Major (Rtd) John Kazoora, a decorated veteran of the National Resistance Army (NRA) and a sharp critic of Uganda’s post-revolutionary leadership, has died.
His passing on Easter Sunday was confirmed to the Nile Post by a family member and close associates, including opposition activist Ronald Muhinda.
"Betrayed by his leader, now called home by his Creator. Maj. John Kazoora has signed out," said Muhinda.
"Any Bush war officer who never got promoted had fundamental differences with their commander. Kazoora documented them in his memoir. Go well, sleep well."
Details of his cause of death at the age of 67 remains unclear.
Kazoora, who hailed from western Uganda, is best known for his memoir Betrayed by My Leader, in which he chronicles his journey from an idealistic university student to a frontline fighter in the 1981–86 guerrilla war that brought President Yoweri Museveni to power.
The book is a powerful indictment of what he described as the betrayal of the revolutionary values the NRA once stood for—freedom, democracy, and the rule of law.
A former Bush War comrade of Museveni, Kazoora emerged after the war as a principled voice in Parliament and within the security sector.
He served as director of political affairs in military intelligence and later represented Kashari County in Parliament under the Movement system, before breaking ranks with the establishment.
In later years, he joined opposition efforts led by Dr Kizza Besigye, with whom he shared both a personal friendship and political ideology rooted in reform.
In Betrayed by My Leader, Kazoora does not spare himself from criticism. He reflects with brutal honesty on the choices made during the war and after, and how the struggle's noble beginnings were derailed by what he saw as corruption, militarism, and intolerance.
“We fought for a Uganda where every citizen would be equal before the law,” he wrote.
“But what we built turned into a pyramid of fear.”
Even after retiring from active service, Kazoora remained outspoken, often warning of the dangers of silencing dissent and centralising power.
His writings and public appearances captured the disillusionment felt by many of the revolution’s original architects.
Major Kazoora’s legacy lies not only in the battles he fought in Luweero, but in the conscience he offered after the guns went silent.
He believed Uganda’s unfinished revolution would one day be completed—not through war, but through truth and civic awakening.
He is survived by his family and a generation of Ugandans who continue to wrestle with the ideals he once fought for—and later mourned as lost.
Funeral arrangements are expected to be announced by his family in due course.