UGANDA

NATIONAL CONFLICTS
23. National Resistance Army military takeover (1986)
The takeover of the Government by Museveni’s National Resistance Army/Movement
(NRA/M) in January 1986 signalled both the downfall of the Tito Okello Lutwa regime and
the end to the Bush War that had begun in 1981. Though the NRA and the Government’s
Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA) had signed a peace agreement in Nairobi in
December 1985, the terms were never implemented. NRA forces finally captured power
on 25 or 26 January (see text box below), and Museveni was declared President three
days later. 184 Today, the officially recognised date on which the NRA took over power
is January 26, 1986. However, it has been argued that, in fact, power
was seized one day earlier, on January 25. In his book “Betrayed by my
Leader,” John Kazoora writes about the day on which the NRA captured
Kampala: “The NRM regime has since that day tried hard to hide the
fact that the day they captured power was on the 25 th – the same day Idi
Amin had led a bloody coup against Milton Obote’s first presidency on
January 25, 1971. They now insist Kampala was liberated on the 26 th .” 4
184 Research conducted in Gulu and Mubende Districts; Federal Research Division, Library of Congress.
(1990) The Return of Military Rule: 1985. Library of Congress Country Studies [Internet], Available from:
[Accessed 27 May 2014]. .
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