TODAY IN HISTORY: Man admits plot to kill Milton Obote

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Rev Kasasa said he had been the ring leader in the plot to kill Obote. Six men, including the reverend, had been charged with attempted murder

May 5, 1970
On this day in 1970, Rev Erisa Kasasa of the African Orthodox Church stunned the High Court in Kampala when he revealed that he had been involved in a plot to assassinate Uganda’s President Milton Obote in December 1969.

Rev Kasasa said he had been the ring leader in the plot to kill Obote. Six men, including the reverend, had been charged with attempted murder.

Rev Kasasa asked Chief Justice of Uganda J. Sheridan, who was presiding over the court session, to convey his sincere apologies to President Obote. In December 1969, the would-be assassin, Mohamed Ssebaduka, using a pistol shot President Obote through the mouth at night as the latter was leaving Lugogo indoor stadium in Kampala after closing a UPC annual delegates conference. Rev Kasasa, Ssebaduka and four others were in May 1970 sentenced to life imprisonment.