Joab Kaganda Jr, 35, is an ADF survivor
By Felix Basiime
Posted Friday, August 7 2015 at 12:19
Posted Friday, August 7 2015 at 12:19
On Monday, June 8, 1998, rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces
(ADF), raided Uganda Technical College Kichwamba in Kabarole District and burnt
80 student alive in three dormitories and abducted 100 others.
Joab Kaganda Jr, 35, is currently an
engineer based in Fort Portal. He lives in Gweri village, Kabarole District. He
was a student at Uganda Technical College Kichwamba in 1998 pursuing a building
and construction certificate. He went back in 2000 for an advanced building and
construction course.
Background
Uganda Technical College Kichwamba is located in Kabarole District. It is close to the Kabarole-Ntoroko district border at a sharp corner overlooking Mount Rwenzori.
Uganda Technical College Kichwamba is located in Kabarole District. It is close to the Kabarole-Ntoroko district border at a sharp corner overlooking Mount Rwenzori.
The narration
A year before, ADF had a failed attempt to attack Kicwamba but they had poor intelligence and found students had already gone for holidays. Instead, they attacked a nearby trading centre called Kihondwa at night and looted food and some goats from the locals.
The first week of June 1998, we received information that ADF rebels had camped at the top of Mount Rwenzori in a forest.
A year before, ADF had a failed attempt to attack Kicwamba but they had poor intelligence and found students had already gone for holidays. Instead, they attacked a nearby trading centre called Kihondwa at night and looted food and some goats from the locals.
The first week of June 1998, we received information that ADF rebels had camped at the top of Mount Rwenzori in a forest.
We told a UPDF officer in charge of security at Uganda Technical College
Kichwamba. By that time there was a UPDF detach at the college. He told us that
they had enough security and we should not get scared, that they would repulse
them if they came.
On Sunday evening (June 7, 1998), I had gone for an evening walk together with
my friends Joseph and Frank along Bundibugyo Road down the hills. We met there
a group of five men who we suspected to be rebels; it was around 7:30pm. They
convinced us to continue walking up to Karugutu, we refused and returned to the
college, and jokingly I told my colleagues in the dormitory what had
transpired. I told them that these were rebels and were coming to attack the
college at night.
But I picked up my books and went for prep together with my friend James
Muyomba who also died in the attack. We returned after midnight to the
dormitory. I was residing in Rukidi and for him he was in Balya that was
attacked and torched on in the wee hours of June 8, 1998.
In the wee hours, my friend Ivan, who was a cubical mate, woke me up to go for prep. I told him that I was tired and wanted to sleep. He accepted. In an hour’s time, we heard gun shots along Bundibugyo Road, the rebels were chanting songs and sounded like it was a big number. One colleague called Mulokore told us to run but I told him no, the army would come to our rescue, so we remained inside. The UPDF resisted for about 10 minutes but were overpowered.
In the wee hours, my friend Ivan, who was a cubical mate, woke me up to go for prep. I told him that I was tired and wanted to sleep. He accepted. In an hour’s time, we heard gun shots along Bundibugyo Road, the rebels were chanting songs and sounded like it was a big number. One colleague called Mulokore told us to run but I told him no, the army would come to our rescue, so we remained inside. The UPDF resisted for about 10 minutes but were overpowered.
The first thing the
rebels did when they reached our campus was to burn the school lorry. I saw
them myself, they shot at the generator and at the transformer and power went
off. I was peeping through the window as it was approaching 6.30am and the
darkness was clearing.
The rebels first camped between Kahaya and Rukidi dormitories before they headed to Balya dormitory. They were speaking English, Luganda, Rutooro and Swahili asking the students to come out of the dormitories. We could hear a lady commander giving orders. They told students to come out because they had come to liberate us but students refused.
They started shooting indiscriminately. They started burning three dormitories, targeting Balya and Kahaya South. Students of Kahaya central and Kahaya were abducted.
They also burnt Rukidi dormitory from the north wing as they were retreating. Some students escaped from Rukidi north to Rukidi central through the ceiling. A big number of students were abducted from Rukidi north.
Another group of
rebels moved to the girls’ dormitory called Straker but the woman commander
called them back and surrounded the burning dormitories as others took the
abducted students. The number of rebels was many, and they were dressed in
green army uniforms.
They were standing on
the doors guarding the dormitories as they burned. Some rebels from the burning
Rukidi North dormitory invaded us in Rukidi central and we were almost
suffocating, when we peeped outside. The rebel, who was guarding our dormitory,
had also been put off by the soot which was enveloping the area, we opened and
escaped through Kahaya South route to the school farm.
We were many students
fleeing and when the rebels saw us they shot at us and one student was killed.
The few students who had not escaped could not leave the dormitory including my
friend Joseph Bigirwa but finally escaped through the window and hid in the
showers. The operation took about one hour.
We could now only
view the burning dormitories and our abducted colleagues being taken uphill on
the opposite mountain as it was getting to 7:30am.
We waited, hiding in
the farm up to 8am until we saw the locals converging at the college, and we
joined them.
The Principal, then
Engineer John Mbabazi, called a roll call and established the missing numbers,
the dead and abducted.
He asked about our
other friends who escaped with us. By 8.30am, UPDF and Police had come to the
scene, and then we all moved around the college to ascertain the damage. It is
then that we got to know our friends who had died.
Thereafter, the college
management told us to go home. Burial of the dead students was arranged later
and the students were buried in a mass grave at the school.
As the attack came
close to end of the 2nd semester, we had not sat for final exams and some of us
sat them from different institutions like Kyambogo and St Joseph’s Technical
College in Fort Portal.
Among those who were
abducted, there was my friend called James Birolerro who escaped back from
captivity after four months. He told me that there was a pastor (among the
abducted students) who was allowed by the rebels to always lead others in
prayers in the bush every morning.
Another student,
Isingoma Dez, who also was abducted and later fled when they reached at the top
of the mountain, told me that the day they were abducted, the rebels had
roasted meat and cooked food which was an indication that they had camped there
for days before the attack.
He said some of the
abducted students were shot on the way up because they had failed to carry the
heavy load of the looted food from Kichwamba area. School reopened after a year
and I came back for another course but the enrollment was very low as students
feared to stay at the college. The numbers later started growing after a lot of
campaigns were done by the college and security restored in the area.
Another attack
In 2000 when I was still at this college, the ADF rebels attacked Katojo government prison in Fort Portal and reportedly took off with some prisoners. At Kichwamba we could hear the fire at Katojo and I hid in toilet with a colleague called Peter. That night I regretted why I had come back to Kichwamba when my parents and friends had discouraged me never to go back to this college.
In 2000 when I was still at this college, the ADF rebels attacked Katojo government prison in Fort Portal and reportedly took off with some prisoners. At Kichwamba we could hear the fire at Katojo and I hid in toilet with a colleague called Peter. That night I regretted why I had come back to Kichwamba when my parents and friends had discouraged me never to go back to this college.
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