I was detained in barracks cells for a term over school strike

I was in Primary Five when I saw UNLA soldiers at a roadblock next to their base open a pregnant woman’s stomach to see whether she was carrying a baby boy or girl. This incident and the intimidation of the locals by the soldiers was too much for me to bear.

One day, we were playing when I came up with the idea of us joining the NRA rebels. I told my friends, a group of about six children, that we would not be able to survive in the prevailing situation.

It was a childish decision I made. We walked from Wobulenzi on Bukalasa Road to a place called Waluleta. It was our destination. On our first day, we walked for long until 5pm when we decided to go back home.

On our way back, our landlord saw us and reported to my mother that I was moving in dangerous areas. She was angry, mostly because I was her only child and I was being careless with my life. She cautioned me that if the UNLA or UPC youth wingers got to know where I had gone they would kill me.

That night, I slept outside in a coffee shrub nearby. The next morning the other children I went back to look for the rebels. This time we took shortcuts to avoid the landlord.

As we joined the main road, we met a rebel manned roadblock. They asked where we were going and what we were looking for. We knew what we wanted, but for fear that they would stop us from joining them, we told the rebels that our parents had been killed. They told us to go back home, but we insisted that we did not have a home to go back to.

They made us sit down while they stepped aside and talked among themselves. It was after that that one of the soldiers was told to take us to the chairman. It was a short distance from the roadblock; I think it was a collection centre for people joining the rebels. We found other people there.
After some hours of waiting, we were served black tea and pumpkin for lunch. I first refused to eat, but the chairman told me while in the bush I would long for the food I had rejected.

Around 4pm government troops attacked the centre. There was gunfire for the next two hours. I asked myself why I had left home to join the rebels. When the firing stopped, the chairman transferred us from his house to a nearby bush and told us to wait for his return.
As we waited, two child soldiers came and asked who we were and why we were there. We told them it was the chairman who had brought us to the bush. I was sweating profusely out of fear.

But when I saw the kadogo’s asking question, they looked much younger than me. This gave me hope that I would manage.

That night, we walked up to Businju to an old man’s place. The next morning we continued up to a place called Kuffu and started training. The training lasted three months.

We went through different drills and when we strayed from orders we were beaten. After training, we were taken to Katalekamese – the Central Brigade base commanded by Joram Mugume.

It was while at parade there that me and the other six boys I joined with last saw each other to date. Some were transferred to where I did not know while I stayed behind. At the time I didn’t have a uniform and guns were only allocated to those going for an operation.
Our base later shifted to Kyererezi where we stayed until 1986. After the capture of power, we were transferred to Bombo Barracks.

In Bombo we started by forming the 14th Battalion commanded by James Kazini (RIP). After a month, we were again divided to form the 28th Battalion headed by Jet Mwebaze (RIP) and transferred to Lubiri.
From Lubiri I was deployed at Kibuye Police Station where there was a military detach. Our role at the police station was to help police in making arrests because the policemen did not have guns.

At the time Ndeeba was a den of criminals. But once they knew that a Kadogo was coming for them, they would comply. I was known for being no-nonsense Kadogo.

Arresting thugs
One day, thugs robbed a car and fled to a witchdoctor on Busabala Road. They were surrounded by locals when we arrived at the scene. The thugs had escaped from the crowd to a pond and tried to swim across.

However, one of them could not swim. By the time we arrived he was sitting on a stone in the pond. I told him to swim back or I shoot him. I fired on his sides. He swam back. We took him with the stolen Benz to Lubiri.

Towards Easter of 1987, soldiers were expecting some pay as had been promised, but it did not come. Soldiers in Lubiri fired in the air for almost three hours to express their anger.

After firing, they went to sleep. In the morning, the 3rd Battalion from Makindye moved in and arrested all of them. As punishment, the entire battalion, including myself, was a transferred to Koboko.

When I got chance to escort some commanders to Kampala, I linked up with a friend I had met in Lubiri. This friend told me to follow him to the Entebbe Airbase.

At the airbase, he registered me and I was assigned as a guard before becoming office messenger. It was during that time that the air force acquired the Augusto Griffon helicopters. They brought an Italian to assemble and train the NRA soldiers in maintenance. I was made a guard at his home.

Going back to school
The announcement for all Kadogos to go to school found me at his residence. My superiors did not want me to go. I went to Afande Omita, the base commander and I told him I want to go to school. He directed the administrator to give me a pass out. I thought the school was in Bombo where I joined the other kadogos.

