led the opposition and planned a return to power. Meanwhile, Amin grew to like the taste of power, clinging to it for eight years. It had to be prised loose from his grasp, but not before the tyranny resumed. Tales of Aminʼs cruelty are rife.

At first Amin was pro-western, maintaining very friendly relations with Israel. Britain also broke off diplomatic relations in 1977. Relations with his neighbour President Nyerere started badly and got worse. He later shifted his political allegiances, but Ugandaʼs economy stagnated. Relations with Nyerere continued to deteriorate – ultimately that would cost Amin power.

Fall

Nyerere would prove to be an obdurate opponent of Amin who contributed in no small measure to the overthrow of Aminʼs bestial regime. So too did Idi Amin himself. On October 9^th 1978 Aminʼs troops invaded Tanzania in an attempt to annex the province of Kagera from Ugandaʼs neighbour. It was an insult that Nyerere understandably would not tolerate.

Tanzaniaʼs war aims were limited to the recovery of the seized territory, but Nyerere decided that extending the war aims to overthrow Amin was a ʻJust Warʼ. History has judged Nyerereʼs intervention kindly. After eight months of fighting the Tanzanian army ousted Amin with help from Ugandan guerrillas, including the current President Yoweri Musseveni.

The Winter of the Despot

Their triumph exposed the crimes that the despot had committed. Amin should have been brought to justice at the International Court of Justice.¹ Even with military assistant provided by the then Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, he was overthrown on April 11^th 1979. He fled to Libya, remaining there until 1980.

Amin then left Libya for Saudi Arabia and was given asylum and a generous stipend to stay out of politics by Saudi Arabiaʼs King Khalid. Amin never faced trial. Despite his promise, Amin tried and failed to regain power in 1989, ironically being forced to abandon his plans by an even worse despot Joseph Mobutu (Mobutu Sese Seko).

Amin was forced to return to Jeddah. Despite breaking his word, Saudi Arabia took him back. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni refused pleas from one of his wives for him to be allowed to return to Uganda to die. Museveni said that Amin returned he would have to answer for his crimes. Amin died on August 16^th 2003. He remains one of the worldʼs most reviled dictators.

The Liberator?

Ugandans had suffered bestial regimes before and since. Like Caligula before him, the late and unlamented dictator Idi Amin enjoyed a brief honeymoon period in Uganda and even elsewhere. Aminʼs name is now a byword for corruption and brutality. According to human rights organisations between 100,000 to half a million Ugandans were slaughtered during his eight-year reign of terror.

In January 1971 Amin was welcomed as a liberator, when his coup against the President was announced. But Amin had flourished under his predecessor Milton Obote until the second President of Uganda turned on his military commander, demoting him to army commander. The coup dʼétat occurred when Amin heard that Obote intended to have him arrested. While Obote was out of the country at a Commonwealth Heads of State summit in Singapore, Amin pounced.

He said that he was a soldier, not a politician and had no intention of clinging to power. Amin told the Ugandan people that he would call elections as soon as the situation was normalised. He also promised to release all political prisoners.

Ripe

Little did Ugandans know at the time that they had replaced one dictator for another – a worse one, but few shed tears for Obote. The deposed President was far from an angel. After an assassination attempt in 1969 Obote declared a State of Emergency. Repression, torture and jailing of dissidents transformed Obote into a dictator, ripe for overthrow. Obote had given his former protégé the pretext he needed.

Obote’s policies contributed to the economic malaise. The government took majority stakes in banks and businesses, but without tackling rampant corruption. The persecution of Indian traders – a policy adopted by Amin, who expelled them from Uganda – contributed to the economic quagmire and political crisis. Political persecution and repression destroyed his popularity – Obote was on borrowed time. It ran out in January 1971.

Overthrow

Millton Obote had sewn the seeds of his own downfall. His first reign had seen the promise of independence, achieved by Uganda on October 9^th 1962, give way to one-party rule. Obote outmanoeuvred the Kabaka Yekka and the Democratic Party before turning on dissenters in his own party the Uganda Peopleʼs Congress. He ruled by decree and concentrated more and more power in his own hands.

Paranoia was mixed in with real fears. Serious assassination attempts failed to claim his life. The repression, torture and jailing of opponents was followed by banning other parties and further imprisonment and violation of basic human rights. Meanwhile, the economy stagnated. Obote distrusted his military protégé Idi Amin with good cause, even before Amin made his grab for power.

