By Zacharia Kanyonyozi
Photos: YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons
In 1988, my parents, I and my three brothers were staying at Fairway Hotel.
Back then, much of Kampala was a bombed-out shell of its former self thank to the needless bush war unleashed on the country by dictator Museveni.
Amidst a war-ravaged city, we were able to find solace in the fact that we had our family dog “Lucy” with us.
As children, Lucy, an Ethiopian terrier, was very important to us. So we travelled with her from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and always kept her close.
However, Fairway Hotel, at the time, had a strict policy against having animals at the hotel. So we were forced to part with Lucy, for a few days, as she stayed with Uncle Samuel Bigombe. He was the husband to Betty Bigombe.
She served, at the time, in the National Resistance Council, which was the legislature back then.
In 1988, she was appointed State Minister for Northern Uganda, as one of four women in a 48-member Cabinet.
As a child, I noticed how sad Betty Bigombe was whenever we visited her home in order to see Lucy.
She never smiled, ever.
Recently, the Daily Monitor carried a story about her.
“Bigombe decries mafia in elusive Kony peace pact” read the headline to the story.
The story went on say that certain elements in dictator Museveni’s army prolonged the war in the North deliberately in order to profit from it. These war profiteers were led by dictator Museveni, of course.
We say this not because Joseph Kony told Betty Bigombe that dictator Museveni was against peace, but because the Junk Helicopter scandal back then helped prolong the war as some army personnel became rich.
In brief, the Junk Helicopter scandal occurred when the Museveni Junta was offered eight Mi-24 gunships by the odious Rwandan businessman and dictator Museveni stooge, Emmanuel Katto,, for $1.5 million each, less than a quarter of the price when new.
The Museveni Junta paid $12.26 million for four of these helicopters. No bidding on these deals took place. Eventually, four gunships were purchased for $4.7 million from Belspetsvneshtechnika in Belarus.
After inspections of the helicopters, two were deemed worthless, with rusted pipes and worn-out tires. These two helicopters were deemed junk and were grounded at Entebbe International Airport.
Two more helicopters were paid for but never arrived.
Gen. Salim Saleh, dictator Museveni’s brother, was given a bribe of $800,000 to make sure this deal happened.
Dictator Museveni’s illegitimate son, Kwame Ruyondo, also received a hefty “commission.”
The country made a loss of at least $8 million. That is worth $16,511,286.09 today, which is 60 billion Ugandan Shillings!
I suspect that Betty Bigombe’s sad disposition in 1988 was due to the fact that she knew she was working with Bandits. And like many of us, she thought she could correct the beast by operating in its belly.
So she took a job with dictator Museveni in hopes that she could do this. Instead, she found herself trapped. This made her miserable.
Today, she has come to say that dictator Museveni, without naming him personally, was responsible for the war in the north raging on for so long.
It went on for two decades.
By 2004, the Lord’s Resistance Army had abducted more than 20,000 children, caused the displacement of 1.5 million civilians, and killed an estimation of 100,000 civilians.
Justice Minister Norbert Mao used to say that when you sleep with a hunchback, you will be left out in the cold every time he turns in bed. Bigombe found this out tragically too late.
