Henry Kisajja Kyemba: An enigma fades into the sunset

October 27, 2023 in Editorial, Letters, Opinion by Editor

Michael Wakabi

When assassins shot President Milton Obote in the mouth as he left Lugogo Indoor Stadium on the night of December 19, 1969, it took the watchful eye of a nurse at Mulago National Referral Hospital where Obote had been rushed, to notice a speck of blood on the collar of Henry Kyemba’s shirt. Until then, the Principal Private Secretary to the president, who had followed his principal to the hospital, was not aware that one of the would-be assassin’s bullets had grazed his neck. Six months later, it would be a last-minute hunch, which made him to order the sirens and flashlights to the lead cars of the President Obote’s motorcade, to be switched off as they returned from a pass-out ceremony at the Prisons Training School in Luzira, that would save Obote’s life that night. Instead, it was his minister for internal affairs, Basil Kizza Bataringaya, who came lights flashing and sirens blazing, that fell into the ambush meant for Obote. He was lucky to escape without injury.

Born on February 8, 1939, Henry Kisajja Magumba Kyemba, who breathed his last on October 19 and his mortal remains interred a week later, was an enigmatic figure, whose life choices drew both admiration and condemnation. Occupying a front seat on Uganda’s political stage for a considerable period, he was witness to the good and the ugly moments of Uganda’s post-independence discourse. He was so close to power, but ultimately powerless to restrain the people around him, who engaged in horrendous excesses, even against his own family.

“It took another change of job and another five years for me to learn how impotent and how dispensable I really was,” he confesses at some point in “State of Blood,” the book he authored after fleeing Uganda in 1977, and which would play a big role in mobilising international opinion against Idi Amin’s regime.

He therefore leaves behind a mixed legacy; one as the symbol of and probably among the last, of a rare breed of Ugandan politicians of integrity, who were never carried away by power. On the flipside, he might come across as indecisive, a procrastinator who almost stayed too long for his own good and was just lucky to survive the brutal regime of Idi Amin, whose atrocities he would later document so well in his much-acclaimed book – State of Blood.

Well-educated and mild mannered, Kyemba had the rare attribute of being visible and invisible at the same time. This would prove crucial to his surviving the turbulent times, which Uganda would plunge into soon after independence.

Graduating in early 1962 with an honors degree in history from Makerere university, he was looking forward to the life of a District Commissioner in some far-flung location, of his soon to be independent country. Recruiters chose to instead appoint him an assistant secretary in the prime minister’s office. He would shortly be catapulted into the position of principle private secretary to the PM, a position he held until the first coup against Milton Obote on January 25, 1971.

Eager to reunite with his family, he took the risky decision to return home soon after the coup in 1971, leaving his boss in exile in Tanzania.  He was followed by four of Obote’s close protection staff, who wanted to ditch their weapons but were advised against the idea by Kyemba.

“I told them that they would be accused of arming enemies of the state in a foreign country,” he revealed during one media interview.” Eventually, the fretful quartet surrendered their weapons to Kyemba, who handed them over to security on arrival at Entebbe.

His choice of family over master, obviously did not endear him to some people, who saw it as betrayal. It marked the last time the two men would ever work together, with Kyemba maintaining a low profile in Jinja hometown, during Obote’s second stab at power that lasted from December 1980 to July 27, 1985, when his own army toppled him from power, for a second time.

Modest to a fault, even as he held high office, Kyemba maintained such a low profile that nobody perceived him as a threat. He played his cards so close to his chest that even as he disagreed with Obote’s handling of the 1966 crisis, he kept his views to himself.  It would appear that even Obote, sometimes doubted his loyalty. One day, after the failed assassination in Lugogo, Obote would casually tell Kyemba: “Henry, some people think when you fell down next to me you were faking.”

It is that very trait of involuntary stealth, that would help him survive six years of Idi Amin’s treacherous rule until he decided that he had seen enough, fleeing Uganda into exile, after the gruesome triple-murders of Janan Luwum, the Archbishop of the Church of Uganda and ministers Erinayo Oryema and Oboth Ofumbi on February 16, 1977. Even then, his departure was so calmly executed, that Amin only realised he had bolted, after his wife and children were safely out of the country.

In exile, he would lift the lid on the atrocities of the Amin regime, through his famed book, State of Blood. The book has been cited as pivotal to mobilizing public opinion against Idi Amin and energizing the anti-Amin struggle.  Idi Amin’s government, in which Kyemba at different times, served as principal private secretary, minister for culture and community development, and minister of health, would fall within two years of the publication of State of Blood.

His decision to abandon Obote and return to serve in Amin’s government was not popular with everybody. Neither was his decision to stick around amidst so much blood-letting, including the death of his own brother at the hands of the government he served, pass without criticism.

Many commentators saw him either as naïve, or a sellout.  “He was one of the few admirable Ugandans, albeit with his blemishes. Not until was his life directly threatened prompting him to escape, he showed little integrity by continuing to serve the Amin regime,” said one commentator who requested anonymity.

Kyemba held a different view. He believed his service in Amin’s regime saved many people, especially young doctors, whom he often tipped off when their lives were in danger. Among the names he cited, a few are easily recognizable – the late cardiologist and researcher Professor Roy Mugerwa, who died in 2019 and the former director of the Uganda Aids Control Program, Dr Sam Okware.

As his casket lay before a special session of parliament, Kyemba’s choices and actions were vindicated from unexpected quarters. Addressing the sombre House, Cecilia Ogwal, the woman representative for Dokolo district, revealed how Henry Kyemba’s decision to serve in President Amin’s government, had saved many lives, including that of her own husband, Mr Ogwal.

“He (Henry Kyemba) helped many other Ugandans who were about to be executed by Idi Amin Dada,” she said, redeeming the name of a deserving man, whose legacy risked getting tainted, when he was no longer around to defend himself. Fare thee well, Henry Kisajja Magumba Kyemba.