The rest camp was unusually busy that evening. It was May 19, 1905 and Bwana had just arrived from Toro and was going to spend that night at Kamukuri rest camp. Rwakirenzi, the caretaker of the rest camp, was busy making sure the white man was comfortable. Bwana was a Whiteman who was a sub commissioner in charge of the Western province of Uganda in 1905. His name was Harry St George Galt. 

Galt was a ruthless administrator. He always moved with a kiboko, a whip made out of dried rhinoceros hide, dangling from his waist. And he never hesitated to use it. His title, Bwana and his whip, kiboko, were well known and feared throughout the western region over which he superintended. But that was not all. He had the power to order any native to be killed and it did not give him any sleepless night. 

Two days before he left Fort Portal for Mbarara on May 17, 1905, he had ordered a Mutoro peasant to be hanged for spearing a colleague in a fight. 

THE ROUTE TO MBARARA 
There were no roads then. The route connecting Toro to Mbarara passed through Ibanda. There were several camps known as omuginda, where white men and their caravans used to rest for a night or a meal. A caravan used to be composed of 20 natives on average. These included four stout natives who carried the Whiteman in a hammock, the assistants who took over when the carriers were tired or injured, the porters carried luggage and any other person the Whiteman allowed into his convoy. 

The approximately 200km journey from Fort Portal in Toro to Mbarara was usually made in one week, which is approximately 30km per day and seven stops. It was rarely a straight trek, unless there were summons by the commissioner who resided in Mbarara then. Usually, Galt would organise his journeys in such a way as to allow himself longer stopovers for administration work in the Queen’s territories. 

The routes are what eventually modern day roads became. They were littered by rest camps, which were reed enclosures with few huts and resting facilities. The one Galt arrived at on May 19, 1905 was to be his last. 

A Typical Caravan White Administrators Used In Those Days Without Vehicles Or Roads

WHY IBANDA?
According to a senior historian, the former commissioner of museums and monuments in the Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry, Ephraim Kamuhangire, Galt was supposed to have rested for a night at the omuginda of Ntara in Kitagwenda. But he insisted that the convoy snake on up to Kamukuri in Ibanda, where he wanted to sleep on the night of May 19. 

“Paka Banda!” he had ordered, implying move on up to Ibanda! Little did he know that would be his last command to his caravan! That saying, ‘Mpaka banda’, is still popular in the area and used to nudge on people who are already tired. 

There is a rumour that Galt wanted to sleep in Ibanda because he had a secret love affair with a woman called Julia Kibubura, whom he had made a Gombolola chief. Kibubura’s appointment had astounded natives far and wide because, at that time, women leaders were hardly expected and greatly frowned upon. But thanks to the mighty authority Galt had as a sub commissioner in charge of the western region, he made Kibubura the first woman Gombolola chief in western Uganda. 

Today, a secondary school in the area is named after her. However, Mzee Michael Kibeeherere, 92, a grandson of Kibubura disputes the claim. “Kiburura was an honourable person, virtuous and dignified, totally incapable of an extramarital affair,” he told Saturday Vision back in 2016. 

DEATH IN THE CAMP
The evening of May 19, 1905 brought darkness as usual, but nobody could sense, even in the wildest of imaginations, that the darkness it heralded would be of no ordinary kind. As Galt was repairing himself from the fatigues of the journey in his special hut located in the middle of the omuginda, his entourage was scattered in the compound. 
Some were preparing food for the night, others bathing off the sweat of carrying the whiteman and others still, were sharing gossip they gathered along the route with the local sentries who had been guarding and maintaining the omuginda. And it was always hot gossip. 
One porter was narrating to the sentry how Bwana found a family sharing a dead buffalo in Kitagwenda that very day. He arrested them and ordered his askaris to beat them hard. Two brothers had died and the third was released too weak to walk. The narrator was not sure if he would survive. 

According to The Uganda Journal Vol. 24, No. 1, Galt had been summoned to Mbarara to hand over to the then district officer, F.A Knowles as sub-commissioner. He had been redeployed at the secretariat in Entebbe. Mbarara was still three days off, so he needed a deep sleep to rejuvenate himself. 
The Uganda Journal says Galt was resting on the veranda of the main hut at about 6:30pm, when, suddenly, someone stormed in brandishing a spear. Before Galt could do anything, the intruder plunged the spear into his chest and disappeared into the darkness. 

Galt still managed to rise from his fall and staggered towards the cook’s house, with a spear protruding from his body. His last words were: “Look, cook, a savage has speared me!” 

He collapsed onto the ground! It was a shock! A Whiteman had been killed! It could have been in the stories of Kabalega’s Bunyoro, but in this region, it was unheard of, scaring and confusing! Everyone else stampeded into the darkness, some unsure of what had happened. 

Up to today, it is not rare to hear a person from Ibanda brag: “We killed Galt; who are you?”

SO WHAT HAPPENED? 
The news of Galt’s murder was a great surprise in Uganda and the whole of East Africa, who immediately pointed at racism and politics. The Whites in the country were scared that it would demystify their invincibility and expose them to more attacks from the ungrateful natives. Something tough and very terrifying had to be done to scare the natives into ever thinking of trying it out again. 

As Galt lay dying by the rest camp kitchen, the traditional response among the Banyankole was to raise an alarm. Soon, alarms tore the air as sentries and porters took to their heels in fear of consequences.

