Jaribio la Hans Poppe Kutaka Kumpindua Nyerere 1982/1983
Hans Pope (senior) alikuwa regional police commander, Iringa, kabla ya kupelekwa Mkoa wa Ziwa Magharibi (West Lake Region) ambao sasa ni Kagera. Nakumbuka picha yake ilipochapishwa magazetini hapa nchini, 1972, baada ya kuuawa na askari wa Amin waliomteka Mutukula.
Katika picha ile, mwili wake ulivimba sana. Amin alisema jeshi letu lilikuwa na Wachina na Hans Pope ulikuwa ndiyo ushahidi huo. Hans Pope alikuwa na damu ya Kijerumani, siyo ya Kichaina, ingawa sura yake katika picha ile ilikuwa kama ya “Kichaina” kwa sababu ya kuvimba sana. Naikumbuka sana picha ile. Ilikuwa ukurasa wa kwanza magazetini.
Watoto wake ndiyo hao wawili waliohusika na mpango wa kumpindua Nyerere, 1982, pamoja na wanajeshi wengine.
Jaribio hilo limejadiliwa na watu mbalimbali pamoja na Godfrey Mwakikagile katika kitabu chake, Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era. Kuna afisa mmoja aliyehusika na jaribio hilo la kumpindua Mwalimu Nyerere ambaye Mwakikagile alizungumza naye.
Sijui kama alizungumza na mmoja wao, akina Hans Poppe, au na afisa mwingine wa jeshi aliyehusika na jaribio hilo. Hakumtaja afisa aliyezungumza naye na ameeleza kwa nini hakumtaja katika kitabu chake. Kwahiyo inawezekana ni mwanajeshi tofauti kabisa aliyezungumza naye.
Lakini katika kitabu hicho kuna mahojiano na afisa mmoja wa jeshi aliyezungumza na Mwakikagile kuhusu jaribio hilo la mapinduzi. Sijui alizungumza naye macho kwa macho, kwa simu au vipi. Sidhani kama ameeleza katika kitabu chake walizungumza kwa njia gani.
Lakini ameandika katika kitabu hicho kwamba Andrew Nyerere alimwambia azungumze na mmoja wa maofisa wa jeshi waliojaribu kumpindua Mwalimu Nyerere kwa sababu alifahamiana na afisa huyo tangu walipokuwa pamoja katika mafunzo ya uanajeshi Mgulani.
Katika kitabu hicho, Mwakikagile ameandika yafwatayo kuhusu mpango wa kumpindua Mwalimu Nyerere, 1982, pamoja na majaribio mengine ya kumpindua Mwalimu:
“Appendix VI also contains some details on another coup attempt from one of the coup plotters who was introduced to me by Andrew Nyerere. I got in touch with him and he gave me the information directly, but asked me not to use his name in the book. And I have honoured that request.
But he also made it clear that I could disclose his name if I had to. As he put it in writing: “I only request that you don’t put my name anywhere, although if it comes to litigation or a situation which demands that you reveal your source, then you can do so. If you want anymore clarification or explanation, just contact me.”
I also knew about his father back in 1972, as I explain in Appendix VI, long before Andrew introduced me to the son years later in 2003 when I was working on this expanded edition. And, besides the information about the coup plot in which he was involved, he also gave me some information on other coup plots against President Julius Nyerere.
When I was discussing my work with Andrew, especially after he read the chapter on coup attempts, he felt that it was important to include all this information in the book for the sake of truth. That is why he contacted one of the coup plotters whom he knew to get this material on his own initiative without being prompted by me.
The information I got was in response to the questions I asked this former army officer after I was introduced to him. As Andrew said to me after he talked to him:
‘There are certain universal principles that must be adhered to. This is just about wanting to know the truth; it is not about wanting to please anyone….He was arrested for a coup attempt. He will write to say what happened. He is not going to defend anything or not defend anything. Let him decide how he wants to write.
Do not come to this with pre-conceived ideas of what you want him to write….One thing I want to tell you is that I know (name withheld) because we were together in basic military training at the Tanzania Military Academy (TMA), Mgulani’.
