Wronged

Mpagi Edward Edmary

Mpagi Edward Edmary was living a nightmare not of his making. He had survived the tyrannical régimes of Milton Obote and Idi Amin only to fall victim to a despicable injustice. He was convicted of the worst type of offence – one that had not occurred. He was alleged to have murdered William Wandyaka. His cousin Fred Masembe had also been wrongly convicted in April 1982.

But this was no ordinary injustice. Wandyaka had not been murdered by Edmary or Masembe and it was no accident either. Unbelievably, Wandyaka had manipulated the law to further a dispute with Edmaryʼs family. It beggars belief that Wandyaka was in fact alive and well throughout this shameful miscarriage of justice.

Less than a year and a half after they were convicted of the crime they had not committed – they had believed that these things did not happen – the pair had lost their appeal too. The death sentence – a mandatory one – had been confirmed. They applied for the prerogative of mercy, but no mercy was displayed either. And to make matters worse malaria had considerably weakened Masembe. Denied medication he died in August 1985.

Harsh Realities

Edmary faced a huge fight on his own. Edmary had to take on and beat the utterly corrupt system that had wronged him, but he had some hope. The régime that had dispensed rotten justice had failed again. Obote II, was if anything, more brutal and corrupt than his first government.

A month before Masembeʼs tragic death Obote was once again overthrown by a military coup led by Brigadier Bazilio Olara-Okello and General Tito Okello. They established a Military Council which lasted a few months before Yoweri Museveniʼs National Resistance Army swept it from power. The Military Council did nothing to address the injustice suffered by Edmary and Masembe, even though they were victims of a corrupt judicial process.

Mpagi Edward Edmary at the school

Obote had already fled to Tanzania and then to Zambia. Meanwhile, Oboteʼs Vice President, Paulo Muwanga, would soon taste the harsh realities of prison life. After the coup he was arrested. Museveni came to power in 1986. He has been in power in Uganda ever since. Muwanga died in 1991. His fall from power had been catastrophic.

After Museveni came to power Muwangaʼs victims voiced their discontent. It resulted in Muwangaʼs arrest and later convictions. Muwanga was the star witness before the Uganda Human Rights Commission under Justice Arthur Oder in 1988. He defended his record. Sadly, Justice Oderʼs Commission did not consider the appalling abuse of the human rights of Fred Masembe and the ongoing injustice that Edmary had to fight without his cousin by his side any longer.

A Lone Furrow

Nobody had committed the ʻmurderʼ that Masembe had died over and Edmary was enduring a living death, wondering when the executioners would come for him. They were both innocent and the case was no accident either. Edmaryʼs amazing story that not only were he and Masembe innocent, but that there had been no crime, was proved true.

Edmary was adamant that Wandyakaʼs family had taken a callous revenge on his for the dispute by framing him and his cousin for a murder that never happened. Wandyaka, he insisted, was in fact alive and well, savouring this inhuman revenge. Edmary claims that he even saw Wandyaka attend the trial, relishing their ordeal.

Mpagi Edward Edmary

It took many years and considerable luck, but eventually a Presidential Commission established that Edmary was innocent. There was no means to adequately right the wrong. Wandyaka was alive and well. It was clearly unconscionable to keep Edmary in jail, so on July 20th 2000 – over 19 years after his ordeal began – Mpagi Edward Edmary was released by Presidential Pardon.

A Change is Gonna Come

It remains an egregious miscarriage of justice that shames Uganda despite Museveniʼs government belatedly putting it right. Oboteʼs criminal justice system had proved itself to be venal, corrupt and vicious. It also allowed itself to be used in a dispute. It allowed two innocent men to have their lives wrecked or taken when their ʻvictimʼ was in fact alive and well throughout.

This is Ugandaʼs difference-making injustice – the case from which a competent and just criminal justice system can emerge through its own Truth and Justice Commission. Uganda must seize that chance and shame those jurisdictions that talk about truth and justice, but fail to deliver, despite a plethora of worthy cases.