Kibubura was already on the compound and most likely, in the cook’s house, preparing Galt a meal. She was the first to arrive at the scene before Galt breathed his last. “Galt actually died in Kibubura’s arms as she was trying to stop blood from coming out of his mouth and chest,” Kibeeherere said. 

GALT’S BURIAL 
Galt’s body was carried on to Mbarara and buried in the cemetery at the king’s chapel in Kamukuzi. The words engraved on his grave, which are still visible several years later, read: “Sacred to the memory of Harry St., George Galt, Acting Sub-Commissioner of the Western province who was murdered at Ibanda on the 19th May 1905 by a native of Ankole. This cross has been erected by the direction of his Excellency H. Hesketh –Bell CML H.M. Governor of Uganda as a memorial to an excellent and deeply regretted offi cer 1908.” 

The Mbarara deputy commissioner, George Wilson, ordered Knowles to storm Ibanda and avenge the whiteman’s blood. Knowles was also under express orders to use whatever means to get the culprit to book. 

THE INQUIRY 
According to the Uganda Journal Vol. 24, No. 1, Commissioner Hayes Sadler instructed deputy commissioner George Wilson to carry out a special inquiry. His interrogation team included district officer F. A. Knowles, Capt. C. E. H. Laughlin, the officer commanding the troops in Ankole district, two reverends of the Church Missionary Society, Madox and Clayton and the police inspector, Crean. Laughlin came with 59 Nubian soldiers and Crean, 69 policemen. 

There were also natives, like Nuwa Mbaguta, the prime minister of Kahaya, the king of Ankole. Both were treated as co-investigators and suspects – together with all the six chiefs of Ankole, at the same time. There were two Baganda chiefs from Bunyoro and Wilson’s highly prized Muganda interpreter, Abdul Aziz.
 
Wilson began his inquiry in Fort Portal on June 3. He rounded up all the seven chiefs, along with the Omukama Kasagama and his prime minister. Galt had begun his journey from Fort Portal; could the killer have followed his caravan to finish him off as soon as he stepped into Ankole? 

On May 17, a Mutoro called Kadebu was hanged on the orders of Galt in Fort Portal. That was two days before Galt travelled to Mbarara. Wilson suspected Kadebu’s son and close relatives could have planned revenge. He had them rounded up and several others that bore even a minute suspicion of bad blood. 

In an atmosphere of intimidation, a flood of allegations flowed, but none of these could be proved. Omukama Kasagama and his chiefs insisted there was no way a Mutoro could carry out such a high profile murder in Ankole. Wilson thought they were evasive and unwilling to implicate their people and so, ordered all of them to follow him to Ibanda. They arrived on the June 8, 1905. 

Still, no evidence could pin Kadebu’s kin and that line of suspicion was dropped. But the chiefs were warned that they were personally responsible for tracing and finding the murderer. And that heavy punishment would befall them if they failed.

A Native Speared Galt

Who was Galt?
According to The Collard Collection on Uganda 1868 – 1942, by Collard Charles Edwin, Harry St. George Galt was born in 1872. It is not clear when he came to Uganda, but he was at Port Victoria until July 1899 when he took charge of the new station at Port Ugowe. 

An American, Caroline Kirkland, whose diary of travel to Uganda was published in The Chicago Tribune in 1906, described Galt as “a fine specimen of Anglo- Saxon manhood; a plucky young fellow, a good shot and all round spot. He had a widowed mother and sister dependent on him. He was more than usually popular with the natives among whom he lived.” 

However, according to Edward Steinhart, in his book, Conflict and Collaboration in Kingdoms of Western Uganda, this alleged popularity could have been exaggerated. Steinhart describes Galt as a no-compromise administrator who took locals head on and could have attracted venom of some chiefs. 

In July 1902, while still a collector, he dismissed two Bahima protestant country chiefs, Mazinio and Matsiko and replaced them with Bairu Catholic chiefs, Nyemera and Mayindo in Isingiro and Nyabushozi, respectively. He also sacked Nduru, the ruler of Buzimba and replaced him with his Katikkiro, Henry Ryamugwizi.  All these were unprecedented and unacceptable at that time to the extent that they are believed to have put him in the firing line of Ankole’s factional conflicts. 

Known as Bwana, Galt was a district collector, until March 1903 when he replaced by Racey as sub- commissioner in charge of the Western region. That comprised 26 present-day districts and covered an area of approximately 55,277sq km. That was around the time of the Ankole Agreement of 1901. According to The Uganda Journal, Galt was killed while going to Mbarara to hand over to F. A Knowles because he had been recalled to the secretariat in Entebbe. 

He is buried in the cemetery of St Paul’s Church, Kamukuzi in Mbarara. A street is named after him in Kijungu. Galt Road starts at Boma Road and flows parallel to Mbarara-Kabale Road, passing via the office of the state attorney, Mbarara town headquarters, Golf course building and the university faculty of development studies.

Galt Road In Mbarara

The High Court building was also originally named after Galt, until it was renamed. 
While very few know this Galt after whom a street is named in Mbarara, Ibanda will never forget the man whose death brought terror unprecedented and reshaped the history of the region.

In Part 2 of the Galt series tomorrow; a continuation of the events that saw the rise of the only stone pyramid in Uganda.