Oyite Ojok, one of Uganda's best soldiers

Feb 08, 2012

By Shortly after Idi Amin’s overthrow in 1979, the prestigious magazine, The New African, carried a front page photo of Maj. Gen. David Oyite Ojok with the inscriptions, ‘The Lion of War’.

By Joshua Kato
 
By Shortly after Idi Amin’s overthrow in 1979, the prestigious magazine, The New African, carried a front page photo of Maj. Gen. David Oyite Ojok with the inscriptions, ‘The Lion of War’. Oyite Ojok was one of the commanders who led a Ugandan unit under the Tanzanian People’s Defence Forces (TPDF) to overthrow Amin.
 
But just four years later he was to die in a helicopter crash in Kasozi in Luwero during a military operation against the rebel National Resistance Army (NRA) led by Yoweri Museveni.
 
Although he fought the NRA, he was on January 26, 2010 remembered as a national hero, a sign that he was respected by his adversaries too. Of course, he had his other short comings including accusations of being tribalistic.
 
Early years Oyite Ojok was born in 1940 in the then Lira district. He joined the army in 1963 as an Officer Cadet rising to the rank of Lt. Col. by the time Dr. Apollo Milton Obote was overthrown in a military coup in 1971. Brig. Bernard Rwehururu, then a young cadet officer recalls Oyite Ojok as a jolly young Major, who occasionally lectured them at the training school in Jinja.
 
On Obote’s overthrow, Oyite Ojok, then the army Quarter Master and Adjutant General was among the officers who fled to neighbouring Tanzania. He was later to play a key role in regrouping the military exiles who, with the backing of Tanzanian troops, led the offensive for Amin’s overthrow.
 
It was during the overthrow of Idi Amin that Oyite Ojok showed his military expertise. He was the overall commander of Ugandan exiles under Kikosi Maalum. It was Oyite Ojok, who announced Amin’s overthrow.
 
Obote, then in Tanzania recalls that moment. In his account Obote says there were not so many operating phones in Kampala at the time which necessitated that a certain expert Chris Opio had to be looked for to reactivate one phone line so that Dar-es-Salaam could be informed.
 
Role in post Amin era
After Amin’s overthrow, Oyite Ojok became a member of the Military Commission, a powerful subcommittee of the Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF) together with Yoweri Museveni, Paulo Muwanga and Tito Okello.
 
He was fiercely independent, but remained loyal to Obote who was preparing to return from exile.
 
The alliance of political forces in the UNLF under President Yusuf Lule soon began to unravel. Of significant importance was the emergence of tribal rivalry.
 
On the one side were those from the North who made up the bulk of the new national army, and on the other those from the South (particularly those from Buganda) who for the first time since 1964 had significant political and military influence. 
 
Oyite Ojok, as the new chief of staff, ensured that the national army under his command was overwhelmingly made up of ‘northerners’. According to several accounts, Oyite Ojok ensured that most of the cadets who were sent to Munduli in Tanzania for training came from the north.
 
In his book, Uganda’s Revolution, The Way I Saw it, Maj. Gen. Pecos Kuteesa who trained as a cadet in 1980, Oyite Ojok went as far as visiting Munduli in Tanzania and wondering why most of the cadets on training were from the west and south-west of Uganda.
 
In May 1980, Oyite Ojok ‘showed where real power lay’ when ‘accidental’ president Godfrey Binaisa dismissed him as army chief in an attempt to reduce the power of the Military Commission, deploying him as ambassador to Algeria, which was obviously a demotion.
 
In response, the Military Commission removed Binaisa from office and declared the country would be ruled by a Presidential Commission headed by Muwanga. It was the Presidential Commission which paved way for Obote’s return and organised the disputed 1980 elections.
 
Fighting rebellions 
Museveni, who had promised to go to the bush if elections were rigged, lived to his word. As Army Chief of Staff, Oyite Ojok was responsible for putting down the rebellions which also included Dr. Kayiira’s Uganda Freedom Movement (UFM).
 
With his military experience during the struggle to overthrow Idi Amin, Oyite Ojok proved very effective against these groups.
 
However, this was done with both military tact and brutality against the population in areas where the guerrilla forces operated, especially the famous Luwero Triangle where thousands were killed.
Verge of defeating NRA? 
 
The NRA preferred the rural areas and fought a bush war which involved hit and run tactics against army patrols and vehicles. Museveni also developed a very effective political wing and vision.
 
“Oyite Ojok was a charismatic soldier, respected by both his troops and even some of us,” writes Pecos Kuteesa, who at the time of Oyite Oyite Ojok, one of Uganda’s best soldiers Ojok’s death was a rebel commander under the NRA. Kuteesa says that given Ojok’s prowess, the NRA was set to face a difficult time had he not died.
 
Having mostly defeated the UFM, Oyite Ojok concentrated his efforts in Luwero and had measured success against the NRA. It is widely believed that by early 1983, Museveni had departed for Sweden, leaving in place, the military and political organisation of the NRA.
 
“We were facing one offensive after another, which forced us to withdraw from most of Nakaseke and near Luwero areas to the cattle keeping areas of Ngoma,” recounted retired NRA Captain Godfrey Kangave.
 
All these offensives were led by Oyite Ojok as the overall commander under whom were many other well-trained officers including Col. John Ogole and Majors Eric Odwar and Micheal Kilama.
 
On the other hand, the NRA banked on an equally battle-hardened command including Museveni, Salim Saleh, Joram Mugume, Tadeo Kanyankore and Patrick Lumumba, who were also Mundulitrained.
 
The Acholi–Langi divide
Although Ojok was shrewd, the NRA strategists were equally smart. Their very mobile and surprise attacks disorganised the UNLA in many ways. Rising casualties among the UNLA fighters finally tore the UNLA apart.
 
The Langi (Obote and Oyite Ojok’s tribe) and the Acholi (Tito Okello, the Army Commander’s tribe) constituted the bulk of the army.
 
However, the majority of the foot soldiers were Acholi and suffered the most casualties. It was even rumoured they wanted to engage in peace talks with the guerrillas, a move fiercely opposed by the elite Special Forces most of whom were Langi and closest to Obote.
 
On the economic front, Oyite Ojok is said to have ‘grabbed’ properties of the then Coffee Marketing Board (CMB) and started exporting coffee for his personal use.
 
According to sources that worked at Nile Mansions at the time, a rebuke from Obote about this act saw a fierce verbal exchange between the two. “He curtly told Obote that it was because of him and the army that he (Obote) was still in power,” the source said.
 
His death
 The situation became worse when Ojok died on December 2, 1983. Initial reports had indicated that his chopper, a Bell 412 was shot down by NRA.
 
In President Museveni’s own account: “The helicopters had spent the entire day criss-crossing our area and at some occasion, our machine gunners fired at them...,”
 
However, this account was quickly refuted by the Government which officially blamed mechanical fault on the chopper.
 
Yet still, there was another theory that Oyite Ojok was killed by his own government because he had become so big for Obote to handle.
 
But as Obote said, whichever way, Uganda lost one of the most brilliant soldiers of postindependent Uganda.
 
“Some people say it was the bandits who shot the helicopter! Others say it was a piloting error, still others say it was a mechanical fault, but whichever angle you look at it, it was a disaster. David Oyite Ojok is no longer with us,” said President Milton Obote in December, 1983.

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