POLITICS | NRA | BULLETS

KASANDA - Norah Nakimbugwe was a 20-year-old woman, residing around Lukole on the Mpigi-Kabasanda road. 

Lukole is about 2kms from Kabasanda. 

“Olunaku lwali lwakubiri awo ngobudde bukya. Mba nzukuka bwento genda okuwulira ngamasaasi gayiika ngenkuba ku mabaati,” (It was Tuesday as dusk broke and as I was about to wake up, I heard a lot of noise that resembled so much rain hitting the iron roof)  

What she heard were elements of the NR's 7th Bn attacking Kabasanda. The government soldiers were occupying the hill where the sub-county headquarters sit today, which gave them a slight advantage over a force that attacked from Kibibi in the east. 

The ‘rain’ without water falling went on for over two hours before it stopped, for around 30 minutes before it started again. 

The fighting went one and off through the whole day, until after midnight when it stopped completely. 

“At night, we heard many soldiers running past our home towards Mpigi town. We learnt that those were government soldiers withdrawing,” Nakimbugwe says. 

The 7th Bn followed the withdrawing government forces and hit them again in Mpigi and overran it on January 18th. 

They rapidly advanced on the main road and by January 21st were poised just after Kyengera, near where the Express Highway crosses Masaka road today. 

“I was in Nsangi I think on a Tuesday when I saw two long lines of shabbily dressed soldiers carrying all sorts of weapons walking through the town,” remembers Samuel Bomboka, who had taken his father`s bicycle at a repair shop. 

These were units of the 7th Bn advancing towards Kyengera. He says that while at first the population feared them, they soon came back and started jubilating. 

“Abayekera batuuse,’(the guerrillas have arrived) was the commonest word. “People gave them food and water,” he remembers. Of course, that stretch was not as populated as it is today.   

By the night of January 22, all NRA units that were supposed to attack the city had reached their jump off points. For example, the 1st, 3rd and 7th Bns were lying in defensive positions on the other side of River Lubigi at Busega, on Masaka and Mityana roads, running all the way to the Hoima road at Namungona. 

“It is only that river and the papyrus that separated us from the government forces,” Ssekamatte remembers.