Former MP Bazira deserves a decent burial in Kasese

Amon Kabunga Bazira was the the Member of Parliament for Kasese West Constituency between 1980 and 1985.

This constituency was composed of the sub counties of Karambi, Bwera and Kisiinga (Kabweki)subcounties in Kasese District. Of course these sub-counties have been split into several small sub-counties.

When then president, Dr Apollo Milton Obote constituted his second administration, he appointed Bazira the deputy minister for Lands, Water and Surveys. Bazira served in this position until the collapse of the Obote II administration on July 27, 1985.

As was then the wont of many UPC leaders, Bazira immediately started a rebel outfit called the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU). For Bazira, beginning was not a big thing; there was a posse of the veteran of the Rwenzururu armed rebellion, disgruntled Liberation Army (the so-called Obote Army) and the initial spirit of popular resistance to the new leadership (NRM) as was the case in almost the entire country.

Many knew him as a Munyabindi and he always insisted he was a Mukonzo with his ancestry in Kitholhu sub-county (then part of Karambi sub-county). His father was Kabunga.

The most significant contribution Bazira made to the people of Kasese was the peaceful end of the Rwenzururu rebellion. For that, I have met many Bakonzo who say they will always remain in his debt.

However, in a recent engagement I had with Dr Cripus Kiyonga, he seemed to downplay the fact that Bazira almost single-handedly brought the Rwenzururu rebellion to a peaceful end. “He may have ended the Rwenzururu rebellion but he didn’t resolve the Rwenzururu question,” Dr Kiyonga retorted.

And I did prick his ego: Some people say you have lived in Bazira’s shadow all your political life.

“I reject that labelling. By the way, you are the first person to tell me that Bazira was a better leader than me,” he said.
For fear that I might sound like a homeboy pitching for a local issue, I would like to interest you to this (paraphrased for easy reading) Wikipedia entry:

Amon Bazira (1944–1993) was a Pan-Africanist leader and organiser who created an extensive intelligence network that was a clandestine component of the struggle to end the regime of Ugandan military ruler Idi Amin.

After helping to remove Idi Amin, Bazira served as deputy director of intelligence and was later to be appointed as director of intelligence. As director of intelligence, he is remembered for originating a working paper requiring the Government of Uganda to grant citizenship to Rwandan refugees (and other displaced Africans) in Uganda. Bazira was married to a Munyarwanda woman (she died in Canada).

He reasoned that without that (offer of Ugandan citizenship), Rwandan refugees could force their way back home; an act that could lead to a genocide. This genocide, he argued further, could lead to the collapse of the balance of power and order in Central and Eastern Africa.

Bazira’s Pan African ideas and efforts helped in the creation of the African Unification Front, which has advanced the cause of pan Africanism.

In August 1993, Bazira was killed by unknown assailants in Nakuru (Kenya) thought to be linked Uganda’s intelligence services. He is buried in unmarked grave somewhere in a Kenyan cemetery.
After his death, the local NRM leadership (the designated as resistance councils or local councils) called on the population to march on the streets in celebration of the death of entale ya Kasese (lion of Kasese).

But things have changed now. There are now more people calling for a simple minimum: Let our son’s remains be brought to Kasese for a decent burial in his ancestral home. I support this idea.
Mr Bisiika is the executive editor of East African Flagpost.