Andrew is now a retired army captain who served in the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces (TPDF) and fought in the six-month war against Idi Amin when the Ugandan military dictator invaded Tanzania at the end of October 1978 and annexed 710 square miles of its territory in the northwestern part of the country, Kagera Region, bordering Uganda. The coup plotter Andrew introduced me to, was also a captain at the time of the coup attempt in 1982 – 1983.
And he did write what he wanted to write. It is for the readers to decide what they think about it. And I am grateful for his contribution, hoping that it will shed more light on the political history of Tanzania and raise important questions about issues which are still important to Tanzanians today and which may continue to generate interest for many years as the country adjusts to the new era of multiparty politics and free market policies away from its socialist past under one-party rule instituted by the founding father of the nation Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere.
I must also express my profound gratitude to Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim, chairman of the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation (MNF) in Dar es Salaam and former secretary-general of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), for reading portions of my manuscript which I sent to him, and for asking probing questions when I was working on the book after Andrew Nyerere told him about it.
He also agreed to read the rest of the manuscript. Later on, I sent him my entire work before I submitted the final version to my publisher so that he and his staff at the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation could read it and, if necessary, make some suggestions or critically evaluate my work.
I am equally grateful to Joseph Butiku, executive director of the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation and former private secretary and personal assistant to President Julius Nyerere, for inviting me to send them my manuscript. As with Dr. Salim, Andrew Nyerere talked to Butiku first about my book. And he was just as interested and asked me to send them my work after I said I would like to do so.
But they did not in any way try to influence my work or tell me what I should and should not write. I wrote what I wanted to write. And the final decision to include whatever I have included in the book was entirely mine. I am, nonetheless, grateful to them for their great interest in my work and for taking the time to read it.
This book has not, in any way, been censored by the Tanzanian authorities. Many Tanzanian leaders, including members of parliament, read it, or portions of it, before it was published.
I am also deeply grateful to many individuals and institutions who have served as a source of some of the material I have used to write this book.
While the analysis is mine, and a lot of the information I have used is also mine since I am the primary source because of my first-hand knowledge of Tanzania and Africa as a whole; I must also acknowledge that my work would not have been completed without the secondary sources I have cited to fortify my thesis.” – (Godfrey Mwakikagile, Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era, pp 8 – 9).
Kuhusu jaribio hilo la kumpindua Nyerere, 1982, Mwakikagile ameandika katika kitabu chake:
“The chapter on coup attempts against Nyerere prompted Andrew to seek comments on my work from one of the coup plotters mentioned in his letter above. His father was one of the first people killed by Idi Amin’s forces on the Ugandan-Tanzanian border in 1972 when they made repeated incursions into our country.
The pictures of some of these victims were published in our newspaper, the Daily News, to demonstrate the diabolical nature of Amin’s blood-soaked regime; incursions into our country and the bombing and killing of innocent Tanzanians by his forces being only the tip of the iceberg. Earlier, Andrew had written this to me about (name withheld), whom he said he met when they underwent basic military training together at the Tanzania Military Academy (TMA), Mgulani, in Dar es Salaam, and about his attempts to get in touch with him in case he had any comments to make on my work:
“Dear Godfrey,
I would like to make a few comments about the interview (Appendix VI above). But I will do it tomorrow. There are many things which are not well-known. For example, that Nkrumah financed the Zanzibar Revolution, the one which overthrew the Arabs. I heard it on a tape of a speech by Sheikh Thabit Kombo.
(Name withheld) was one of the coup plotters. He is the son of (name withheld) you mentioned. I will try one more time to find him, to see if he is willing to write anything.
I am Andrew.”
That is how the coup plotter came into the picture. I asked him to describe the sequence of events which led to their arrest and conviction:
“It was Friday the 7th January 1983 at around 1500hrs local time. We were to assemble at a house in Kinondoni ( a ward in Dar es Salaam, the nation’s capital) then proceed to another place for the final briefing as the coup was to take place the following night.
