Description
Mathew Rukikaire has seen it all. Born into an aristocratic family and educated in the best institutions that the colonial era could offer locally and abroad, Rukikaire has either made or participated in history-making. Therefore, when he records his life’s events in a book, political and history buffs may want to get his account of events.
One of the major events of Uganda’s history was him playing host to the start of a liberation war of 1981-86 and the formation of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) which has become one of the most influential political organisations in Uganda. The events happened in his homes in Kampala and Nairobi respectively.
Rukikaire has had a front row seat at many critical junctures in Uganda’s history. He witnessed how power was structured as a child, with a warrior grandfather during the time of the Nkore kingdom and an uncle who was a colonial era county chief in the 1950s. His book `70 Years A Witness’ is a narrative by the 81-year-old Rukikaire on how he saw events before and after independence, his two periods in exile, his role in liberating Uganda from what he terms bad leadership and the promise of the NRM under President Yoweri Museveni and how it lost the plot.