Deadly Betrayal: Bodyguards Of Rebel Leader Joseph Kony Narrate How Kony Executed His Most Trusted And Loyal Deputy – Eye Witnesses All Slaughtered

In September 2007, Joseph Kony, the elusive leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), retreated deeper into the Garamba forest, as the international community closed in on him.

Two years earlier, the International Criminal Court (ICC) had issued an arrest warrant for Kony and his top commanders, including Vincent Otti, Okot Odhiambo, Raska Lukwiya, and Dominic Ongwen, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. A month later, Otti, Kony’s ruthless deputy, who had orchestrated the 1996 Atiak massacre, was killed.

Kony, increasingly isolated and paranoid, had grown suspicious of the peace talks between the Ugandan government and the LRA, fearing a trap. Kony had earlier on feared that the talks between the Uganda government and LRA at Rikwangba were a bait dangled by the Ugandan government and the international community to draw him closer to the South Sudan border from his hideout and have him encircled by an elite US commando unit.

He gradually ceded power to Otti, who became the public face of the negotiations. Otti regaled officials and journalists with stories of guerrilla warfare, providing updates on the talks and criticizing those who opposed them.The United Nations had set up a tent camp in Rikwangba, a forested outpost, to shelter senior officials, including the chief negotiator, Riek Machar.

At night, bonfires were lit to ward off the cold, and the sounds of howling hyenas echoed through the forest. Kony remained hidden in the depths of Garamba, a sanctuary for wildlife, but kept a watchful eye on Otti.

MISTRUST

Through his loyalist, Bok Abudema, a burly commander with blood-shot eyes, Kony kept a close eye on Otti’s actions from a distance. Mistrust and infighting among negotiators over power and money, as well as orders from London-based advisors to continue fighting, plagued the LRA.

Kony, a warlord notorious for his impulsive rage, had turned Acholi into a gruesome landscape and spread terror across South Sudan, DRC, and the Central African Republic. He tolerated no dissent.Two former bodyguards, who requested anonymity, revealed to Saturday Monitor that suspicion arose from a deal brokered a year before Otti’s death.

The deal involved mercenaries and Sudanese President Omar El-Bashir, who promised weapons to Kony in exchange for ivory tusks from Garamba.One bodyguard, who overheard Kony’s satellite phone conversations, claimed Kony initially considered the ivory tusks-arms swap but declined, citing his spirits’ disapproval due to the potential bloodshed in Uganda.Kony’s elite Control Alter Brigade, which protected him and his family, was divided by suspicion and mistrust, foreshadowing the impending doom that would soon engulf the LRA.

RECONSIDERED

“Both the mercenaries and Sudan wanted to back the LRA with enough weapons and mercenaries so that we could hit Uganda in three days and overthrow it. They also told Kony that the deal would be in exchange for ivory tusks. They also asked him to prepare a first batch of 100 pieces of elephant tusks,” the bodyguard disclosed.

He added: “He summoned his brother Olanya to consult over the plan and Olanya okayed it but the following day he told the mercenaries that he changed his mind.’’

The bodyguard alleges that Omar el-Bashir “personally came to our camp and met Kony. The two, our source adds,  spoke Arabic, and Kony knew bits of Arabic. He offered Kony a fighter jet, which he said would hit Kampala, Entebbe, Gulu, Masindi, and Bombo. Kony rejected the plot, saying people would die and that his spirits had advised against accepting the deal, he recalled. “Because Kony was not interested in the deal, they turned to Kony’s deputy Otti, who had signaled a willingness to the plan, and Otti accepted the deal.’

Otti In The Cross Chairs

Another former captive and Kony’s bodyguard said reports had leaked to Kony the week before another round of peace talks in Rikwangba indicating that Otti alongside his acolytes, was plotting to carry out a palace coup against Kony.

“They [mercenaries] had convinced Otti to engage the other commanders loyal to him so that they would form a force for the mission that would see them kill Kony before returning to Uganda.”

Otti reportedly briefed some of his trusted lieutenants about the plot, but one of them ‘betrayed Otti and tipped Kony about it.’ According to the source, the plot was meant to lure Kony into a dragnet as he walked to the Rikwangba venue for talks, where he would be shot in an ambush staged by Otti and other Putschists.

“Before he could reach the ambush, he learnt about it and never told anybody; he only delegated Bok Abudema and gave him a group of soldiers to represent him in the talks, saying he would return home.”

WALKING INTO DEATH TRAP

“Upon return, out of anger, he then summoned his commanders and told them to go to Rikwangba and arrest Otti and bring him over to him, but his brother Olanya advised him against the plan since Otti would resist and a fight would ensue at the talks, ” the source said.

Olanya advised Kony to summon Otti for a High Command meeting. Otti naively walked into this death trap. The bodyguard says Kony was apoplectic with rage.

“Some of the soldiers who were known to be very loyal to Otti had also been arrested before Otti himself even turned up, with the intent to kill Otti, a few of us guards were already aware, while the rest did not know what was going on,” he said.

The bodyguard, who returned from captivity in 2019 and now lives in Patongo Sub-county, Agago District, says he was on duty as a bodyguard at Kony’s residence on the fateful morning when Otti was killed.

