Kyemba turned world focus onto Amin's terror
Aug 22, 2012
To mark 50 years of Uganda’s independence, New Vision will, until October 9, 2012, be publishing highlights of events and profiling personalities who have shaped the history of this country. Today, JOSEPH SSEMUTOOKE searches the archives and brings you the story of how Henry Kyemba brought Idi Ami
To mark 50 years of Uganda’s independence, New Vision will, until October 9, 2012, be publishing highlights of events and profiling personalities who have shaped the history of this country. Today, JOSEPH SSEMUTOOKE searches the archives and brings you the story of how Henry Kyemba brought Idi Amin’s reign of terror to world attention
“How is Idi Amin doing?” This is one of the questions that many Ugandans, who travel abroad, especially Europe and the US, have had to answer.
This has been the case since the 1970s during the murderous reign of Idi Amin. The primary reasons for this state of affairs is one veteran civil servant and politician named Henry Kyemba.
Although by the mid-1970s Uganda was already in the international limelight, thanks to dictator Idi Amin, it was Kyemba who primarily turned the world’s focus on Amin’s Uganda.
In 1977, Kyemba published a book, A State of Blood, highlighting the atrocities of Amin’s regime. After publishing the book, he traversed the world campaigning for international action to topple Amin.
This exposé of Amin remains Kyemba’s chief legacy to shaping Uganda as we see it today. Besides, Kyemba was in the civil service and involved in national politics for long. He is also one of the pioneer civil servants of independent Uganda.
After graduating from Makerere University with a BA in history in March 1962, he was appointed an assistant secretary in–charge of ceremony and protocol in Prime Minister Milton Obote’s office.
A year later, Obote appointed him his private secretary. This gave him a chance to witness the goings-on of the government circles and the chaos of post-independence Uganda.
To enable him perform his duties as the private secretary, Kyemba was allocated a house inside the compound of the presidential lodge. He also travelled extensively with Obote during his official trips as Head of State.
By virtue of his office, he knew almost all that the Prime Minister was up to, regarding the running of the country. He witnessed, from an insider’s view, the chaos that engulfed the nation immediately after independence, as he testifies in his book:
“I saw Uganda from a place of hope and optimism, a place where life was good and comfortable. I saw Uganda collapse into near civil war, increasing chaos and, finally, a state of blood and random slaughter.”
Kyemba witnessed the 1966 crisis between the Buganda Kingdom and the central government that culminated in the ousting of Kabaka Muteesa II from the presidency and consolidation of state power in Obote’s hands.
When Obote was banning political parties and declaring Uganda a one-party state, he was there. This action was the precursor of undemocratic rule in the country.
Kyemba was with Obote when an assassin tried to kill the former president in 1969. He also witnessed the fall-out between Obote and Amin, his top military commander.
When Amin took over power in January 1971, the new military ruler demanded that Kyemba comes back from Singapore and continues with his duties. Kyemba had accompanied Obote to the 1971 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Singapore.
Working for Amin
Kyemba says as a civil servant, he flew back and joined Amin’s government. He started off as the permanent secretary in the president’s office and secretary to cabinet and head of civil service.
He was, however, appointed permanent secretary in the ministry of culture and community development after seven months.
He served as a culture and community minister between 1972 and 1973 and was later appointed health minister until 1977.
During his tenure as health minister, he was one of Amin’s most-trusted cabinet members and one of the longest-serving ministers as Amin used to drop and appoint ministers at will.
A state of blood
However, in 1977, while attending the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Kyemba quit Amin’s government, citing the rule of terror, human rights abuse, total economic decline and an absolute collapse of the state.
He says it was the murder of Archbishop Janan Luwum and ministers Oboth Ofumbi and Erinayo Oryema, that opened his eyes to the fact that Amin’s government was irredeemable.
He sought asylum in Britain, from where he wrote A State of Blood, which was the first insider exposé of Amin’s reign of terror.
This would secure Kyemba’s place among the heroes and heroines, who worked hard to topple Amin’s regime. The book recounted Amin’s atrocities, listing the prominent people he had killed. It graphically painted a picture of the regime’s atrocities.
To date, A State of Blood remains the most authoritative primary reference on Amin’s murderous regime across the world.
Call for international action
After publishing A State of Blood, Kyemba traversed the world, canvassing for international action to topple Amin. He subsequently became one of the loudest voices, calling for the dictator’s ouster worldwide.
He visited the US and Europe, where he met the US congressmen, the UN officials and UK MPs, calling for action against Amin.
After the ouster of Amin in 1979, Kyemba would visit Uganda periodically. He returned permanently after the NRM took over power in 1986.
Elective politics
On returning home in 1986, Kyemba once again joined the civil service. Between 1986 and 1989, he served on the Makerere University Appointments Committee and the Nyanza Textiles board.
However, this time he also joined elective politics, starting as a lower Resistance Council one (RC1) (present LC1) chairman and, eventually, becoming the RC3 boss.
In 1989, he was elected the Jinja Municipality West representative to the National Resistance Council (NRC), then an interim Parliament.
After joing the NRC, he was appointed the animal industry state minister until 1994.
In 1994, he was elected the Constituent Assembly (CA) representative for Jinja West. The CA was the body elected delegates tasked with drawing up of the country’s new constitution (1995).
He also served as state minister for the President’s Office. Between 1996 and 2001, he represented Jinja Municipality in Parliament, before retiring from elective politics.
Since then, he has served on different national committees and commissions. Today, he is serving a second term as a commissioner of the Judicial Service Commission.