By Ahmed Kateregga Musaazi

President Yoweri Museveni has made more history by reconciling with the families of his former political and military foes and is blamed for not doing much for the loyal cadres.

At the joint prayers held at National Leadership Institute (NALI) at Kyankwanzi in the ongoing NRM MPs elects’ retreat a granddaughter of the late Idi Amin, Dr Aate Sharifah Taban Amin, the Koboko District Woman MP Elect, and Auma Linda Agnes, the Woman Member of Parliament for Lira District, the daughter of the late Maj. Gen. David Oyite Ojok, the Army Chief of Staff (1979-1983).

Museveni fought Idi Ami’s regime from 1971 to 1979 until it was toppled but he later made peace with Amin’s first son, Taban Amin, who is now Deputy Director-General, Internal Security Organisation. His son is an outgoing Member of Parliament for Kibanda County.

He also allowed Maama Madina Amin, one of the Amin’s wives and her children, to return home from DR Congo in 1993. 

Taban named his daughter in memory of his paternal grandmother, Assa Aate, the mother of Idi Amin. She was a traditional healer and herbalist operating in Kampala and its suburbs near the army and police barracks like Bombo, Entebbe, Kibuli and Jinja.

In one interview, Idi Amin said that his mother prophesized to him that at one time he would be Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces and President and the prophecy became true.

Unconfirmed reports indicate that after Lady Drusilla Namaganda, the official wife of Kabaka Daudi Chwa ll had taken long without conceiving, she was brought Assa Aate, the herbalist who gave her herbs and she managed to conceive, bearing children including Sir Edward Muteesa ll, who later succeeded his father as Kabaka of Buganda in 1939.

There are also reports that Assa Aate was so close to Chwa and that was why there were claims indicating that Amin may have been a son of Chwa. They cite seminaries between Chwa and Amin as the American height. However, such claims surfaced after Amin had taken over power, had allowed the return of the body of Sir Edward Muteesa ll and was buried in a state funeral at Kasubi Royal Tombs, and had allowed the young Prince Ronnie Mutebi to be called Ssaabataka in 1971.

Amin named one of his most favourite sons, Mwanga in memory of Kabaka Mwanga who allied with Omukama Kabalega of Bunyoro and resisted British colonial rule until they were captured in Lango and exiled in Seychelles.

The pampering of Amin by Baganda was not new as earlier on Prime Minister of Uganda, Apollo Milton Obote was named “Bwete” a Kiganda name, during 1961-1964 UPC/Kabaka Yekka alliance, and calling the late Gen. Tito Okello Lutwa, “Lutwama” after ousting Obote in July 27th 1985 coup d’etat. 

In an interview with Maama Madiina Najjemba Amin, one of the late Idi Amin’s widows castigated Tanzanian forces for having bombarded Assa Aate’s grave in Arua in 1979 war and the body was unearthed.

However, the locals came back and reburied it decently. The Tanzanians may have done it unintentionally or they may have been acting in avenge for Uganda Armed Forces’ atrocities in Kagera Salient in November 1978 which Amin annexed amidst killing, looting and raping and Amin himself was quoted as saying that the only survivors were only three dogs and two cats.

According to the MP Elect, this has been accelerated by President Museveni who persuaded his father, Taban Amin to abandon a rebellion in Kinshasa where he had seized Uganda’s embassy and turned it into his residence, appointed him a Deputy Director-General of Internal Security Organisation, and awarded his children including Aate, State House scholarships and they studied, and NRM has groomed them into leadership including his brother Taban Idi Amin, the outgoing MP for Kibanda North in Kiryandongo District. She said that she did not see her grandfather Idi Amin, but that President Museveni has stood in well for her as the grandfather.

Museveni also fought the Obote ll regime from 1981 to 1985. Its Army Chief of Staff was Maj. Gen. David Oyite Ojok who was killed in a plane crash in December 1983 while chasing out National Resistance Movement/Army (NRM/NRA) rebels commanded by Yoweri Museveni in Luwero District.

Oyite Ojok was a distant cousin of the late Milton Obote. His daughter Auma Linda Agnes was in Opposition UPC, Obote’s party, but was persuaded to join NRM after the informal NRM/UPC alliance in Lango sub-region since 2016 elections and was appointed a Resident District Commissioner and from there she is now an MP. 

This is in addition to Obote’s son and heir Jimmy Akena being an MP for Lira Municipality. His wife Betty Amongin is the Minister for Lands, Housing and Urban Development.

Henry Okello Oryem, the State Minister for Foreign Affairs, is the son of the late Gen. Tito Okello Lutwa. At one time, the President recalled how Oryem used to babysit Muhoozi Kainerugaba, now a Lieutenant General and Commander of Special Forces Command, when both Lutwa and Museveni were political exiles in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania in the seventies.

Maurice Kagimu, son of Uganda’s First Prime Minister (1961-1962), and first Ugandan Chief Justice (1971-1972) Benedicto Kiwanuka, was both an MP for Bukomansimbi County and Minister of State in the Office of the President.

Waswa Lule, son of the late Prof. Yusuf Kironde Lule, former President of Uganda and first NRM Chairperson (1981-1985), was Deputy Inspector General of Government and later Constituent Assembly Delegate and MP for Lubaga North.

So, while Obote captured Mutesa’s wives; Lady Damalie Nabagereka, and Sarah Kisisonkole (Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi’s Queen Mother) as 

 Prisoners of War and were detained without trial at Luzira Prisons after the invasion of Lubiri during the 1966 Buganda Crisis, Obote’s wife Maama Miria Obote is under the care of President Museveni’s government.

Lately, when religious leaders called upon the President to make peace with Robert Sentamu Kyagulanyi who competed for Presidency under NUP, the president said that he did not need mediators between himself and his opponents like Bobi as he could drive to their homes. 

He cited Taban Amin, with whom he was working in government when he was not only a son of a past president, he fought, but he was himself a rebel. He did mention Amama Mbaabazi, his FRONASA comrade who had fallen out with him in 2013 and even stood against him in 2016 and took to him to court and lost, but they reconciled. 

Scrutiny into Museveni’s past and present cabinet shows it has former opponents not only from past governments but also rebel groups like UNLA, UFM, FEDEMU, UNRF, FUNA, UPDA, UPA, WNBK, HSM, LRA, ADF etc… 

However, while the President has excelled in bringing to the dining table former foes, his critiques say that he overdoes it at the expense of his loyal and principled cadres, hence there is a need for a balance. 

Haji Ahmed Kateregga Musaazi is a veteran journalist and a Communications Assistant with the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance.