“Assumed Right of Way”

A personal account by Brother Anthony Kyemwa of one of the challenges he had as Headmaster during the Late President Idi Amin’s time.
One morning in the 1970’s, a soldier in Army Uniform came to the Headmaster’s Office at St. Mary’s College. He wanted to force me to bring back a student whom I had sent home indefinitely because of gross misconduct pending the next Board of Governors meeting. He made his way past a number of students waiting at the Headmaster’s Office and closed the door behind him.
He then inquired from me about the boy in question whom he said was at his residence at Entebbe Military Barracks. He wanted him back into the school immediately. I asked if he was the parent or a relative of the boy. He retorted saying that he had come from the Intelligence Military Wing. I told him that he had taken a wrong procedure. He would have to go through his Commander to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence who would, in turn, talk to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, down to the proper officer who would finally contact me about the matter at hand.
He told me that the Intelligence Military men had “right of way” to anyone in the country! He followed his statement by picking up the telephone to speak to his officers. I was quick to ask him whether or not he would foot the bill of the call, because all school expenses had to be accounted for. Without answering my inquiry, he went ahead and pretended to be talking to somebody at the other end. I asked him for his identity card and he handed me one from the pocket of his trousers. I read his name and the number of the card. The moment I started writing down the information, he snatched it away from me. I thought that was a weakness on his part. He told me as he went out that Johnny must be back in school the following day!
I quickly wrote down his name and number of the identity card he had just shown me and called up the officer concerned at the Ministry of Education to inform him about the incident. He blamed me for letting the Military man into my office to which I answered that he had forced himself into my office.
He asked me if I had taken down any information about him and I gave him the above information. I also described his hands, which bore white scars like somebody burnt by fire or acid.
After several weeks, the soldier was brought to my office; his wrists cuffed and between two military men and an officer who had led them. The officer asked the would-be prisoner to repeat what he had ordered me to do about the student I had sent home. The victim did not give any answer; instead he bent his head and looked at the floor. The officer apologized for the intrusion of the soldier in school matters, and the group walked out.