Nevertheless, Obote failed to realise the extent of his unpopularity and the danger it posed. He left for a summit meeting of Heads of State in the Commonwealth in Singapore in January 1971. On January 25^th 1971 Obote was deposed.

Honeymoon and Exile

Like Caligula before him Idi Amin enjoyed a honeymoon period. Obote had described himself as a socialist. His policies were unpopular both inside Uganda and in the West. Britain, the former colonial power was accused of complicity in Aminʼs coup. Amin was portrayed as a buffoon – humorous even – but that hid a darker truth. Amin was a sociopath.

However, Oboteʼs unpopularity led to Amin being welcomed as a liberator. He assured Ugandans that he was not interested in power. He was a soldier not a politician. He would restore democracy as soon as possible. But Amin quickly grew to like the taste of power.

Obote, meanwhile, had to get used to a new reality. He wasnʼt Ugandaʼs ʻkingʼ any more. He could not brook dissent let alone opposition. His hubris had brought him and more importantly his country and people to disaster, but still Obote could see specks in the eyes of others, but not the mote in his own.

His friend, the Tanzanian President, Julius Nyerere, gave him asylum. He was joined by supporters and prepared for a triumphant return once Ugandans and the world realised that Idi Amin was far more than a buffoon, he was a despot – one of the worst tyrants Africa had ever produced. But that would take almost a decade and would owe more to Aminʼs greater hubris than to Oboteʼs skilful leadership.

One Party – One Leader

Uganda had been independent less than five years before its first Prime Minister, Milton Obote, overturned its fledgling democracy, but a one-party government was not enough for him. After defeating rival parties he eventually turned on internal dissenters in the Uganda Peopleʼs Congress. Obote relied on his muscle – the army and in particular his protégé Idi Amin, but being the sole leader of independent Uganda brought new problems.

His policies were disastrous. Oboteʼs ʻdictatorshipʼ began in 1966. It soon became associated with corruption, hunger, repression, brutality and torture. Racist persecution of Indian businesses disguised as economic policy was utilised too. The persecution of Indians would be taken a step further by Oboteʼs eventual successor, Idi Amin.

Plots and Counter-plots

There was nobody else to blame if things fell apart and how trustworthy were the army and Amin? Obote would discover the cost of abandoning popular support before long. He had to rely on repression and that made him dependent on the army and that would prove to be no solution. He did not know who he could trust.

In 1969 he survived an assassination attempt. Obote was shot while addressing a party conference in Kampala. Before long another attempt on his life failed – a grenade was thrown, but did not explode. Obote reacted by seeing plots and counter-plots everywhere.

The Fatal Rift

Obote had made many enemies during his ruthless climb to the top. He had seen off many threats and emerged the head of a one-party state. He had purged opponents and subjected his people to brutal repression. His power had come at price. He had alienated his original support base and become more dependent on the army and Amin, but the assassination attempts had taken their toll.

He banned opposition parties and became even more repressive than before.

But he had cause to suspect that his protégé the Army Commander Major-General Amin could not be trusted any more. In the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt on Obote at the party conference Amin could not be located by Brigadier Pierino Okoya. This was extraordinary and outraged Okoya. Shortly afterwards he angrily denounced Amin.

A month later Brigadier Okoya and his wife were assassinated outside their home on January 25^th 1970. The evidence pointed to Amin. The suspected assassins Captain Smuts Guwedeko and Warrant Officer Geoffrey Kasule were arrested, but never stood trial. They were subsequently released from prison and promoted after Amin seized power.

Many of those involved in the investigation were killed during Aminʼs reign of terror. 45 years on the murders of Pierino and Anna Okoya remain unsolved – almost certainly those crimes will never be resolved. Obote suspected Amin was responsible.

Too Little Too Late

Another assassination attempt failed as the Vice-Presidentʼs car was riddled with bullets by mistake. Obote reacted by promoting people from rival areas to Amin and creating a special paramilitary force. Amin insisted that he was loyal, but the writing was on the wall.

Obote had switched sides in the Sudanese wars away from South Sudanese rebels to the government of Gafaar Nimeiry. Amin friendly with Israel, who backed the rebels and trained Ugandaʼs military, continued to support the rebels, despite Oboteʼs change of policy.

Too late Obote discovered that he had adopted monstrous policies and nurtured a viper. It would not be long before he tasted the venom of his former protégé.