By this day we had already postponed the strike twice at the request of the mastermind Pius Lugangira or known at that time as Father Tom or Uncle Tom. Apparently, his reason was that he was expecting some ships with essential commodities in big shortage at that time.
We had planned for the previous Monday but put it forward to Wednesday; then, again, he said he wasn’t ready. We did warn him of the dangers of putting it forward as the number of people in the conspiracy always increases towards the culmination and the chances of leaks increase. So, on that Friday we had decided to go ahead whether he was ready or not.
I was close to the RV (the assembling place) when I saw Tamim running while being chased by three people. Shortly after that, I heard shots and Tamim fell from the pickup that he had jumped into in his attempt to get away. He was taken to MMC (Muhimbili) in a car that was waiting for them. I followed them up to MMC to see what would be next. I saw the body being taken to the mortuary and after a few minutes the pursuers who happened to be from the state security came out looking quite excited about something.
I went to the attendant and gave him some money and requested to see the body, which I did, and satisfied myself that Tamim was already dead. From the wounds, I knew that he couldn’t have said anything as death must have been immediate. But what the attendant revealed to me scared me. He said those guys had taken a piece of paper from Tamim’s pocket that had a list of names with military ranks.
I tried to look for my colleagues at their homes but couldn’t find any. I knew it would be futile to as the plan was no one was to return home that day but go somewhere until H-hour (the hour that the actual action starts). I went back to that house in Kinondoni only to find it surrounded by both uniformed and plain-clothed police.
I could recognise some of them and, to my utter dismay, I saw some of my colleagues already under arrest. I knew then that the whole thing was abortive as three of those arrested were from the tank unit whose success in the mission was of paramount importance. I spotted a few of us hovering around the perimeter of that house. So, I went to them and informed them of what had taken place. It was already 2000hrs and there was nothing that we could do to salvage the situation and it was everyone for himself.
Some decided to flee to Kenya where they were given refuge; only to be returned at a later date in exchange for Ochuka and Okumu who had fled from Kenya to Tanzania after their attempt to overthrow Moi failed in August 1982. I was married and had a one-year old daughter, not knowing what would happen to them. I decided to remain and ride out the storm.
I was arrested the same night around 0300hrs and taken straight to the Central Police Station where I found my brother (name withheld), who was a captain and pilot, already arrested; two captains in the company of a good number of armed soldiers. They said to me that they were arresting me on the orders of the Chief of Defence Forces, but they did not say on what charge although I did ask them.
What I found out later was that my name was also on that list of paper but appeared as Captain (name withheld). And since in the army we are addressed by our surnames, there were two of us by that name. So, they arrested my brother first, as he was staying in the air-wing barracks, and they didn’t know where I was staying in town until they asked my brother.
On my arrest, the whole of my family was taken out and the house was locked. The following morning my house was searched in my presence by the police, the military and the state security, but nothing of significance was found. We then went to my office. And, again, nothing was found.
I was not tortured physically, although there were a lot of threats to do just that or bring harm to my family. In my opinion, we were not tortured due to an issue that had occurred in the previous year. What happened then was that there were interrogations that were conducted by the state security guys among prisoners who were under the care of the police and the prisons department. Something went wrong and some of those prisoners died.
One of them was connected to a person in power. So, an inquiry was initiated which culminated in the resignation of the then minister of home affairs, Mwinyi, who later on became president, and of Siyovelwa who was the minister in the president’s office dealing with security. As for the operatives, the Regional Police Commander and his counterpart in Prisons and some police officers were charged and received prison terms of between 3 and 8 years. But the guys from the state security were left scot-free. It is this background that made the police protect us from any kind of torture.
I vividly remember the 5th day of my arrest when a security guy came to take me for interrogation but was refused permission by Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Mwamakusa under whom I was placed for investigation. The security guy angrily went away and came back later with other top officials from the State House.
