Ugandans have been sharing their tributes to a former minister in the Idi Amin government, Henry Kyemba, who died on Thursday from diabetes-related complications aged 84.
He is described as having been a fixture in Uganda’s public life, serving in different positions in the governments of Amin and Milton Obote, as well as the current President Yoweri Museveni.
While narrating to local media of his time as Obote’s aide, he said he once took a bullet that was meant to assassinate the president.
He is also well-known for his book, State of Blood: The Inside Story of Idi Amin, which he wrote after he fled to exile in 1977 while serving under the dictator.
The book detailed a first-hand account of experience during Amin’s brutal government, exposing the atrocities and human rights abuses committed by the regime.
The state-owned daily, The New Vision, says his work is considered an important historical document providing “insight into a dark period in Uganda’s history”.
Kyemba returned to Uganda in 1986, long after Amin had been deposed in 1979, and after the takeover by the current president.
“I am sorry to hear of Henry Kyemba’s passing. He was a fixture in Uganda’s public life: advisor to presidents Obote and Amin; dedicated civil servant; courageous critic of Amin’s brutality; custodian of memory,” Derek R Peterson, an American historian specialising in East Africa’s cultural history said on X.
Uganda’s deputy parliamentary speaker Thomas Tayebwa described Kyemba as a “renowned statesman” who served in different regimes “without blemish”.
“He leaves behind one of the celebrated legacies this country will ever have. Rest in Peace statesman,” he added.