After two months, no classes were going on so I escaped and went back to the airbase. But I was no longer welcome. I went to the Italian’s residence, but according to military orders, he could not take me in either.

Life proved hard. I spent three days with no food, surviving on only water. I decided to leave the place. By the time I left Entebbe, the kadogos I left in Bombo had been taken to Mbarara. I later joined them.

Going to school
I joined in P5 but competition was very high at school, both in and outside the classroom. Many Kadogo’s left school because of the competition.
We were about 5,000 pupils but many escaped back to their units while others deserted. To encourage us stay in school, conditions outside classrooms were improved.

We started eating well and having enough food to go around. Thanks to the coming in of commandant Katimbo. He treated us well and was like a father to us. But when he left, things changed for worse. Food became scarce; sometimes we would have one meal a day.
I joined school as a corporal and received salary of Shs25,000. We continued getting salary while at school but majority of the pupils just misused the salary.
In 1990, I sat for Primary Leaving Exams and scored Aggregate 11. I had applied to join St Kaggwa.

Around that time there was leave but the administrator did not handle it well. Authorities were getting rid of big-headed children and those using drugs.

Those getting leave were being given Shs450,000 plus iron sheets. When I saw that money, I got motivated to leave the army, but I was not allowed. I got angry.

I was bitter because Ndema, the new commandant of the school, tore my application for leave in front of me. He was a terrible administrator and it was during his time that many children left the school.

While in S3 at St Kaggwa, there was a planned strike and students wanted to kill a teacher. She was called Gift, a teacher of literature.

I was partly the cause of the strike. I had applied to become a deputy head boy but the school administration shortlisted me for dinning prefect. The students said it was teacher Gift who changed me to dinning prefect.

This annoyed the students who then planned to attack her. Since I didn’t like the dining post, I feared the school administration may think I was behind the attack.

On the night of the strike, students met at the HSC block where I asked them to wait as I surveyed the place. They believed in me and waited. I went to a teacher who happened to be my friend called Bampata. I told him to do all within his means to call police before the strike.
Luckily, by the time the students arrived at the main gate police was already there. They fired in the air to disperse them.

The following day, we went to the assembly and the RDC [Resident District Commissioner] addressed us. The school administration hurriedly organised end of term exams and sent us away.
At the barracks were Kadogo’s in private schools spent their holidays, I was cooking my food on a small stove when two Regimental Police (RP) arrived, saying I was needed at Ndema’s office. I left after my meal.

When I arrived at Ndema’s office, he started abusing me, saying instead of studying I was striking. I explained what transpired but he was having none of it. Instead, he sent me to the barracks cells where I stayed for a whole term.

While in the cells, I got used to the RPs who sometimes would let me out and I go Mbarara Town.
One morning while in Mbarara Town, I met Afande Adaa. I explained to him my plight and asked him to tell Afande Ndema that if he wanted to imprison me he should take me to the Unit Disciplinary Committee.

When word reached Ndema, I was released immediately and told to find a school. I got admitted to Mbarara High School, but he tore my admission letter in my face and told me to go and look for a boarding school.

That was when I sought admission at Bugyaga SS. By that time I was tired of school. I was set to start school the next year, but I never reported.

What I had gone through made me hate school. I got a pass out and came to Kampala to my brothers who worked as scrap dealers in Kisenyi.

When I reached Kisenyi, I told one of them, Sewamkabo, that I wanted to get a job and start a family. I blame him for not encouraging me to stay in school; he instead encouraged me to drop out of school. I didn’t get parental advice.

I went back to Mbarara, asked one of the students to give me money worth a month’s salary. I in return signed for him to receive my two months’ salary. The next day, I collected my belongings and said bye to fellow students and left school.

Starting anew
The Shs50,000 I got from a fellow student was partly spent on transport and house rent of Shs5,000 a month.
I started the scrap business with Shs30,000 in 1994. My brothers taught me how to deal in scrap, but life was not easy. In the process I got a girlfriend.
Unfortunately, she became pregnant and a few months to her O-Level final exams, her parents found out and I had to marry her.

Looking back at the 10 years I spent in the army I think I learnt something but gained nothing from the service.
Four years after leaving the army, I managed to buy land and build a house and start a family. There is nothing to show for the 10 years in the army.”