It must do so in the best interests of the Ugandan people. They deserve to know that the ordeals suffered by Fred Masembe and Mpagi Edward Edmary were not in vain and that from the entrails of this abominable injustice a fair and just system system will emerge. The Fitted-In Project is committed to playing its part in facilitating that process in Uganda.

For more information on the school that is Mpagiʼs passion and how to help him keep his dream alive see http://dreamoneworld.org/

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 Sudan Problem

The disputes between the government of Sudanʼs President Gafaar Nimeiry and the Sudan Peopleʼs Liberation Army (SPLA) impacted upon its neighbours too. Milton Oboteʼs involvement in the war spilled over as Uganda was fighting its own Civil War due to Yoweri Museveniʼs refusal to accept Paulo Muwangaʼs decision to declare Obote the winner of the 1980 election.

Both Nimeiry and Obote were ousted from power in military coups in 1985. The Ugandan War was approaching its close, but Sudanʼs dragged on for the best part of another twenty years and it had serious ramifications for Uganda, both during Oboteʼs second term and afterwards. Sudanʼs problems had spilled over into Uganda (see Obote II – History Repeats at http://fittedin.org/fittedin/?p=1073).

Museveniʼs support for SPLA leader John Garang, whose politics veered from ʻleft to rightʼ, came at high price. Sudanʼs leader Omar al-Bashir retaliated by funding the vicious and depraved Joseph Kony and his Lordʼs Resistance Army, but that was still a long way off and came after both leaders signed a non-aggression pact in Kampala in 1990.

Oboteʼs Second Government

Obote soon showed that he had learned little from his first term as President of Uganda. He still could not brook dissent. Opponents were subject to arbitrary arrest, imprisonment in the notorious Luzira Prison among others. Torture was rife.

Oboteʼs government was tainted, especially Muwanga, as after declaring Obote the winner in elections that Museveni and others contested to the point of resuming the armed struggle, Muwanga joined Oboteʼs government as his Vice-President. Muwanga was later captured and accused of several offences ranging from kidnap to corruption.

An Extraordinary Story

The death toll will never be known, but victims piled up and not just political opponents. Among the victims of Oboteʼs second term were two young men with an extraordinary story. What started as a dispute between two families those of Mpagi Edward Edmary and William Wandyaka escalated into one of the most egregious miscarriages of justice of all time. Wandyaka was allegedly murdered in 1981 by Edmary and his cousin Fred Masembe.

Wandyakaʼs body had supposedly been subjected to a post-mortem examination. Edmary and Masembe stood trial for Wandyakaʼs murder. They told a strange story – an outrageous one. They were not only innocent, but there had been no crime. Wandyaka, they insisted was alive and well. Edmary even claimed that Wandyaka had attended the trial.

A Preposterous Injustice

It sounded preposterous, but time would eventually prove that Edmary and Masembe were indeed innocent and for the reason Edmary had claimed all along. Wandyaka was indeed alive and well throughout the judicial process – one that had claimed Masembeʼs life. Both Edmary and Masembe were sentenced to death.

Masembe died from complications after being weakened by malaria. He was denied medication, callously told that as he was going to be executed anyway, there was no point wasting medication on him. They were both jailed by a corrupt judicial system that facilitated and maintained an appalling injustice.

Vindicated

Masembe lived just long enough to see Obote deposed again, but it was scant consolation. It was already far too late for Fred Masembe. He died in prison for a crime that never occurred.

It took a change in government and 18 years on Death Row for a Presidential Commission to recognise the awful truth – Mpagi Edward Edmary and Fred Masembe were the victims of one of the most shameful miscarriages of justice ever.

Edmary was freed from Death Row. He is a valued member of The Fitted-In Project and is active opposing the death penalty as well as building a school to give the disadvantaged of Uganda a chance of a future.

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.

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.