Lt Gen Pecos Kutesa is a Ugandan bush-war hero who died this week in India. In his book Uganda’s Revolution 1979-1986 How I saw it he tells how he deserted the national army escaping from Nakasongola Barracks to Kampala from where he set off to join his fellow FRONASA colleagues in the bush. Before he went, however, he participated in clandestine operations in the city together with Matayo Kyaligonza and one called Dampa. These were risky missions in a city of armed gangs and ruthless government soldiers. May his soul rest in Peace.
Pecos speaks about his journey to Kampala as one that was eventful and without a glitch. Even at a roadblock at Nakasongola junction manned by Tanzanian soldiers, he was saluted. Soon he was in Bwaise where he changed clothes again. “That day, I became a deserter from the army and a fugitive. Instead of being afraid or feeling remorse, I felt exhilarated. At least I was going to do something for my country instead of belonging to a group. The UNLA that I abhorred and held in contempt because of what they were doing. I set out to find the alternative.” he goes on.
When I arrived in Kampala, I first wanted to go back to my rooms at International Hotel, only to find they had been commandeered by the NASA operatives. National Security Agency (NASA) was the regime’s intelligence unit. It was by chance that I met a young man called Sebadduka who had known me for some time. He whisked me away before I presented my face to the counter of the hotel. Sebadduka told me “Hey man, things have changed. Do not even appear anywhere near these hotels. You are wanted!” I asked him why he a civilian, knew about my status, how he dare accost me, an officer in the national army, and tell me that I was wanted?
He simply looked at me apprehensively, seemingly to wonder at my ignorance, before informing me that, by the mere fact that I was a new officer from Tanzania, as we had been branded, there were some places that were no-go-areas for people like me. Those no-go –areas included all the good hotels, restaurants, bars and even some shopping places. I had to keep away from the town center as possible if I wanted to stay alive.
It was then that the sense of being “wanted” started settling in. Most of my comrades were in the same predicament. The problem was that none of us, the wanted, could identify with each other, the rationale being that if some of us was compromised, the others would remain safe. That was why people who organized the attack on Kabamba Barracks succeeded –because of the simple adage of “need to know.”
There were big numbers of people sympathetic to the cause of rebellion but the organizers had to keep it a secret: otherwise the resistance would have been nipped in the bud. The only contacts of us were our relatives. That is how I ended up in Bugolobi Barracks, where our departed comrades Dampa, Lumumba, and others were stationed. The barracks was under actual siege. The whole establishment had singled out Bugolobi Barracks as a hostile zone. The soldiers of Bugolobi Barracks had also built up a defense mechanism. Their actions were all done clandestinely; they had developed a network of coordination with civilian sympathizers. It was the civilians who had the material means, while the soldiers had both the military and technical means.
Kampala City was like a game of chess. Each team moved it’s pieces in the best way possible in an effort to win. The goal was survival, and the destruction of the opposition. Captain Ageta’s team was one of the toughest players in this chess game and the soldiers from Bugolobi Barracks were his checkmate. It was both exciting and dangerous to be a wanted person in Kampala. The Bugolobi boys (former FRONASA) were giving us away, though. So it was decided that I should get in touch with the famous Benjamin Dampa, who was not only suicidal in his operations but a bit sophisticated than Captain Ageta’s boys.
There were many supporters of the Anti UPC regime and most of them were looking for a way to desert UNLA. However, the most organized group was the Popular Resistance Army (PRA) which had set up a sophisticated clandestine system for receiving, scrutinizing and ferrying the deserting soldiers and civilian volunteers to their mobile bases. Matayo Kyaligonza, now a retired brigadier, had a smoothly operating team comprising Dampa, Shaban Kashanku (a former Mozambiquie trained cadre) and Joy Mirembe, a lady who was instrumental at the beginning of the struggle. These people had set up a number of safe houses in and around Kampala.
How they outwitted the intelligence system of UPC, NASA, and the network of government informers and even sympathetic but untrained and recklessly talking Kampala crowd, deserves to be mentioned. While it is difficult for an ill-equipped guerilla force to operate against a government army, operating in a hostile city is even more scary and dangerous. In the city, the biggest problem is identification of the enemy. There are no marked frontlines,. Anything, even a family tiff among the supporters offering you sanctuary, or a landlord demanding his rent, can expose a well established cell. Some of us were only trained in conventional warfare. It was therefore, quite unsettling to move around armed enemy soldiers while unarmed, or at best, armed only with a pistol or hand grenade.
There were also questions of secrecy. Once more than four young strangers started frequenting a house, people became curious and suspicious about what was going on in the neighborhood, which posed the highest danger to the operatives and their supporters. All in all, I did not enjoy urban operations, first because I was not trained for them and, secondly, because they were very demanding. The people among whom you are supposed to be operating are ignorant or innocent bystanders. Any scuffle in the street could draw the wrath of the beastly government soldiers who would shoot indiscriminately at any living thing, or blow up the house in the vicinity. An urban operative is not in position to offer any sort of security to the people because he is one of the people being hunted by the government forces anyway.
It was durig those days that I was introduced to urban guerilla warfare by Matayo Kyaligonza and Dampa. The other anti-UPC groups were also very active, and groups such as UFM of Andrew Kayiira had started attacking drinking places that were frequented by members of the government forces. One place in particular, known as Kisementi, situated in Kampala city surburb of Kamwokya, was very tempting target, for it was frequented by the then Chief of Staff, Brigadier Oyite Ojok and many other members of the UNLA top brass. There were a lot of skirmishes at Kisementi. We even lost a comrade, Private Kanyungutuzi, in one such encounter. Somehow Oyite Ojok escaped unscathed, and though he knew that he was the target, he was brave enough not to show this.
Pecos Kutesa, a fugitive with links to Museveni’s FRONASA is introduced to urban warfare in the city where the gun rules. In Tomorrow’s edition, we bring you which missions he undertook in Kampala including a terror attack on Agip Fuel Depot in Namuwongo and National Water Reservoir for Kampala City, before he officially joined the bush war.
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