41 Facts About Isaac Maliyamungu

Isaac Maliyamungu was responsible for the mass murder of civilians and soldiers suspected of being disloyal to Amin.

Isaac Maliyamungu was born in the western part of the country which later became Zaire and is the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Isaac Maliyamungu was a Christian from the Kakwa ethnic group and a cousin or nephew of Idi Amin.

Isaac Maliyamungu joined the Uganda Army in 1967, possibly recruited on Amin's orders.

In 1970 Isaac Maliyamungu was promoted to the rank of corporal and served as pay clerk for the Uganda Army Air Force at Entebbe.

Isaac Maliyamungu eventually learned of Obote's intentions to arrest Amin, and warned his relative, whereupon they accelerated their coup plans.

Isaac Maliyamungu 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.

Isaac Maliyamungu killed two priests by chance, and caused a panic among the airport's guards.

The loyalist resistance of Entebbe thus collapsed, allowing Isaac Maliyamungu to take control almost unopposed.

Alongside Colonel Ali, Colonel Musa, and Major Malera, Isaac Maliyamungu succeeded in defeating the armed resistance to the new regime, and proceeded to murder hundreds of political opponents.

Isaac Maliyamungu later boasted of "single-handedly mastermind[ing]" the mass murder of civilians suspected of being opposed to Amin.

Isaac Maliyamungu was appointed member of the Defence Council, General Staff Officer I Grade responsible for training and operations, and commander of the Ordnance Depot at Magamaga.

Isaac Maliyamungu was appointed the official head of the "Second Simba Mechanized Battalion" at Masaka and promoted from major to lieutenant colonel in May 1973.

Isaac Maliyamungu consequently oversaw several units from an office in Jinja.

Isaac Maliyamungu was generally respected and feared among the common soldiers, and held the power to beat or execute those who disappointed him or were suspected of being disloyal to the Amin regime.

In 1976, Isaac Maliyamungu was responsible for a major security blunder.

Once they were gathered in a room at Makindye Barracks, Isaac Maliyamungu shot 12 of them with his pistol.

Isaac Maliyamungu was regarded as "prime target" for assassination by Ugandan exiles, as he controlled much of the Uganda Army's tank forces.

Isaac Maliyamungu was one of the officers who were responsible for enlisting 10,000 new soldiers for the Uganda Army in Sudan, Kibera, and Uganda around September 1978.

Isaac Maliyamungu was known as Idi Amin's "hit man" and "principal hangman".

Isaac Maliyamungu was reportedly feared by his colleagues on the Defence Council due to his brutality, and by the rest of the army due to his great powers and close connection with President Amin.

Isaac Maliyamungu preferred to execute his victims by dismembering or disemboweling them and driving military trucks or tanks over them.

Isaac Maliyamungu's reputation was such that people would panic whenever he came to visit an area.

Isaac Maliyamungu was linked to the deaths of several prominent Ugandans during the rule of Amin.

Isaac Maliyamungu was entrusted with hunting down and killing rebel stragglers and supporters in Masaka.

Isaac Maliyamungu first cut off Walugembe's genitals, then paraded him through Masaka's streets, and finally "cut [him] into pieces in the [town's] market in full public view".

Isaac Maliyamungu chaired the show trial of Janani Luwum, Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, and other religious leaders in 1977.

Isaac Maliyamungu's wife was reportedly indebted to Karumba, and the latter was murdered during a disagreement over the debts in June 1974.

Isaac Maliyamungu was involved in coffee smuggling, shipping large amounts of coffee with boats from Uganda across Lake Victoria to Kenya.

President Amin ordered his British advisor Bob Astles to clamp down on Isaac Maliyamungu's smuggling operations in 1978.

At the time, Radio Tanzania falsely claimed that Amin had dismissed Isaac Maliyamungu and put him under house arrest.

Isaac Maliyamungu got lost in the bush for more than a week following the battle at Masaka; according to journalist Felix Ocen, he feared reprisals for his defeat, and eventually returned with an apology.

Isaac Maliyamungu was one of the commanders entrusted with leading this operation, and prepared the troops under his command well, according to Tanzanian Lieutenant Colonel Ben Msuya.

Whereas Msuya praised him for smartly executing the initial Ugandan attack which resulted in the rout of the Tanzanian 201st Brigade and capture of Lukaya, Idi Amin's son Jaffar Rembo Amin later claimed that Isaac Maliyamungu had been bribed by the Tanzanians to lose the battle, and accused him of cowardice for placing his command position miles from the frontlines.

Isaac Maliyamungu took a substantial amount of his wealth with him, and intended to become a businessman.

Isaac Maliyamungu subsequently became involved in the pro-Amin rebellion in the West Nile sub-region during the Ugandan Bush War.

Isaac Maliyamungu later moved to Sudan where he died of poisoning in February 1984.

Isaac Maliyamungu was multilingual, and could speak Kakwa, Kiswahili, English, Lusoga, Luganda, Runyoro, Luo, as well as other languages.

Isaac Maliyamungu was one of the most well known and infamous members of the Amin regime.

Isaac Maliyamungu was portrayed by Ka Vundla in the 1981 biographical film Rise and Fall of Idi Amin.

Isaac Maliyamungu did not appear in The Last King of Scotland, another historical drama centered on Amin; the non-appearance of Isaac Maliyamungu and other close allies of the Ugandan ruler was one of several points of criticism by Ugandan critics of the film.