But the SSP stood his ground. There were no interrogations for the following two days after this episode. We later found out that a meeting was held by all the security organs and it was agreed that all questions were to be asked in the presence of police officers and they should follow regulations. We were to remain under police custody. And that we did, until we were taken to court and thereafter to the prisons department.
We weren’t allowed to get visits from relatives until a strong rumour started circulating that some of us were dead. To prove that we were still alive, they had no option but to allow relatives to visit us and bring us some food. Identification parades were held and, three weeks after our arrest, we were formally charged and taken to prison remand. Thirty people were initially charged and all the military people were remanded at Ukonga while the civilian elements were put at Keko.
Every two weeks we were taken to court, and another mention would be requested and, of course, granted. By the seventh mention, Father Tom and Mcghee, who were the first and the second accused respectively, escaped from Keko and fled to Kenya. The case was withdrawn and we were all put in detention.
There was no harsh treatment while in remand but, as soon as we were detained, conditions changed and we were mostly held incommunicado and dispersed to different prisons. I was always segregated from the others and was always in leg shackles apparently for being accused of being the mastermind of the Keko escape.
Almost a year later, Kenya and Tanzania settled their differences and exchanaged fugitives. Mcghee and a few others who had escaped during the first arrests were brought back, while Tanzania sent back Ochuka and his friend. These two were later hanged by Moi.
After a long trial, almost a year, nine of us were sentenced to life imprisonment and the others were set free. Altogether this time, 18 were brought back to court while the others remained in detention until four months after we were sentenced when they were released. And that included my brother whose only mistake was to have a similar (the same last) name. He spent a total of three and a half years.
As a prisoner, conditions changed again but this time slightly for the better as we were treated as political prisoners. Food was better; we were given beds, mattresses, mosquito nets, radio and newspapers. We were also allowed visits from relatives and friends. It is standard procedure for any person in detention, or sentenced to life, to write a letter for clemency to the head of state.
And I believe all of us did. I was again put alone and changed prisons from time to time. I stayed at Ukonga, Maweni, Tanga, Mtwara, Lindi, Mwanza, and again Ukonga where I was released on presidential pardon in 1995 in the wake of the first multiparty elections. In total, I spent 13 years in prison.
In the beginning, a lot of people used to avoid me. But gradually, as the freedom of speech increased in the country and the people became more bold, things began to change until now where I am leading a normal life. My wife waited for 10 years, then despaired and divorced me. She is married with two children and lives in (name withheld) with our daughter who was one year old when I was arrested; she is now 22. I own several trucks…. I married again in 2001 and have a six month-old son (in 2003) from this marriage.”
Besides the questions to which he provided the answers in the preceding statement, I also asked him the following:
Why did the coup plotters want to overthrow the government? What did they have against Nyerere? Why did the coup not succeed? Was there a foreign power, such as the United States, involved in trying to overthrow Nyerere? Didn’t the coup plotters worry that they would not get support from most Tanzanians and the international community for overthrowing such a popular president? Did the plot include assassinating President Nyerere and other leaders?
Did the plotters anticipate massive resistance from other members of the armed forces and from the general public? What kind of government and political and economic system did they want to replace Nyerere’s? Who was the coup leader or leaders?
Was the coup attempt very close to being successful? What was your rank in the army when you got involved in the plot? When was the attempted coup and when was it planned to take place? Was Oscar Kambona involved in this one as well? How many army officers or air force officers were involved?
He gave me these answers:
WHY THE COUP
In 1982 the country was going through a very difficult economic period and shortages of essential commodities was an everyday thing. To the dismay of many, the blame was always put on our imaginary enemies, external and internal, without mentioning who these enemies are.
If you are bold enough to ask about the situation, then you are from there branded a fifth columnist, a name coined by the Nazis in Hitler’s time to refer to anyone in their ranks who opposed them. Some of us got fed up and decided to look for change. But since there was no way one could achieve that in a totalitarian regime like that, the only option viable at that time was the use of force.
