Presidential advisor Kafuniza to be laid to rest in Ibanda

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Senior presidential advisor on political and security affairs for the western region, Emmanuel Kafuniza, will be laid to rest today (November 10) at his ancestral home in Rugazi Village, Nyabuhikye sub-county in Ibanda district.

Family sources have told New Vision Online that Kafuniza, 72, passed away on Thursday (November 6, 2025) at 4:31 PM at the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, where he had been undergoing treatment.

He is survived by six children and 65 dependents.

Fighting Amin

Kafuniza leaves a rich revolutionary legacy. To begin with, he was among the young Ugandans who, rather than surrender to fate, joined the clandestine military movement that helped end Idi Amin’s dictatorship in 1979.

A family member who preferred anonymity told New Vision Online that Kafuniza joined the movement in the mid-1970s, at a time when he was a licensed teacher at Rushere Primary School in present-day Kiruhura district.

Licensed teachers, commonly known as LT’s, were vacists who were granted temporary teaching licences during that period.

Kafuniza qualified, having completed his Senior Four at Makobore High School, Rukungiri in 1971.

While there, he taught many pupils, including National Enterprise Corporation (NEC) managing director Lt. Gen. James Mugira.

NEC is the Uganda army's commercial arm that produces Uzima mineral water and other military assortments.

“He got in contact with some of the leaders of the movement, including Sam Magara (deceased) and the late Joseph Nasasira. The clandestine group was recruiting fighters to fight Idi Amin, and many of these LTs (Licensed Teachers) had been brought on board to coordinate the mobilisation drive,” the source disclosed.

“In 1976, notable figures such as Chefe Ali (Eriya Mwine), Salim Saleh (Caleb Akandwanaho) and Fred Rwigyema were recruited and sent for training in Montepuez, Mozambique,” he added.

These recruits would later form the core of the Front for National Salvation (FRONASA), the outfit led by President Yoweri Museveni which, alongside Kikosi Maalum and Tanzania People’s Defence Forces (TPDF) under the command of Maj. Gen. David Musuguri helped drive Idi Amin out of power.

The trio would later cement their names in military folklore through their contributions during the National Resistance Army (NRA) war against Dr Apollo Milton Obote’s Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) Government and subsequently, the Gen. Tito Okello junta.

After the 1986 victory, Rwigyema served as deputy army commander and deputy minister of defence before joining Rwandan exiles under the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) to launch the struggle to return home in 1990. Tragically, he was killed on the first day of combat.

Gen. Caleb Akandwanaho, better known by his nom de guerre Salim Saleh, rose to command the army from 1987 to 1990, before being succeeded by Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) presidential candidate Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Gregory Mugisha Muntu Oyera, whose tenure lasted ten years.

However, not to confuse our readers, we shall return to that chapter later.

Fast forward, after Amin’s ouster, the late Kafuniza would later occupy various portfolios, including general secretary for Ankole sub-region in the transitional Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF) umbrella Government.

The transitional governments were not spared from internal squabbles. Professor Yusuf Lule and his successor, Godfrey Lukongwa Binaisa, Q.C Governments, lasted only sixty-eight days and eleven months respectively. With Milton Obote’s return and the electoral body not listening to pleas for reforms ahead of the December 1980 general elections, Kafuniza like many other Ugandans, felt disenchanted.

UNLF-AD armed struggle

At the time, some Ugandans argued that since the country was still recovering from years of sectarian violence was not ready for the reintroduction of multiparty elections. But their pleas were sidestepped in a ploy which seemingly was poised at giving carte blanche to Obote’s second presidency.

In a June 4, 2016, interview with the Daily Monitor, Kafuniza recalled that when campaigns for the elections contested by UPC, Democratic Party (DP) and Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM) of President Museveni began, he met with the “Gang of Four” led by Prof. Edward Rugumayo, the late Dan Nabudere, Yash Tandon and the late Omwony Ojok, together with the late Samson Kanyoro and the late Joseph Nasasira, to forge a way forward.

This group later began covertly organising a popular insurrection under the Uganda National Liberation Front – Anti-Dictatorship (UNLF-AD) banner. However, when they presented the plan to President Museveni, he warned that by drawing first blood before the conclusion of the exercise, they risked being branded warmongers.

Nevertheless, they pressed ahead with their preparations.

“I and friends like Chefe Ali (RIP), Nasasira (RIP) and Augustine Kayonga, Tadeo Barisanga and a few others went to Fort Portal and identified the Rwenzori Mountains as a safe haven. People like William Nyakatura, David Rusa, now a director in ISO, Basaliza, then headmaster of St. Leo’s Kyegobe, gave us contacts to make a base in Rwenzori mountains,” he stated at the time.

By 1982, the group’s ranks had swollen to over 400 fighters, including Brig. Sharif Gava, Brig. Grace Agaba, the late Brig. Patrick Kankiriho and Col. Grip, among others. However, after finding itself abandoned by its political leadership, the group opted to join the NRA, which was then fighting in the Luwero Triangle.

Consequently, the remaining cadres were deployed to work on the farms of their supporters, while their guns were hidden at Kibani on a farm belonging to Chefe Ali and Nasasira’s father and Kafuniza’s farm in Ngari.

According to old comrades of the late, these weapons would later be collected by an emissary that Chefe Ali sent and would play a key role when NRA moved its troops to the western axis and ensuing battles in Kamwenge, Kasunga Nyanja and Rubona. With the latter being a decisive battle that broke the enemy’s back.

Family speaks out

In 1986 when the NRA captured power, his son Nuwengira Caleb Kafuniza says his father was among the fighters who chose to voluntarily go back to the community.

“However, he remained relevant in political circles. First as the first elected mayor of Ibanda in 1996 and went on to hold several Government positions, including serving as Resident District Commissioner (RDC) for three different districts; Ibanda, Ntungamo and Kamwenge before finally being elevated to the position of Senior Presidential Advisor on Political and security affairs, western region, he held up to the time of his death,” Nuwengira stated.

Interestingly, Kafuniza’s father, the late Yosan Kafuniza was a revolutionary in his own right.

“Kafuniza Senior was an efficient farmer and entrepreneur who had built a legacy as a modern dairy farmer of the time and a leader in the revival movement (known as Abazukufu),” a family member revealed.