“The first bullet that killed Otti was fired by Kony and he returned to confirm moments later that a PK machine gun that he ordered to be fired at Otti to crash him, had accomplished the mission. Otto Agweng, Kony’s guard, came and shattered his lifeless body using a PK machine gun, Kony also returned to check if indeed Otti was dead, ”  the source said.

Agweng was later executed in 2013 by Kony for defying the orders of his boss when he raped an abducted girl.Barely after Otti was killed, his brigade was dissolved for fears that his close aides could avenge his death.He dissolved the brigade and re-assigned the soldiers to random units and commanders.

Among the other commanders arrested and who were supposed to be killed alongside Otti, according to the ex-bodyguard were Thomas Kwoyelo, Otim commander, and Adjumani Ayimaga, among others. He, however, spared their lives after he received spiritual guidance.

Kwoyelo Corroboration

Thomas Kwoyelo’s testimony during his trial at the International Crimes Division of the High Court in Gulu, in April 2024, matches the accounts of two former LRA bodyguards. Kwoyelo faces 78 charges, including murder, pillage, and torture.The bodyguards revealed that Kony ordered the arrest and disarmament of Otti’s unit, including Otim Records and Ben Achellam, upon their return from peace talks.

Kwoyelo was in Kony’s camp when Otti’s group was arrested and detained for two days before being killed.Kwoyelo told the court that he heard machine gun fire on the morning of the executions and later learned that Otti and his colleagues had been shot in a firing squad.Kony accused Kwoyelo and other officers, including Otti, of plotting to defect to the government.

However, Kony claimed that spirits intervened, sparing Kwoyelo’s life.According to Kwoyelo, Kony said the holy spirit reported that he was innocent and that killing him would lead to Kony’s own demise. Another spirit, Mama Celini, told Kony that Kwoyelo was being framed.Kwoyelo recalled that a Congolese spirit, ‘who are you’, warned Kony about the catastrophic consequences of killing him. Kony’s decision to spare Kwoyelo’s life was reportedly influenced by these spiritual interventions.

The testimony and accounts provide a glimpse into the inner workings of the LRA and Kony’s reliance on spiritual guidance, which ultimately decided the fate of his loyal commanders.

PEACE TALKS

After Otti’s death, Kony returned to Rikwangba, where suspicion and tension grew among negotiators. Yusuf Adek, a former advisor to Kony and chief of the Pageya clan, revealed that rumors of Otti’s death spread during the talks.Adek received a satellite phone call from Kony, who claimed Otti was ill with cholera. However, Adek became suspicious when he saw Otti’s tracksuit on commander Abudema Bok.

During the talks, the soldiers’ mood was somber, and they didn’t welcome Adek warmly as before. He confronted Kony about the rumors, and Kony revealed that Otti had plotted with seven commanders to kill him.

“Kony did not want to disclose that he had killed Otti claiming that he had been isolated with a contagious illness suspected to be Cholera. I was called on a satellite phone, I thought it was Otti because that number was always for Otti, but Kony appeared on it talking to me, this made me suspicious as to why he was using Otti’s phone,”  Mr Adek revealed.

“Kony then told me that Otti, who was ailing with cholera, was getting better. I became curious when I saw a tracksuit that we bought from Nairobi for Otti, it was with Abudema Bok, one of the commanders, whom I saw wearing it…then [it] came to my mind that there was something wrong. During the talks right from the first detachment, the soldiers’ mood was sombre; they did not welcome us warmly as before,” he said.

Six commanders were arrested, but Opio Makasi escaped. Adek realized something was amiss and suspected Kony’s involvement in Otti’s death. Kony’s use of Otti’s phone and the suspicious behavior of his soldiers confirmed Adek’s fears. The once-loyal commanders were now at odds, and the peace talks were on the brink of collapse.Later during the talks, Mr Adek confronted Kony about the rumour that Otti was dead.

“We later learnt that Otti had plotted, with seven other commanders, to kill Kony, and they arrested six; it was only Opio Makasi who escaped and evaded arrest,” he said.

The revelation of Otti’s plot and subsequent death marked the beginning of the end for the LRA’s top leadership, as Kony’s paranoia and suspicion consumed the rebel group.

Eye-witnesses feared dead

In November 2023, the Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (ICC) terminated proceedings against the alleged former vice chairman and second-in-command of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), Vincent Otti. The chamber reached the decision following the prosecution’s “third request to terminate proceedings against Vincent Otti” in which it explained that “all available evidence indicates that Otti was killed in a remote area of DRC in October 2007.”

In a statement, the ICC said the prosecution appended two witness statements and explained that the only-eye witness to Otti’s killing must also be assumed dead and indicated that further investigative steps are unlikely to result in any additional proof of Otti’s death. In its decision, the Chamber found that the only reasonable conclusion is that Mr Otti is no longer alive and that the ICC could not exercise jurisdiction over a deceased person.

“The death of the suspect is therefore required to terminate the proceedings against Otti, further to which all relevant documents, including any warrants of arrest, are rendered without effect,” the statement said.

Otti, faced 11 counts of crimes against humanity (murder, sexual enslavement, inhumane acts of inflicting serious bodily injury and suffering) and 21 counts of war crimes (rape, intentionally directing an attack against a civilian population, forced enlistment of children, cruel treatment of civilians, pillaging, and murder) allegedly committed in northern Uganda after July 1, 2002.

Source; Daily Monitor