WHAT DID WE HAVE AGAINST MWALIMU
Nothing personal. The only thing was that he was already surrounded by hypocrites whose survival depended solely on the system continuing as it was. And instead of telling the president the truth, they would tell him what he wanted to hear. Very unfortunately, Mwalimu had reached a stage where he believed them and would listen to no one else.
And if one wanted to get into his bad books, then he only had to point out an anomaly and that would have been the end of him. That is when people baptized Mwalimu haambiliki (Kiswahili word meaning, can’t be told or won’t listen, depending on the context – definition and clarification by the author, Godfrey Mwakikagile).
He believed the path he had chosen for this country was the only one and there was no alternative. I remember one of his speeches where he said we should not look back lest we turn into stone. As such, what was the alternative? Well, some of us were young and impatient, so we went for the shortcut.
WHY DID THE COUP NOT SUCCEED
Rather complex, and it would take a lot of time to explain the sequence of events. But in short, I can say bad luck on our side and good luck on them. What really happened is that one of the plotters, Captain Tamim, was wanted for having had defected to Kenya when Ugandan interim president, Yusuf Lule, was ousted and had fallen out of favour with Nyerere.
Tamim was then heading Lule’s security unit. So he joined him in Kenya. It is said, though, that Tamim was sent there by General Msuguri who was the Task Force Commander in Uganda. General Msuguri later on denied that, as this would have put him in trouble for having exceeded his authority. Be it as it may, Tamim could not return as he would have faced a court martial although two of his colleagues were arrested, tried, and acquitted, thus giving credence to Msuguri’s complicity.
So, (just) a day before the coup was to take place, the security guys decided to pick him up for questioning but in the process, Tamim resisted and fought back. This culminated in gunning Tamim to death. Unfortunately, he had a list of (some) army officers’ names on a slip of paper found in his pocket. And these officers were arrested the same day. Some of them confessed and this led to more arrests. This is how it failed.
WAS THERE A FOREIGN POWER?
Not one that I know of, although there was foreign financing. But that could have been done by individuals and not necessarily by a government.
DID WE WORRY ABOUT NOT GETTING SUPPORT?
Not at all. In fact, there were a lot disappointments in different quarters when the whole thing failed. It was very surprising that, in the wake of such an incidence, the normal procedure would have been rallies to condemn us, choirs would have been sung and all such razzmatazz. But there was no such thing.
And this really helped to get Mwalimu out of the dreamland to reality as he realized how unpopular his government had become. History will be the judge of that, but one thing I can say for sure is that any meaningful change that has taken place in the country started soon after that.
DID THE PLOT INCLUDE ASSASSINATION?
No. The issue was discussed at length as there were worries that if the coup succeeds but Mwalimu slips away, then he may be an obstacle to us. This argument was discarded on the grounds that there was no neighbouring country that would have risked having him there as they all had plenty of trouble internally and we could have reciprocated by escalating those problems by aiding their opposition.
For example, if (Mozambican President) Samora gave us problems, then we would have welcomed RENAMO; in Uganda we would have aided Museveni who was against Obote; Zambia, we would simply have choked them by closing the (oil) pipeline and the port. There was agreement that there was no need to kill anyone without a strong reason to do that.
WAS RESISTANCE ANTICIPATED?
Yes. There is no way that one can take power from another and expect to get it on a silver platter. But you have to know one thing in military planning: surprise is the main thing that plays an important role in determining the kind of resistance that you may get. In our case, there would have been some resistance mainly from areas of strategic importance and that would have been overcome easily. We didn’t think there would have been a long-term and consistent resistance, given the unpopularity of the government at that time. But should one have arisen, then it would have been dealt with accordingly by the new government.
KIND OF GOVERNMENT AND ECONOMIC POLICIES
Ironically, we are now having the type of government that we wanted then. We would have installed an interim government that would have prepared the country for a multiparty election within one year. And this interim government would have been totally civilian. A liberalized economic policy is what we advocated And after surviving the coup, Mwalimu borrowed a chapter from us and put it into practice, albeit with a few items, the list of which kept on expanding until now where we can trade freely.
