Ben Kiwanuka

Benedict Kiwanuka; Democratic Party leader, first Prime minister of Uganda and Chief Justice at the time of his death. Kiwanuka had angered Amin by releasing a European, for lack of evidence, on the ridiculous charge of stealing a telephone directory from a hotel. Ben Kiwanuka’s final days (from the weekly observer 20th oct 2005 http://www.ugandaobserver.com/new/archives/2005arch/features/poso/oct/poso200510202.php

This is the second part of our report on how the first DP president Benedicto Kiwanuka met his death, and the search for his remains. The first part was published two weeks ago:
By David Kibirige GUEST WRITER

After the arrest of Ben Kiwanuka on that chilly Thursday, September 21, 1972, there was commotion in the city. Many people rushed back home fearing anarchy. When Kiwanuka was taken to Makindye, he found the former governor of Bank of Uganda, Joseph Mubiru, who had been arrested two days earlier. Ironically, when Mubiru was arrested, it was Kiwanuka who had tried to contact Idi Amin to have him (Mubiru) released. By Friday, colleagues had contacted Kenyan president Jommo Kenyatta who immediately got in touch with Amin, urging him to free the Chief Justice.

Later that evening, Kiwanuka was taken to ‘command post’ at Nakasero where Amin told him to draft a letter, claiming that he had been hijacked by a combined force of Tanzania-based Ugandan exiles and members of the Tanzania People Defence Forces (TPDF), but that gallant soldiers of the Uganda National Army (UNA) had rescued him. Kiwanuka refused and was taken back to Makindye. Those who were in the cells with him told family members that Mubiru begged Kiwanuka to comply with Amin’s demands, but the latter was adamant.
By now, sympathetic members in cabinet such as Erinayo Oryema had told Kiwanuka’s wife Maxinsia Zalwango that her husband would be killed if he did not do as ordered.
On September 25, Kiwanuka was again produced before Amin and told to sign the prepared document, but he stuck to his guns saying he had been arrested by members of the State Research Bureau (SRB) and not Tanzanians.

By now Amin was under pressure from Kenyatta to free Kiwanuka. When he refused, Amin told him he was giving him a last chance. He was taken back to Makindye where he was beaten until he collapsed.

How was Ben killed?
There have been various accounts of how Kiwanuka was killed. On September 28, Kiwanuka was again taken to Amin but like before refused to sign.
“Amin was this time angered and he pulled out a pistol and shot him three times,” says his son Maurice Kagimu Kiwanuka. Kagimu insists that people close to Amin had told them that Amin personally shot people he viewed as a big threat to his regime. It is reported that Anglican Archbishop Janan Luwum was also shot by Amin.
Because of the stress from her husband’s ordeal, Kiwanuka’s wife developed high blood pressure, an ailment she eventually succumbed to in 1992.
Hammer used?

A Tanzanian intelligence officer, Deusdedit Kuswekwa Masanja, who was detained together with Kiwanuka, claims that his head was smashed with a hammer, a killing method commonly used at the time.

For instance, if there were five people to be killed, prisoner A would hit prisoner B, then prisoner C would hit prisoner A, after which he would be hit by D, then prisoner E would hit D.
Then the ‘chief executioner’ would kill prisoner E. Kuswekwa was working for both Ugandan and Tanzanian intelligence. When his double role was discovered, he was arrested. Being a mole, Kuswekwa’s account has to be treated with care.
Was he dismembered?

A High Court judge told British journalist David Martin that Kiwanuka had his ears, nose and other parts cut off. Martin always gave a true picture of Amin and as the British press ravishingly described Amin as a “gentle giant”, Martin exposed the dictator’s atrocities. For his efforts, Amin put a bounty on the journalist’s head.

“I was given to understand that his ears, nose, lips and arms were severed from his body. I also understand that he was disemboweled and his private parts cut and pushed into his mouth, and he was finally burnt,” the judge told Martin then.

Cutting off of penises was common at the time. For instance, on September 22, 1972, former Masaka mayor Francis Walugembe was arrested at 10.00 a.m. When he demanded to speak to Amin, his penis was cut off and held in his face, as soldiers retorted that he could use it as a phone to talk to Amin. Former governor of the central region, Col. Abdullah Nassur, was later found guilty of murdering Walugembe and sentenced to death. On September 11, 2001, President Museveni pardoned him. An Asian who was in prison with Kiwanuka corroborated the judge’s story.

He told Martin that it took Kiwanuka two hours to die after he had been dismembered. Several foreign journalists detained at Makindye were eye-witnesses to such brutality.
These included Daily Telegraph’s Christopher Munnion, Associated Press’ Andrew Torchia and Newsweek’s Simon Dring. Family sources and those with him in detention agree that Kiwanuka was killed on September 28, a week after his arrest.

“Some people had said his body was put in acid but we found this not to be true. Amin ordered that his body be buried at Luzira. This is where most prominent [people] killed were buried. He did not want him buried at Makindye as some people would have identified the grave. He was buried in the same grave with Joseph Mubiru and Captain Mukasa,” says Kagimu.
“We are making progress in identifying the exact spot at Luzira only that those who know the spot fear that they might be implicated,” he added.
After Kiwanuka’s death, those close to him took a low profile, fearing for their lives. “It was Paul Ssemogerere, Anthony Ssekweyama (RIP) and Ssenabulya [among politicians] who came and stayed with us for a month at Nakasero. People even feared to come and commiserate with us,” says Kagimu.

According to him, Amin pretended as if nothing had happened. He did not tell the family to vacate the [government] house neither did he talk to family members. “In March 1973, we moved from Nakasero back to Lubaga,” Kagimu recalls.

“When you recall such things, that is why I give credit to Museveni. Maama would be living up to now if it was not for such barbarism by Amin,” Kagimu says. The last funeral rites for Kiwanuka were held in 1987 but the family is planning a decent burial for the deceased if his remains are recovered.