A Look At Insurgencies That Tormented Museveni’s New Gov’t In 1980s

From the time National Resistance Army (NRA) captured power in 1986, one of the aims was to transform from bush war fighters to a national army; one that would reflect the character of Uganda and adopt the ideals of the NRA revolution which placed a lot of emphasis on professionalism and respect for civilians.

Gen Elly Tumwine, a 4 Star decorated bush war General and current Minister for security has many times said that the national army (former NRA and now UPDF) was built on philosophy of a “Pro people armed forces.”

The NRA took a dramatic approach in dealing with armed factions which had been fighting the Obote Government.

Integration of various armed forces became part of the strategy to field an army that would be representative of the people of Uganda.

By mid-1986, the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA) soldiers of the defeated Tito Okello and Milton Obote Government, who had fled with their arms through northern Uganda to South Sudan came back into Uganda and named themselves Uganda People’s Democratic Army (UPDA).

They launched a new rebellion sweeping across parts of Acholi and put a strain on the NRA which was still trying to construct its control over the entire country.

UPDA was a professional group with politicians and military leaders. It operated in northern Uganda from March 1986 to June 1988.

After close to two years of attempts to fight back, in April 1988, the Government concluded a peace agreement with the bulk of UPDA leadership in Uganda.

Lt Col Angelo okello led the UPDA delegation together with Charles Alai who was later appointed Minister in Museveni’s Government.

As a result of these negotiations, approximately 5000 UPDA soldiers surrendered and those who were willing to join the national army were integrated into the NRA.

 

Meanwhile, in the Eastern part of the country, specifically Teso sub region, another form of rebellion mainly made up of the defeated UNLA forces emerged under a new name Uganda People’s Army (UPA).

The confusion that ensued before NRA took over, made UPA to carry out massive cattle raids in Eastern and northern Uganda coming as far as Bugisu, Sebei, Pallisa up to parts of Lango and Acholi sub regions.

The fact that NRA had just taken power and was not yet as strong as it is today, it was difficult for it to handle both the rebellion and the cattle rustling.

But under the command of Gen Jeje Odongo the current Minister of Internal Affairs, a new brigade was tasked to counter the rebellion.

In 1987, President Museveni appointed a team of prominent persons hailing from the region to the Presidential Commission for Teso.

The Commission was tasked with the responsibility of consulting the population in Teso so as to establish why the rebellion was started and was gaining momentum.

They extensively consulted and contributed towards the ending of the rebellion.

At that time, a deadly force which named itself “holy spirit mobile forces” headed by Alice Lakwena also emerged.

Alice Lakwena, a self-proclaimed prophet from Gulu district ruled some of the commanders of UPDA who didn’t embrace amnesty by promising them protection in waging a new rebellion and hoped victory against the NRM Government.

When NRA defeated UNLA, UNLA changed to UPDA and Lakwena took advantage of the notion that she had heavenly powers hence calling her forces “holy spirit.”

With high levels of superstition in northern Uganda, Lakwena was able to recruit former rebel commanders such as Kilama who was a brigade commander, Eric Odua and formed “holy spirit mobile forces” who were able to recruit all the former armed personnel.

But the fact that Lakwena had never been a soldier before, with no military training, she used methods of fighting that were unprofessional including many sorts of spirituality and emotions which led to a lot of unnecessary casualties in the force she was leading.

It was hard for a non-soldier like Lakwena to operate machine guns and anti-aircraft arsenal.

However, she made a serious advancement which made her to come the long way fighting up to Busoga. The last attempt was one at Magamaga barracks in Busoga which they lost.

She was however very wise that she split her forces and remained in hiding in the forest of Mpologoma which divides Busoga and Bunyole. She later crossed using a canoe and ended up in Kenya and eventually in Kakuma refugee camp where she died.

It remains a mystery how a local brew seller (Lakwena) recruited not only seasoned military commanders but also highly trained professionals into her forces and convinced them about magic rituals against military fire power.

Prof Isaac Newton Ojok who was once Minister of Education amazingly was amongst those recruited by Alice Lakwena.

After he was captured and showed stones smeared with hoax anointing oil that were confiscated from his military faction, Prof Isaac Newton Ojok without any shame said “these are stones that can explode like grenades” though he failed to demonstrate it.

He only said that the UPDF had touched the stones and so couldn’t explode and therefore needed Lakwena to cleanse them.

Prof Isaac Newton Ojok and many more soldiers of Lakwena were y convinced that after reaching River Nile as they advanced to Kampala to capture power, they would dip their hands in Nile river and all their lost soldiers would resurrect with high ranks.

They however could not go beyond Busoga.

Meanwhile, after the devastating defeat, the skirmishes shifted back to Gulu where they joined their desired religious sect headed by Severino Lukoya, the father to Alice Lakwena.

Lukoya operated a shrine that practiced practical rituals that blended Christianity with witchcraft, a kind of continuation of his daughter’s legacy.

Lukoya was unable to galvanize them to return to a battlefield and eventually the group fizzled out.

Meanwhile, groups opposed to NRM in Buganda and more so in Eastern Uganda attempted to mobilize a new government but their armed rebellion did not gain momentum. Many of their members were arrested and charged with treason.