Morale boosting: Mr. Yoweri Museveni addressing troops of the National resistance movement during the bush war in the early 1980s

The morale of soldiers went down, since many of them wanted Bazilio Okello
By Joshua Kato
One of the factors that contributed to the quick defeat of the Obote and Tito governments by the National Resistance Army was certainly the infighting that was going on in the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA). The struggle was mainly over ranks and control of the army.

This involved mainly the Acholi and the Langi, who were the two main tribes in the army at the time.

These divisions became more pronounced after the death of Major general Oyite Ojok in 1983. Major General Bazilio Okello thought he was the obvious replacement for the post of Chief of Staff of the armed forces.

But Obote had other ideas. Insiders at the time say he was wary of naming a soldier other than one from his tribe to replace Oyite Ojok.

However, most of his favoured tribesmen were of lower ranks. This meant that he had to promote one of them very fast to take over the post.

“Unlike the current UPDF where you have at least six Lt. Generals and five Major Generals, plus hundreds of other officers between the ranks of Major and Brigadier, the UNLA did not have so many high ranking officers. This meant that getting an immediate replacement for a dead officer was difficult,” says a former UNLA soldier.

The people Obote had in mind included Major Odong Oduka who was then commander of the PPU, but unfortunately, died of cancer. The other was Lt. Colonel James Oboth, Major Mad Ogwal and Major Smith Opon Acak, who was commander of the western brigade.

Yet again, promoting one at the expense of long serving generals was certain to raise eye brows. Obote realised this. But the feeling that the position of Chief of staff of the UNLA should be a Langi, overrode his sense of judgement.

The army remained without a chief of staff as Major Smith Opon Acak was being rapidly promoted to the rank of Brigadier. He jumped the rank of Lt. Colonel and Colonel. He was subsequently named the new chief of staff.

The Okellos were devastated beyond their dreams. They viewed Smith Acak as a young, inexperienced soldier. Although he had just returned from Sandhurst military academy in Britain, they thought he was only fit to command a battalion of 600 soldiers, and not an army of 40,000.

The morale of the fighting rank and file suddenly went down, since many of them had their allegiance with Bazilio Okello.

“He had told them that whoever had two shirts should give them one. He had also told them that guns were their source of survival, so they should pay their salaries. The soldiers understood this statement as a licence to go out and rob for their survival,”

Most of the operations against the NRA were left in the hands of Lt.colonel Wilson Ogole and Major Eric Odwar, while the rest of the command structure were engaged in personal fights around Kampala.

“Bazilio and Opon Acak had given a directive to their escorts that once their convoys met, they should just shoot each other dead. Fortunately, their convoys never met,” says a former UNLA soldier.

Killings of Acholi soldiers by Langi officers at Makindye Military police barracks intensified. They were killed mainly because they refused to go and fight the rebels at the frontline.

Vice President Paulo Muwanga met with the two Okellos, Bazilio and Tito and Major Odongo Latek. The group wanted to prevail over the other faction of the Uganda People’s Congress led by Obote so as to talk with the rebels to avoid the bloodshed. But the Obote led group, comprising Edward Rurangaranga, Lt. Colonel Wilson Ogole and Chris Rwakasisi refused to listen to the option of talking, vowing to fight and kill the rebels.

At the peak of the infighting, Obote pulled another cat out of the bag. He transferred Bazilio Okello to the north.

The subsequent transfer of Bazilio Okello to the northern brigade in Gulu was intended to remove him away from the centre of power. However, it just worked in his favour. While in Gulu, Bazilio was able to organise his tribesmen in the army.

Obote was not aware of this. This was largely due to the fact that he trusted his right hand man Vice president Paulo Muwanga. Little did he know that Muwanga was now part of the plans to overthrow him. Obote even went out of the country for the first time in a long time. He apparently felt safer, leaving Muwanga in charge.

At around the same time, there were mass desertions from the UNLA to the NRA. For example in Kasese, a battalion that had kept the NRA at bay in the Rwenzori mountains deserted en-masse, after its commander abandoned it to take part in the tribal infighting that was going on in Kampala.

As soon as the unit handed over its weapons to the NRA, the rebels took control of Kasese and its environs. The UNLA never tried to capture it again.

There was a shoot out at Mbuya military barracks on July 7 1985. Paulo Muwanga termed this as uncoordinated movement of troops. Apparently, the Okellos had planned their coup for that day. However, during the shoot out, their forces were defeated by those loyal to Obote and Acak.

The Okellos withdrew to the north of Uganda in good order to plan for another day. There, they were joined by a group of former Amin soldiers.

On July 22, they successfully attacked a garrison in Lira and captured it. Then on July 26, they defeated another group of Obote forces at Karuma. After that, they marched into Kampala, entering the city on July 27, 1985. Tito Okello was appointed Head of State. The military regime was short-lived as the NRA took over power on january 26, 1986.
Ends