Ex-Rwenzururu, NALU, ADF leader dies at Mulago hospital
According to close family, Kisokeranio died in the wee hours of Tuesday morning at Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala.
The late Fenehasi Kisokeranio. (Courtesy photo).
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One of the surviving top architects of the former Rwenzori-based post-independence militant groups that have fought the government has died.
Fenehasi Bwambale Kisokeranio, alias Kisokyo, was among the top leaders of the Rwenzururu Freedom Movement (1962-1982), the defunct National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU) between 1989 and 1993 and the Allied Democratic Front (ADF), but later denounced rebellion in 2015.
According to close family, Kisokeranio died in the wee hours of Tuesday morning at Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala.
“We had been referred to Mulago after a doctor at Mount St Mary’s Hospital in Kasese told us that my brother Kisokeranio’s blood pressure had severely struck his brain and advised us to rush him to Mulago for a CT scan,” said
Sunday Augustine Kobe, the bereaved brother.
The cause of death, he added, would be revealed at the release of detailed burial arrangements.
Who is Kisokyo?
Kisokeranio, a Mukonzo from Kitholhu Sub-county in Kasese District, served as a commander in the 20-year armed Rwenzururu struggle against the Toro Kingdom between 1962 and 1982, making him one of the most enduring figures in the region's opposition history militants.
However, he parted ways with the Rwenzururu leadership following a disagreement with founding Rwenzururu leader Isaya Mukirania, the father of the current Rwenzururu Omusinga, Charles Wesley Mumbere Irema-Ngoma.
Following that fallout, Kisokeranio surrendered to the UPC government in the early 1980s.
He later lost the position, became disgruntled over lack of appropriate resettlement, and joined NALU, formed by former security minister, Amon Bazira, which operated in the Rwenzori jungles between 1989 and 1993.
Commands NALU
When Bazira was later assassinated in Kenya, Kisokeranio assumed command of the NALU, which was later assimilated into the ADF, representing the secular Rwenzururu-rooted wing within the alliance, distinct from the jihadist ADF faction led by Jamil Mukulu.
The ADF later allied with the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2019, a jihadist militant group that controlled large parts of Iraq and Syria at its peak, and is now recognised as the Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP).
In 2015, New Vision reported that Kisokeranio, then in his 70s, had denounced the Jamil Mukulu ADF rebellion, surrendered to the government and was held under tight security in Kampala shortly after Mukulu was captured in Tanzania.
Family
Kisokeranio is survived by several children, including his sons Dema and Kikwangwa, former fighters in the ADF who also abandoned rebellion following the defeat of ADF in 2001.
They are currently serving army officers in the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF).
Kisokeranio’s other son, Benjamin Kisokeranio another son with links to the ADF was arrested in Uvira, South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo in January 2022.
Kisokeranio’s death comes amidst high-level preparations to mark the Rwenzururu kingdom’s 17th anniversary since being officially recognised by government in 2009 but its 64th one since being declared by its founders led by Isaya Mukirania in June 1962 when the Bakonzo and Bamba clan heads enthroned him.
Eulogies trending on various platforms describe him as a committed church goer and a peace lover.
“Our member of the 3rd (Church) service” commented Rev Robert Zziwa, a senior clergy in the South Rwenzori Anglican Diocese, adding “rest in eternity mzee.”
Another obituary was from veteran journalist, retired RDC and former Kasese district chairperson, Barnabas Bwambale Bamusede.
“When he denounced rebellion, he played a big role in working closely with the government to ensure peace and stability in our area,” Bamusede noted.
Bamusede, now a Lay Canon in the Diocese, said he had recently met Kisokeranio branding him as “a usually smart old man.”
“This is most shocking news. It is so sad to lose a family pillar at a time he is most needed. May his soul rest in eternal peace,” remarked the retired Bishop Zebedee Kahangwa Masereka, pioneer founder of South Rwenzori Diocese, established in 1984 as part of the answer to the Rwenzururu desires for independence from the Tooro kingdom.
Retired Rev. Can Jane Janet Muhindo said the Rwenzururu kingdom, locally known as Obusinga Bwa Rwenzururu (OBR) had lost one of its dictionaries.
The Rev Ezra Yongeza Mukonzo, one of the nine-member delegation that led Kisokeranio to a meeting with President Yoweri Museveni after the former rebel commander’s surrender, recalled that Kisokeranio confessed that he had wanted to kill the President and take over government.
“But we realised that you were too tough and clever for us and that we were fighting a losing rebellion,” Mukonzo quoted Kisokeranio as having told Museveni.
The Coordinator of the Inter-Religious of Uganda in charge of Rwenzori and Tooro sub-regions, Mukonzo appealed to the people that the deceased may have aggrieved.
“Forgiveness is both Biblical and constitutional,” said Mukonzo, who is also the Rwenzururu kingdom Religious Affairs minister.