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Gen Adrisi: The only Ugandan Amin flew abroad for treatment
Gen Adrisi died in 2013 at Mulago hospital where he was admitted with hypertension.
What you need to know:
- On April 19, 1978, Adrisi was involved in a fatal motor accident on his way to Jinja District.
In April 1978, Maj Gen Mustafa Adrisi, then vice president, minister of Defence and also minister of Internal Affairs, was flown abroad for treatment after a nasty road accident.
Adrisi was the only Ugandan ever known to be flown abroad for medical treatment by the Idi Amin government.
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Amin became president following the January 1971 coup that ousted Milton Obote. In April 1979, Amin was ousted by combined forces of the Tanzanian army and Ugandan exiles.
Adrisi accident
On the morning of Wednesday, April 19, 1978, Maj Gen Adrisi was involved in a fatal motor accident. As acting minister of Internal Affairs, he was going for an impromptu inspection of police stations in Jinja District.
He was travelling in his private car, a black Mercedes Benz registration number UVZ 425, when it collided head-on with a Fiat station wagon registration number UVY 557 which was coming from the opposite Jinja direction.
In the car with Adrisi was his driver and Mathew Obado, the former minister of Transport and Communications. Obado died on April 23, 1978, at Mulago hospital.
Police reports indicate that the accident happened between 8 and 9am at Lwannyonyi village near Mbalala Trading Centre, Kyaggwe County, Mukono District.
Both the General and his driver sustained severe injuries and were rushed by good Samaritans to Mulago hospital.
The driver of the Fiat, George William Namakajo, who was in the same rescue car with the General and his driver, died on the way to Mulago hospital.
Doctors at Mulago hospital, led by surgeons from Russia who also used to treat the president and his family members, indicated that Adrisi had sustained multiple fractures. Gen Adrisi was thus referred abroad because Mulago lacked the kind of specialised treatment he needed.
Adrisi airlifted
When president Amin was informed that his vice president had been involved in an accident and was evacuated to Mulago, he rushed to the hospital.
Amin convened a special meeting to discuss how government would act to save the life of the vice president. Calls were made and Adrisi was admitted to a specialised military hospital in Egypt.
Because the vice president could neither sit nor stand, he needed special transport to Egypt.
Gen Adrisi died in 2013 at Mulago hospital where he was admitted with hypertension. PHOTO/FILE
It is said a plane was chartered from a company in Saudi Arabia to carry Adrisi in his special stretcher that was holding together his fractured body. However, others say the plane was provided by King Fahad of Saudi Arabia who was a great friend of Amin.
Adrisi carried in crane
A sombre mood engulfed the airport as a loading crane was used to lift Adrisi into the plane at Entebbe airport.
Present to see off the vice president was Amin and dignitaries that included several government and military officers. They included minister of Justice and Attorney General Matovu, acting Chief of Staff of the Uganda Army, Brig Yusuf Gowon; Secretary for Defence, Brig Emelio Mondo; Permanent Secretaries of the Information and Health ministries, Abdalla Amin and Dr EG Muzira respectively.
Others were high-ranking military, air force, police and prisons officers as well as several doctors and nurses from Mulago hospital. Also present at the airport were Adrisi’s wives and his first born son.
President Amin allowed Gen Adrisi to be accompanied by his young brother, Capt John Kenyi of the Uganda Army.
Amin accused of trying to assassinate Adrisi
Immediately the news of Adrisi’s accident was announced on Radio Uganda and UTV, critics of Amin’s government started the rumour that Amin was behind the ‘staged’ accident to assassinate his vice president who they claimed was becoming more popular than him.
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Another version had it that Amin wanted to kill Adrisi because Adrisi was plotting a coup against him. The rumours are said to have been started by anti-Amin propagandists in Tanzania.
The accusations against Amin were also based on the fact that earlier that month, on April 3, 1978, elders from Aringa County, in present-day Koboko District, had visited Amin in Kampala and asked him to send Adrisi, who was born in Aringa, to identify solders for promotion, a request Amin rubbished as tribal before warning the elders.
Amin visits Adrisi
Adrisi stayed in hospital for almost a year. In fact, he only returned to Uganda after the fall of Amin’s government in April 1979.
In October 1978, the war between Uganda and Tanzania that toppled Amin started. Amin wanted arms, so in the second week of October 1978 he flew to Egypt to seek military assistance from his friend, then president Anwar Sadat, who is said not to have provided any military assistance.
During his 24 hour visit to Egypt, Amin visited Adrisi at Mahdi Military Hospital where he had been admitted for eight months.
Amin was photographed with Adrisi, who was seated on a wheel chair with his left leg in a plaster.
Col Dr Mahar Sami, the surgeon treating Adrisi, told Amin that Adrisi had sustained a very complicated fracture in the leg, among other injuries, and Adrisi had undergone several operations.
Amin was said to have told Adrisi not to listen to rumours, or else he would be confused. He told him not to worry and also wished him a quick recovery.
