The Exile and Death of King Mutesa: Was Sir Edward Mutesa Murdered?

Sir Edward Mutesa II Buganda Kingdom King

Kiyimba Joseph

Kampla, Uganda (RTN)-“How did he die? We believe he was poisoned. And we have reason to think he was poisoned."

“I personally interviewed King Mutesa at his 45th birthday party hours before his death. He was charming, articulate and entirely sober. I have always suspected he was murdered.” Mr. John Simpson a BBC veteran journalist said. 

“The Ugandan government was involved. As long as he lived, he was a big threat to the Ugandan government." Simpson added. 

“We got warning, people used to write and say somebody has been sent, be aware, take care,” one family friend, another Ugandan exile living in London, told the BBC in 2009, four decades after Mutesa’s death.

Educated at Cambridge, Sir Edward Mutesa II was commissioned in the British army and attained a military rank of a Major General in the Grenadier Guards in 1949 before taking on his presidential duties in Uganda.

Following the raid on his palace by Obote on May 24, 1966, Sir Mutesa II sneaked out of Uganda under a pseudonym, arriving in Burundi in July 1966. From there he boarded a cargo plane to Brussels, on its way to Gatwick, UK.

Obote allegedly assassinated Sir Edward Mutesa II by poison. The conduit of poison was a Muganda girl sent by Milton Obote from Najjanankumbi, Kampala; who administered poison to Kabaka Mutesa II as he wined on his 45th birthday on November 21, 1969 in London.

So what killed Sir Edward Mutesa II?

On November 24, 1969, a postmortem was performed on Sir Mutesa’s body by Dr Arthur Gordon a surgeon and a Consultant Forensic Pathologist who conducted the postmortem on behalf of the British government and released the results of Kabaka Mutesa's death on November 28, 1969 “I find that the deceased died on the 21 day of November, 1969 at 28 Orchard House, Rotherhithe, from acute poisoning,” the autopsy report read in part.

On December 3, 1969, Kabaka Mutesa was temporarily buried at Kensal Rise cemetery in London. This was against hope that one day, Milton Obote would cease to be the President of Uganda – and Kabaka Mutesa II would be buried in dignity next to his fore fathers.

On March 31, 1971, as hoped, it happened. Kabaka Mutesa returned, though not alive, as his tormentor Obote was now a fugitive in Tanzania having been toppled by Idi Amin. After four days of national mourning announced by the Amin government, on April 4, 1971, Major General Sir Edward Mutesa II was buried at Kasubi Royal Tombs with full military honours.

The views expressed in this article are solely for the writer not for RTN