Isaac Maliyamungu, (died February 1984) also known as Isaac Lugonzo, was a Ugandan military officer who served as one of President Idi Amin's most important officials and supporters during the Ugandan military dictatorship of 1971–79. Born in the Congo, Maliyamungu was one of the members of the 1971 coup that brought Amin to power, and was thereafter responsible for brutally suppressing dissidents throughout the country. Rising through the ranks, Maliyamungu amassed great power and earned a feared reputation. He was responsible for the mass murder of civilians and soldiers suspected of being disloyal to Amin. As the Ugandan military dictatorship weakened and Amin's support eroded among the country's masses and elite, Maliyamungu was one of his few remaining trusted confidants. After the Uganda–Tanzania War's outbreak in 1978, Maliyamungu held important military commands, but had little success in combat against the Tanzania People's Defence Force. When the Tanzanians and their Ugandan rebel allies overthrew Amin's government in 1979, Maliyamungu fled to Zaire, where he intended to become a businessman. In the following year, he and other Uganda Army (UA) commanders assembled a rebel force with which they invaded northwestern Uganda, starting the Ugandan Bush War. Maliyamungu died of poisoning in Sudan in 1984.
Biography
Early life and 1971 coup d'état
He was born in the western part of the country which later became Zaire and is the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo. Maliyamungu was a Christian from the Kakwa ethnic group and a cousin or nephew of Idi Amin. At some point, he migrated to Uganda, and got a job as gatekeeper at the Nyanza textile factory in Jinja. He joined the Uganda Army in 1967, possibly recruited on Amin's orders. By then, Amin had risen to deputy commander of the Uganda Army. In 1970 Maliyamungu was promoted to the rank of corporal and served as pay clerk for the Uganda Army Air Force at Entebbe. At the time, he was aiding Amin in secretly enlisting troops from the West Nile region and southern Sudan. These forces were trained in the Mabira Forest, and were part of Amin's preparations for a coup against President Milton Obote. Maliyamungu eventually learned of Obote's intentions to arrest Amin, and warned his relative, whereupon they accelerated their coup plans. He played a crucial role in Amin's subsequent coup against Obote, and it was later claimed that he had rammed an armoured personnel carrier into an important armoury in the capital Kampala during the coup, ensuring that the putschists had access to necessary weapons. Another putschist, Moses Galla, has disputed this story, and stated that he had been the driver of the APC. Maliyamungu's main task during the coup was to secure Entebbe airport. This he successfully did by driving a tank from the Malire Barracks to Entebbe, and shooting at the airport entrance. He killed two priests by chance, and caused a panic among the airport's guards. The loyalist resistance of Entebbe thus collapsed, allowing Maliyamungu to take control almost unopposed. His takeover of Entebbe impressed Amin, and Maliyamungu consequently won the favor of Uganda's new president. After the successful coup, Maliyamungu was one of the officers who were entrusted with defeating the remaining militant Obote loyalists and purging the Uganda Army of anti-Amin elements. For this purpose, he was granted "unlimited powers to execute anyone in the army", including superior officers. Alongside Colonel Ali, Colonel Musa, and Major Malera, Maliyamungu succeeded in defeating the armed resistance to the new regime, and proceeded to murder hundreds of political opponents. He later boasted of "single-handedly mastermind[ing]" the mass murder of civilians suspected of being opposed to Amin.
Official under Idi Amin
Rise in the ranks
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