Zipporah Kittony: How my sister went missing in Amin’s Uganda

On February 13, 1976, a few weeks shy of her twenty-third birthday, my younger sister, Esther Jeruto, went missing.

Her mysterious disappearance made international news after she vanished at Entebbe Airport, Uganda, as she was waiting to board a plane back to Kenya.

Esther, 23, a bubbly young girl born on May 29, 1953, was the eighth child in our family.

Her disappearance resulted in a media sensation in Kenya and Tanzania after she was allegedly picked up by Ugandan authorities and her case remains unresolved to date. Esther was scheduled to fly home from Uganda where she was studying Political Science and Diplomacy at Makerere University, but she failed to board in her flight.

She was last seen by her classmates at the airport, where she had been dropped by a taxi.

Though the Kenyan government pressed Uganda to launch investigations into Esther’s disappearance or possible death, nothing came out of it. General Idi Amin Dada was the president of Uganda at the time after deposing Milton Obote from power in a January 25, 1971 coup d’état.

His military dictatorship removed all constitutional limits to executive dominance and spread violence across the country.

Torture and murder

He institutionalised the use of torture and murder of perceived opponents, drawing the attention of the international community and the Church.

Important submissions on Uganda were made to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 1974 and 1976 by the International Commission of Jurists but the Commission took no action, thus enabling President Amin to announce that he had been exonerated from what he called a “smear campaign inspired by an imperialist conspiracy.”

In June 1977, the Commonwealth Heads of Government, at their meeting in London, made an unprecedented public condemnation of the Uganda government.

In their final communiqué, they stated: “Cognizant of the accumulated evidence of sustained disregard for the sanctity of life and massive violations of basic human rights in Uganda, it was the overwhelming view of the Commonwealth leaders that excesses were so gross to warrant the world’s concern and to evoke condemnation of heads of government in strong and unequivocal terms. Mindful that the people of Uganda were within the fraternity of Commonwealth fellowship, heads of government looked to the day when the people of Uganda would once more fully enjoy the basic human rights, which were now being so cruelly denied.”

Similarly, the Roman Catholic Bishops of Eastern Africa, at their meeting in Eldoret, Kenya, in September, 1977, condemned General Amin’s government, and called for a thorough investigation of the situation in the country and action to stop the loss of life and “destruction of the Ugandan nation.”

Shoot to kill policy

At the time, Idi Amin had empowered security forces to “use any force they may deem necessary” to arrest or prevent the escape of anyone suspected of Kondo-ism (armed robbery, which carries a death penalty), a “shoot to kill” policy used to justify arbitrary arrest or murder by security officers in uniform and civilian clothes.

A series of “disappearances” of several prominent Ugandans followed. Kung’u Karumba, a freedom fighter who was detained in Kapenguria by the colonial government alongside Jomo Kenyatta, the first President of Kenya, Bildad Kaggia, Achieng Oneko, Paul Ngei and Fred Kubai disappeared in Uganda on June 15, 1974.

The killings happened despite condemnation from a number of African leaders, including President Omar Bongo of Gabon, who was the chairman of the Organisation of African Unity — the precursor of the African Union — at the time.

Entebbe raid

The disappearance of my sister also happened a short three years before the Entebbe Raid or Operation Thunderbolt, a rescue mission carried out by the Israeli Defence Forces to free 94 hostages, mainly Israelis, at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on  July 4, 1979.

This was after an Air France Airbus A300 jet airliner flying from Tel Aviv to Paris with 248 passengers had been hijacked by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations (PFLP-EO) and diverted to Entebbe, the main airport of Uganda, via Athens and Benghazi. The hijackers profiled the hostages, releasing 148 non-Israelis who were flown to Paris.

The remaining hostages were placed in an abandoned airport building and threatened with death if Palestinian prisoners in Israel were not released. Kenya supported the rescue operation and, in retaliation, Idi Amin ordered the killing of Kenyans in Uganda.

245 Kenyans killed

As a result, 245 Kenyans were killed and more than 3,000 fled back to the country.

An internal government commission of inquiry was established to investigate the disappearance of my sister and the fatal shooting of Paul Sserwanga, a Makerere University Student on March 6, 1976 by the Public Safety Unit Police, at the campus gate.

However, Prof Bryan Langlands, the inquiry chairman, was expelled from Uganda on July 29, 1976. In a statement to Amnesty International, Prof Langlands said the Commission under his leadership had received evidence that my sister had not been seen since being prevented from boarding the airplane at Entebbe Airport by Ugandan government officials.

Under a new chairman, the Commission failed to inquire into the March 23, 1976 abduction and subsequent murder of Dr Teresa Nanziri Musasa-Bukenya, the warden of Africa Hall.

Her abduction happened a day before she was to testify to the Commission about my sister’s disappearance, and her body found in the Sezibwa River with gunshot wounds. She was eight months pregnant, and was picked up alongside her cousin, who also “disappeared”.

Never brought to justice

Those involved in their heinous murder were never brought to justice. The report of the commission was not published, except in summary form over the Uganda Radio on November 12, 1976.

It is believed that my sister may have been taken to one of the detention centres where torture was almost routine — Makindye Barracks, the Military Police headquarters in Kampala; Nakasero, the headquarters of the Bureau of State Research, Uganda’s State intelligence agency; Naguru Police Training School, the headquarters of the Public Safety Unit (PSU), a special squad of uniformed and plain clothes police unit; police stations such as the Kampala Central Police Station, army barracks; or private houses used as special “extermination cells.”

