Anti-Bahima, Bakiga crusaders should reflect on Acholi-Lango 1985 squabbles

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By Sam Akaki Ayumu

Where ancient tribesmen beat drums to alert their kinsmen to the start of war against their rivals, in 1994, the Hutu tribesmen in Rwanda went a few steps better and launched Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines (RTLM), or Free Radio and Television of the Thousand Hills, which inspired the Interahamwe (those who fight together).

A million people were killed in 100 days.

Recently, some Ugandans allegedly belonging to the Bakiga and Bahima tribesmen, have gone even further and used cyberweb technology, meant to drive global trade in goods and services, to trade tribal hate campaigns, the vitriolic nature of which now makes the Interahamwe look amateurish.

The messages were so toxic that President Museveni was compelled to tell Ugandans, “the other day, I addressed you about a forged document, which was circulating on social media.

It was suspected that it was either authored or circulated by some people, some of whom have been arrested. Now, since the name of the Rt. Hon. Mbabazi, my young brother, has been featuring in some of these stories, I decided to invite him, together with the Rt. Hon. Ruhakana Rugunda, for a meeting, so that I ask him whether himself or people associated with him are involved in distributing these seditious, sectarian documents” (New Vision, May 15, 2015).

Let us tell the uncomfortable truth, if only to warn the anti-Bahima/Bakiga crusaders how treacherous the law of unintended consequences can be.

It was the petty rivalry for supremacy between a [handful] of Acholi and Langi politicians and soldiers, which exploded and ultimately led to the insurgency that raged in the north and east for 20 years, killed hundreds of thousands of people and drove more than two million into Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps where they lived in the most dehumanising of conditions. The insurgency also decimated the socio-economic bases in the two regions, which was cattle.

To compound their loss, not only have their children kidnapped by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) unlikely to return home. The former IDPs came back and found their land had been legally stolen by their former neighbours and strangers.

The old women in Amuru have recently taken the drastic steps to express their frustration by stripping, stark naked, before internal affairs and land ministers Gen. Aronda Nyakairima and Daudi Migereko respectively!

Here is the genesis, which anti-Bahaima/Bakiga crusaders should note. By early 1985, President Milton Obote had become a virtual hostage to Acholi and Langi politicians and soldiers, forcing him to call a meeting with the elders of the two committees to try to resolve the rivalries, which were threatening the existence of the government.

Although the president meant well, other Ugandans were left incredulous, wondering how the problems affecting a supposedly elected national government could be resolved in a meeting between two tribes! In event, the hostage President Obote offered the rivals too little too late.

In what the then Vice-President, Paulo Muwanga, (in)famously called “uncoordinated” troop movements, Acholi and Langi soldiers went about launching rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) at government houses occupied by their rivals in Kampala and Entebbe.

Many non-Acholi and Langi people, who were unfortunate enough to be living in the nearby houses, also lost their lives and property. The 1985 coup had started.

Assisted by former Amin’s soldiers as well as mercenaries from South Sudan, Acholi troops headed by Bazilio Okello, had the upper hand, forcing President Obote to flee to Kenya and then Zambia.

Although there was no resistance, the victorious Bazilio Okello’s soldiers went on the rampage, murdering Langi and Iteso soldiers and civilians, destroying homes and looting the contents. The regional towns of Lira and Soroti and Obote’s village at Akokoro bore the brunt of Bazillio Okello’s wrath.

To illustrate their savagery, Obote’s 90-year-old mother, Pulicikira Achen, was sexually assaulted while his blind father, Stanley Opeto, was struck on the head and instantly killed as he sat warming himself in the morning sun!

Savagery is not one-way traffic in war, but revenge is indeed a dish better served cold. The Langi people were handed a perfect opportunity when the NRA took over Kampala in January 1986, sending Okello Bazillio Okello’s soldiers rushing home through the hostile Lango region. Ambushes were laid on Lira-Gulu, Lira-Kitgum and Lira-Kalongo roads, killing unknown numbers of retreating and exhausted Acholi and West Nille soldiers, along with their wives and children, some had been walking on foot all the way from Kampala, Jinja, Mbale and Soroti.

Despite that dreadful national tragedy, only 30 years old this month, the political opposition, civil society and religious leaders are yet to condemn the anti-Bahima/Bakiga crusaders, who are breaking anti-sectarian law enshrined in the 1995 Constitution

Just as some Ugandans, who felt fed up with the perceived domination of government by Acholi and Langi tribesmen wished them God’s speed on their self-destruct course in 1985; is it possible that some leaders are today silently wishing the anti-Bahima/Bakiga crusaders good luck?

Whatever the case may be, the opposition leaders who sloganise about saving Uganda from sliding into the abyss should prove themselves by condemning anti-Bahima/Bakiga crusaders, unequivocally. Why? “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men (and women) do nothing.” (Edmund Burke).


The writer is the former FDC international envoy to the UK and the European Union, also former parliamentary candidate in the UK, and now Director, African-European relations