Museveni’s house of escape

By Titus Kakembo The legendary house in Maluku housing estate in Mbale, where President Museveni survived death by a hair’s-breadth, is to be demolished by the owner very soon. Henry Kyaterekera, now the owner of house number 49 on Samia Road, says the President has visited them three times in the recent past. “Since I took full ownership of the plot, I would like to develop it to contain my growing family size. I just feared to take the President by surprise. I would not like him to come with guests and find it razed to the ground,” says Kyaterekera. Though it has seen better days, the house remains the smartest in a series of others, which badly need a fresh coat of paint. “Very often the President has brought his guests to see the little house. As we sat in our chairs, Museveni told us he was almost killed here in 1973. He was rounded up by Idi Amin’s notorious soldiers when word was leaked about his whereabouts,” narrates Kyaterekera. In the spine chilling tale, Kyaterekera describes the violence of how President Museveni always narrates the experience. “The two boys, one mingling posho to have with malewa sauce for supper, were later found dead in a pool of blood in the house after Museveni’s mysterious disappearance.” The out-smarted Uganda National Armed Forces (UNAF) soldiers then reportedly vented their anger on the poor boys and the entire neighbourhood. The gun-shots rang out instantly. The neighbourhood fled their nooks for safety. By then the RDC of Pallisa, Maumbe Mukwana, occupied the house. This is where Museveni often met with other revolutionaries to make plans for the liberation war to oust Amin. Maumbe told The New Vision that it was such a narrow escape. He says the memories of that day chill his spine. “It was a nasty experience: Museveni flew over the fence and escaped to safety with my wife Bessy Maumbe. By then, Museveni had a Makerere University student's identity card. He passed all the roadblocks safely. Unfortunately, one boy, Namirundu, was killed by the angry soldiers. We found him caked with clotted blood hours later." Jonathan Angura, a New Vision correspondent in Mbale, said while opening a hospital in Mbale, Museveni humourously told the story to his audience. Angura said many in the audience could not hold back their laughter when the President said “The soldiers missed death narrowly. If they had inspected me and got my pistol, death was going to occur.” Zubairi Mukwana, 67, who lives in the estate, has another tale to tell. He says the brutes arrested Museveni and started torturing him while he was on his knees. While down on his knees with hands up in the air, some of them inspected the house for ammunition, as one keenly watched over him. The intensive search was under the beds, in the pots, gunny bags and in the cotton mattresses. “Then chance dropped like manna from the skies for Museveni. His guard fished in his pocket for a cigarette. As he lit it, Museveni fished in his waist holster for a pistol. The bullet thudded into the guard’s head, throwing him off his feet” narrates Zubairi. As he jumped over the fence, Museveni was vanishing into the dark Elgon night very fast. This is just a drop in the ocean of tales told about Museveni’s mysteries during the revolution. Sympathisers narrate how youthful Museveni dressed in a gomesi, got into banks to withdraw money and vanish into thin air. Others say he had the capacity to turn into an animal, enter a barracks undetected and later flee with trucks full of ammunition. Leafing through the visitors’ book, one will find testimony of Kyaterekera’s claim of regular visits from State House. The President’s daughter Patience writes: “God bless all in this house.” Another daughter of the President, Natasha, writes thanking the Kyaterekera household for inviting them to the house. This is where the first seeds of the Movement revolution were nurtured before being sown decades later. President Museveni and his wife’s Janet’s signature also grace the prestigious guest book. Kyaterekera recalls that when he was given the house in 1993, many a previous civil servant had rejected the offer. Some believed it was still haunted by evil spirits or unknown powers. The neighbourhood is often cordoned off. Only the occupants of the mysterious house, allowed in and out by uniformed Presidential guards. Mrs Christine Kyaterekera says: “We occupied the house while harbouring superstitious fears, but we have lived happily since we came here four years ago.” A far cry from the plush perfection of the environs of State House, the Maluku house remains a regular host to President Yoweri Museveni. The collapsing garage, concocted and added onto the plan by the Kyaterekeras, cannot contain a single land cruiser in the presidential motorcade today. Walls have ears, but if only they could tell the events that unfolded in this house! We would learn how the NRA operatives came in the night and vacated before nightfall. They would have an unput-downable best-seller!