In fact, two Kenyan truck drivers, Kamau Gitau and Mununa Mulinge who were arrested in March 1976, recounted their experience in Naguru barracks after their escape from Uganda in a newspaper article published in Kenya’s Daily Nation on April 6, 1976.

They were tortured with whipping and death threats.

The people in command at the time, Lt Colonel Francis Itabuka, the former commanding officer of the Bureau of State Research and his successor, Major Faruk Minawa; Uganda’s Police Commissioner M.K. Obura and Deputy Police Commissioner Ali Towilli; Colonel Malyamungu; Colonel Taban (Chief Technical Officer of the Airforce); Major Nasur (the Military Governor of Kampala); Major Gala; Colonel Aziz; and many others were blamed for the various atrocities committed by President Amin’s regime.

Uganda’s climate of fear

A climate of fear inside Uganda made it difficult for people to speak; no one was ready to divulge information of persons arrested by security officers for fear of reprisals against themselves or their relatives. At this time, Daniel Moi was Kenya’s Vice-President with Jomo Kenyatta as the President.

The East African Community collapsed in 1977 and the three nations went their own ways, making it difficult to trace my sister with the wave of nationalism sweeping across the region. Kenya had been blamed for the collapse of the East Africa Community.

Amin’s pushback, anarchistic and hostile regime made it difficult to trace my sister because they were unsympathetic to our situation.

He had an unexplained dislike for Kenya, the country where he trained and was commissioned as a military officer.

Military coups

Kenyatta died in 1978 and was succeeded by Daniel Moi, a family friend. However, there was a series of military coups and general air of instability that saw Idi Amin deposed on April 11, 1979.

Many people died, including possible witnesses, further hurting efforts to trace my sister. Even with the passing of years, we haven’t lost hope as a family.

I am a prisoner of hope and believe information regarding her whereabouts will come forth one day.

It’s been a long wait, an exhausting and painful time lapse since we last heard from Uganda.

I truly miss my sister.

*****

In 2007, I ran for the Cherangany parliamentary seat on a Kanu ticket but lost to Joshua Kutuny of the Orange Democratic Movement.

The outgoing MP, Kipruto arap Kirwa had represented the constituency from 1990 first on a Kanu and later on a Narc ticket.

Kanu had entered into a pre-election pact with President Mwai Kibaki’s Party of National Unity (PNU), which won the disputed election against the Orange Democratic Movement of Raila Amolo Odinga. In that election, I supported President Mwai Kibaki's re-election campaign in Trans Nzoia.

This was unusual considering a majority of people in Western Kenya and Rift Valley regions were supporting Mr Odinga.

Hostile crowd

We encountered a hostile crowd at Kitale sports ground.

I took the microphone from the master of ceremonies and demanded that the crowd give the President a chance to speak.

I didn't know I could manage crowds, but it worked because I did it from the bottom of my heart.

They toned down and President Kibaki addressed them uninterrupted. However, when violence broke after the elections, my home was surrounded, perhaps by the same crowd I had controlled a few days earlier, wanting to raze my home and farm down.

They were baying for our blood.

It took the intervention of retired President Moi who sent a helicopter to evacuate my family and ordered the provincial security team to guard my home.

It remained guarded for three months and that's how Sirwo Farm survived.

*****

Sometime in April 2020, I contracted Covid-19, a communicable respiratory disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus.

On the day I was diagnosed with it, I had woken up early in the morning eager to embark on my routine that included meetings with business partners and friends.

However, I felt something was not right. Fatigue, sore throat and the nagging feeling that I might have contracted Covid-19 immediately hit home.

The anxiety that followed sank in so deeply, and I was left wondering how to keep from infecting family members and chances of survival at my age.

I had watched news clips and read stories of how it was killing people elsewhere around the globe.

My son, Kiprono, quickly made arrangements to check me into hospital because my condition was worsening.

The available ICU bed facilities were full and finding space in a hospital was a miracle.

On a ventilator

I was placed on a ventilator and remained there for more than a month, doctors struggling around the clock to save my life.

All the while, I drifted through sleep and deep thoughts, reflecting on my life and how well I had pleased God, just in case he called me home.

Through it all, I survived. The ventilator was switched off and I was later discharged. I thank God for the miracle of healing.

This Covid-19 experience gave me a new resolve and impetus in life.

In retrospect, I do not take it for granted that God has over the years enabled me to bounce back from life-threatening illnesses. I believe he has a purpose for my life and now I find myself increasingly cherishing the so-called small things in life, and also friends and family who will be there against all odds, praying with you and for you.

*****

In recent years, I have witnessed with much consternation families I have known for many years engaging in bitter court fights over succession disputes.

A majority of these people were some of the wealthiest who left vast estates, which have become a source of pain, resulting in theft, assault, destruction of the family unit, and, in some cases, murder.

These cases know no boundaries, since some prominent Kenyans, in politics and business, have been shaken this way. It is not uncommon to find such cases making the newspaper headlines almost daily.

It is baffling how such disputes are increasing in Kenya, elaborate Wills and experienced executors notwithstanding.

Fights unnecessary

These fights are unnecessary and hence I appeal to all women and men to pen a Will on how their estates will be distributed after death to save families from pain and anguish.

The Law of Succession sets out how the wealth of the deceased can be distributed if a Will is in place or when one dies intestate.

Let us choose to distribute wealth through a Will, and where there is none, I recommend Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms since court proceedings take time to establish a final verdict.