Crisis of Legitimacy and Political Violence in Uganda, 1979 to 2016 by Ogenga Otunnu

Crisis of Legitimacy and Political Violence in Uganda, 1979 to 2016 by Ogenga Otunnu

Author:Ogenga Otunnu
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham


Military Group

Number of Soldiers

Uganda National Liberation Army

3700

National Resistance Army

3580

Federal Army

Uganda Freedom Movement

1200

Uganda Rescue Front

Former Uganda National Army

Total

8480

Source The Uganda Peace Talks—Agreement for the Restoration of Peace to the Sovereign State of the Republic of Uganda. Nairobi, 1985: 17

While in theory the UNLA would have 120 troops more than the NRA, in practice the numerical difference was much smaller, if any. This was so because some high-ranking UNLA officers were either members of the NRA or NRA sympathizers. Furthermore, the NRA was far better organized than the UNLA.48

After signing the agreement, Tito Okello naively told a jubilant rally at Kampala City Square that the peace agreement had finally tamed the “most poisonous and dangerous snake,” Yoweri Museveni. He then declared that peace had at last come to the country. His declaration reflected his unrealistically optimistic view about the policy of appeasement. However, soon after the rally, the war escalated. Frustrated and demoralized by the terms of the Agreement, most UNLA soldiers left the appeasers to defend themselves and their peace against the NRA. The situation was compounded by the fact that the only army commander the soldiers respected, Basilio Okello, was out of the country receiving medical treatment. By the time he returned to Kampala, most of the soldiers had looted whatever movable property they could lay their hands on and had retreated to Acoliland. In the end, the NRA routed out the army of anarchy and assumed power on January 25, 1986.49

Tito Okello fled to Gulu , where he realized how unpopular the policy of appeasement was in the army: many soldiers, including some senior UNLA officers, declared him a traitor, a murderer and a coward. According to them he was a traitor because he had devoted his entire energy addressing the interests of the NRA. In their view he was a murderer because the policy of appeasement that he promoted had led to the deaths of thousands of Acoli, both soldiers and civilians in Buganda and Lango. They also claimed that some 6000 untrained militiamen from Acoli who arrived in Kampala and Entebbe when Tito Okello was fleeing had been murdered by the NRA. To them, he was a coward because, as the leading proponent of the policy of appeasement and the highest-ranking officer in the UNLA, he should not have fled Kampala. He also found out how unpopular the policy was in the army when senior army officers, led by Colonel Obonyo, declared that he should be executed at Acholi Inn in Gulu for the sufferings he had brought upon the Acoli. However, he was saved by Basilio Okello , who asked the soldiers to forgive Tito Okello. Immediately they set him free, he fled to Sudan, Kenya and Tanzania and back to Kenya, where he became a refugee.50



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