- Unknown people dropped body at his home at night.
- Wife says body was intact but Kayihura insists it was murder.
The death of UPDF dissident Colonel Edison Muzoora has remained a big puzzle two weeks after his body was dumped at his home in Kyeigombe, Kyabugimbi in Bushenyi district by unidentified people. His mysterious death has indeed sparked several conflicting theories regarding the cause of his death. Was he killed or did he die of natural causes? Another pertinent question is, who brought Muzoora’s body to Uganda?
At about 2:00 am on May 28, a vehicle pulled up at Muzoora’s home in Nyanga, a village with sprawling hills of banana plantations and livestock farms in Kyeigombe, Kyabugimbi sub-county in Igara, Bushenyi district.
According to the deceased’s wife Vasta Muzoora, the occupants of the vehicle did not speak. They hooted about four or five times and left shortly after. She immediately called her son in the Boys Quarters. He came out with his cousin. They had all heard the vehicle but were awe struck, they did not know why the vehicle had come home at such an odd hour of the night and disappeared mysteriously. They suspected it was thieves who were on a mission to steal their cows. Using torches, they proceeded to check on the cows in the kraal. A few steps into the compound, they saw a human body covered with a cloth, lying near the garage entrance. They called their mother. When she came out, Vasta immediately identified it was the body of her husband, Col. Edison Muzoora. He had last talked to her by telephone on May 2 to congratulate the family upon the baptism party for their youngest child the previous day. He did not tell her whether he was in a poor state of health or he was intending to return to Uganda and where he was calling from.
Vasta told The Independent at her home in Nyanga that Muzoora’s body was intact and fresh and had been properly preserved. She said the body had no mark of physical injury except a small wound on one of the toes and on the upper lip, contrary to earlier reports that his eyes had been plucked out and his toe cut off. Vasta said both eyes were there only that one was smaller than the other, an indication that suggests an infection rather than assault. She said the body was dressed in a T-shirt and trouser and covered with a cloth, contrary to earlier reports that the body was dressed in UPDF uniform or that it was naked.
Upon identifying the body they informed the residents and reported the matter to police. Police took the body for a postmortem at Mbarara Government Hospital on May 28 and on May 29 the Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura ordered a second postmortem. But the findings have not been released. The police failure or refusal to release the postmortem has made the mystery more complex.
Muzoora’s wife believes her husband died of natural causes and in the hands of his people who loved him. That’s why, she says, they ensured his body was brought to his home. “If they were killers, they would have dumped his body in a lake or somewhere else. His body was well treated, there was no smell at all. You could see that these are people who loved him and wanted his people to bury him,” she said. However she added that in the absence of the post mortem, she could not speculate on any other possible cause of death beyond her physical observations on the body.
Kayihura was quoted in the Daily Monitor on June 3 as having told a meeting of the regional CID chiefs in Kampala on May 25 that Muzoora’s death was “certainly murder.”
“It was deliberate and as we viewed the body, he did not die a natural death,” Kayihura is quoted as saying about Muzoora’s body. He said he was seeking assistance of Interpol to investigate who killed Muzoora and how his body was brought into Uganda undetected. The Deputy Director of CID Geoffrey Musana, assisted by Deputy Director of Interpol David Magara, will head a separate inquiry into the matter. If the body bore no torture marks, why does Kayihura say Muzoora was murdered?
A security source, who said he had talked to people privy to the postmortem report, told The Independent that the medical examination indicated Muzoora was electrocuted and the estimated time of death was 36 hours before the postmortem. This would place Muzoora’s death on May 26.
The source further claimed that Muzoora’s internal organs were burnt by electric current and he was hit by a blunt object on the forehead.
The security source added that Muzoora’s toe had been cut off and his eyes plucked out by his killers, but these claims were refuted by the widow, Vasta Muzoora who told The Independent that her husband’s body was intact and had both eyes. In absence of the postmortem, the claims of electrocution and forehead injury by a blunt object could not be confirmed. But also in the medical profession it’s normal to use electricity in preserving a dead body by drying its internal organs to stop decomposition.
Given that his body looked fresh and intact and he is estimated to have died one and a half days before the postmortem, it suggests Muzoora did not die very far from his home district. He either died in Uganda or in a neighbouring country near the Uganda border.
Conspiracy theories about his death
The first conspiracy theory was that the Ugandan government killed Muzoora and decided to dump his body at his home just out of mockery and show of might. This theory claims some top individuals within the security circles lured Muzoora from exile with a false presidential amnesty. According to this theory, his persuaders secured for him a passport under false names on which he travelled to Uganda. That upon entering the country, the state agents took him to a safe house (a reference to an illegal secret detention chamber) and told him that he would only be granted amnesty if he accepted to pin FDC party president Dr Kizza Besigye in treason charges the state was preparing against him. That when Muzoora refused, they started torturing him until he died. This theory spread on the Internet like wild fire in the Harmattan winds. Additions were made to it, that initially Muzoora’s tormentors did not want to kill him; they only wanted to subdue him to testify against Besigye, but he accidentally died during the torture. That they were stuck with his body for about two weeks in Kampala and that’s why it had been preserved as they planned how to dispose of it.
