Great Trek: When Col. David Karuhanga was asked to mention Museveni’s name or he dies

The bush war trek, code-named “Africa Kwetu” continued for a fourth day as national Resistance Army fighters narrated ordeals of what happened during the five year bush war.

Speaking to the congregation, Col.David Karuhanga, who is now deployed under Operation Wealth Creation but was by then a Kadogo narrated how he almost got killed, together with three other fellow child soldiers.

“As kadogos, one of our jobs was carrying luggage for senior commanders. One time we were shifting from Ngoma back to Bulemeezi .It was a tough journey and I was under  Mondlane but the commanders used to overload us. Kadogo beba yii( young man carry this),” Karuhanga narrated.

“You could carry luggage for three officers no matter the number of officers you were escorting.”

He narrated that on the journey to Mugogo, he together with two other Kadogos got exhausted and had to fall asleep as a way of resting.

“We halted at night, put down the luggage and all of a sudden we slept off. The line of other officers however continued. We held each other and slept off.”

Col.Karuhanga said that after a period of 15 to 20 minutes, they woke up and realized their colleagues had left but they decided to drop the luggage because it was too heavy and would impede their movement.

“Democratically, we agreed to drop the luggage and started the journey until we got lost.”

The UPDF colonel said they later found themselves in a banana plantation in an area they were not well versed with.

“We saw fire near a house and because it was in the wee hours of the morning, we said nothing could stop us from going to the house. The owner came with a panga but we fell on his feet.

“He told us he was going to cut us dead if we had not told him where we were coming from. Because we were Kadogos, we feared mentioning Mzee’s name(Museveni).”

The senior UPDF officer narrated that he feared to mention Museveni's name because he feared what would happen next to them not until one of his colleagues asked him(Karuhanga) to mention the name(Museveni) or else the man would finish them off.

“He told me we are going to be killed if didn’t mention it. I then told the man that we were sons of Mzee Museveni but all of a sudden the man backtracked and took us into his house before leading us to the bigger group of our fellow fighters whom he had hidden in a forest. We reunited.”

Telephones

Col.Karuhanga also told the gathering that the Kadogos were always used as a means of communication between the fighters because there were no telephones at that time.

“The commander would write a message on a chit, you receive the note and then run. You were not supposed to walk but run. You deliver the message and the other commander also replies and you take the note,”Col.Karuhanga said.

He, however, noted that every time there was something to be communicated, it was the Kadogos who were always on standby to deliver the messages.

Through the seven-day symbolic trek code-named “Africa Kwetu”, Museveni intends to honor National Resistance Army fighters but also educate the young generation on the sacrifice that the rebels went through and will run up to January 10.

The trek is expected to pass through seven districts including Wkiso, Nakaseke, Mityana, Kiboga, Kassanda, Mubende and Kakumiro.