THE COUP LEADERS
There was one person who masterminded the whole thing. And if there was someone behind him, then I don’t know. The mastermind is dead now, and his name is Pius Mtakubwa Lugangira. He was a chemistry teacher in secondary schools but had long quit that job. At the time of this plot, he was a businessman supplying different manufacturing industries with chemicals. On the operational part, I cannot reveal their names as it may jeopardize their position.
WAS IT CLOSE TO SUCCESS?
I think yes, because it was (only) a few hours away, with the security guys still in the dark. According to Mr. Apiyo, now retired but at that time the Principal Secretary in the president’s office, this was the closest of all the attempts ( to overthrow the government), and it did speed up Mwalimu’s retirement.
WHAT WAS MY RANK?
I was a captain.
WHEN WAS IT?
The plot was planned from November 1982 and was to take place on 9th January 1983. We were arrested on the eve of the 8th.
WAS KAMBONA INVOLVED?
No, he was not, as he was already a spent force by then.
HOW MANY WERE INVOLVED?
I can say many, because it was already in the implementation stage. But the ringleaders were about 14.”
I communicated with him further and asked him a few more questions: “You say this was the third coup attempt. Which one was the second, by Eli Anangisye? And when was Anangisye’s attempt? Who else was involved in Anangisye’s coup attempt? Was Kambona one of them?”
He answered this way:
“I have never heard of Anangisye as having attempted a coup. But if I can recall right, I think he was like what the Soviets used to call dissident; someone who differs with the authorities and makes noise about it. They are usually detained without trial, and this is what I think happened to Anangisye.
The coup attempts that were known are the Chipaka and Bibi Titi one which involved Kambona. These were tried in court. The second one was in 1974 when I was in Officer Cadet School. This was said to be rather tribal by officers mainly from the Chagga group. No one was tried but more than 50 officers were removed from the army and given insignificant posts in parastatals. Then came ours.
But, in between, there were other incidents that you cannot call coup attempts; for instance, during the ten years of independence celebrations leaflets castigating Mwalimu were dropped at the National Stadium and in a few other regions. This was Kambona’s job, as his picture was in the leaflets. He again made the same attempt in 1973 but his timing was not good, as Mwalimu was at the peak of his popularity.
There were a few other hiccups but, to the best of my knowledge, it is only the three that I have mentioned that are of any significance in so far as coups are concerned. One other item is that during Mwalimu’s era, they were very keen to conceal any news of coups, as that would indicate the truth that the regime was not all that popular. So, there may have been other hidden ones that I never learnt about.”
I thought about including the government version of what happened but decided not to. The High Court of Tanzania found the accused guilty and sent them to prison. The conviction summed up the government case. As Andrew Nyerere said, when we discussed the matter, regarding the government version of the coup attempt:
“I don’t see why there should be any reason to give a different point of view. Facts can be twisted, but they cannot be changed. And besides, here are people who had the wrong view. They thought they would go to State House but, instead, they went to Ukonga Prison. What more proof do you need to know that these people were wrong and the government was right?” – (Godfrey Mwakikagile, Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era, pp. 680 – 688).
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Kuna mengi zaidi ya hayo katika kitabu hicho pamoja na jaribio la kumpindua Nyerere lilo ongozwa na Oscar Kambona. Kambona alikuwa na mpango wa kumpindua Nyerere October 1969 wakati Mwalimu alipokuwa nje ya nchi pamoja na mkuu wa jeshi Sarakikya na maofisa wengine wa jeshi; mawaziri kadhaa, na viongozi wengine serikalini. Waliokamatwa, walipelekwa kortini June 1970. And they were well-represented in court. Lakini Senior State Attorney Nathaniel King alipambana vizuri sana na mawakili wao.
Namkumbuka sana Nathaniel King hadi leo. Tulikuwa tunamwona mara nyingi saa za jioni akiendesha gari lake dogo, a green Austin, na wakati amevaa shati ya kitenge na pia akienda kunywa New Africa Hotel. He was a jovial fellow but extremely tough in court.