However, this theory does not explain why State operatives would kill Muzoora and then have the courtesy of treating his body and transporting it to his ancestral home for a decent burial yet it would be much easier and safer to just dump it in a forest or lake. This theory raises more questions and doubts than it attempts to answer.
The second theory is that Muzoora was killed by his Rwandan government backers and his fellow dissidents who feared that if he returned to Uganda he would reveal the secrets. However this theory too does not explain why his killers would bother to preserve his body and take all that risk to transport it to his home.
The third theory is that he died of natural causes in the hands of his people who took responsibility to preserve his body and take it to his family. This theory is corroborated by the widow’s version. In absence of the post mortem and on the basis of the widow’s testimony, it appears Muzoora died of a natural cause. This is also reinforced by the security source’ account that the body had been treated with Formalin, a chemical used in embalming dead bodies.
Separate sources who were close to Muzoora in exile also told The Independent that he died of natural causes and it was his people who took the body home. They did not say which people they were. They said people who brought his body wanted to talk to the widow that night. They tried to wake her up but she delayed to come out. In a situation of such security sensitivity, they decided to drive away quickly. The widow confirmed to The Independent that the people who brought the body hooted about five times before they drove away.
Muzoora’s flight to exile
Col. Muzoora fell out with the NRM government and fled the country in January 2003. He had been one of Uganda’s most accomplished commanders. He commanded many counterinsurgency operations in Teso and northern Uganda in the early years of the NRM. He was later deployed in Kisangani, in eastern DR Congo during Uganda’s military venture in DRC between 1998 and 2002. He later fell out with the late Maj. Gen. James Kazini, the then Uganda’s overall commander of Uganda’s military operations in DR Congo. Muzoora fled the country and joined Col. Samson Mande and Lt. Col. Anthony Kyakabale, other Ugandans dissidents in Rwanda who declared an armed struggle against President Museveni’s government. They were later said to have formed People’s Redemption Army (PRA), a shadowy rebel group which government said had bases in eastern Congo and claimed Besigye was its political head. Uganda accused the Rwandan government of supporting and giving sanctuary to the PRA, a claim both Besigye and 
Kigali denied. In 2004 there was a near diplomatic fallout between Uganda and Rwanda over the accusations and the two governments agreed that Mande, Kyakabale and Muzoora be relocated outside Rwanda. By the time of death, Muzoora had not returned home since he left Uganda in 2003. However he kept contact with his family at home. His wife said he used to call her from an undisclosed telephone number and would not reveal his location.
Attempts to lure Muzoora back
In or about 2005, one of President Museveni’s close associates who had made contact with Muzoora in South Africa, attempted to broker a reconciliation between him and the president. Museveni had intimated to his associate (names withheld) that Muzoora was good commander who had been misled and that he would want him to return. The associate asked Museveni to give him a nod to talk to Muzoora. The associate told The Independent that upon introducing the President’s offer to him by telephone, Muzoora said he would think about it. However during the subsequent contacts, Muzoora became suspicious and later cut off communication with Museveni’s associate. At that time, Besigye was also still in exile in South Africa. The associate tried to broaden the deal to include Besigye. Museveni accepted. The associate contacted Besigye about a negotiated return. Besigye said his return would only be based on political reforms in the Reform Charter his organisation had made after the 2001 disputed elections. Besigye further told the peace broker that he did not need to be in Uganda for those political reforms to be discussed and said Museveni should enter talks with the opposition. When the deal seemed progressing, Museveni drafted his brother Gen. Salim Saleh into it. Saleh instead started offering Besigye financial favours, which the latter flatly rejected. When Museveni’s associate contacted Besigye again over the matter, Besigye told him the talks had shifted from national issues to bribery and manipulation and he would therefore not be party to them. The process stagnated, the talks hit a wall and fell apart.
Early this year, Minister of State for Health Richard Nduhura, who is also the area MP, contacted Muzoora’s wife. He told her he had talked to Museveni and he had accepted Muzoora’s return. Nduhura wanted the wife to talk to Muzoora about it.
Later when Muzoora called his wife in one of their routine communications, she briefed him about Nduhura’s suggestion and the President’s position. Muzoora did not reject nor accept the offer but said he would think about it and give her an answer. The widow told The Independent Muzoora had not given her an answer by the time of his death.
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