Gen David Musuguri is one of the most celebrated soldiers in Tanzania has died
Gen David Musuguri, who commanded the Tanzanian forces during the war against Idi Amin’s Uganda died Tuesday at his home in Mwanza town. He was aged 104.
Nicknamed “General Mutukula” for his execution of the Uganda-Tanzania war, Musuguri was a highly decorated military leader who rose through the ranks to become Tanzania’s chief of defence forces (CDF) between 1980 and 1988. Musuguri’s modest life and legacy have sparked tributes across Tanzania, with many recalling his bravery and service to the nation.

In Uganda, his passing has rekindled memories of the events of 1978 and 1979 when a brutal war Musuguri commanded led to the fall of President Amin and ended what has been described as a ‘brutal regime’. The Ugandan army soldiers invaded Tanzania in August 1978 and occupied Kagera region.
President Julius Nyerere tasked Musuguri, then major general in the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces (TPDF), to drive the Ugandan forces out of Tanzania. Together with Ugandan exiles living in Tanzania, TPDF launched a counterattack, in October 1978, which climaxed with the fall of Kampala in April 1979.

Initially, the conflict was clothed as a defensive mission, an effort to protect Tanzania’s border from Uganda’s incursions across Mutukula into Kagera region. But as the situation escalated, President Nyerere expanded it into a mission to cause regime change in Kampala, saying, “We had no choice but to help our neighbours reclaim peace from tyranny.”

In their book, War in Uganda the Legacy of Idi Amin, journalists Tony Avirgan and Martha Honey who witnessed the conflict as they were embedded with the TPDF, detail the events that followed. As phase two of the offensive began, with TPDF advancing into Masaka and Mbarara, Nyerere made changes in the command structures and appointed Musuguri to lead the 20th Division.
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