Makindye Prison was a

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

government state-run

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

which became notorious for

extrajudicial killing An extrajudicial killing (also known as extrajudicial execution or extralegal killing) is the deliberate killing of a person without the lawful authority granted by a judicial proceeding. It typically refers to government authorities, whethe ...

s and

execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

of government opponents during the time of Ugandan dictator,

Idi Amin Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern w ...

. Makindye Prison started and was built as a normal civilian prison. It was turned into a

military prison A military prison is a prison operated by a military. Military prisons are used variously to house prisoners of war, unlawful combatants, those whose freedom is deemed a national security risk by the military or national authorities, and members ...

in 1971 when

dictator A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a small clique. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to rule the republic in tim ...

came into power. Amin's authorities then started detaining opponents of the government there. John Kakonge, Uganda's former Minister of Agriculture under

Milton Obote Apollo Milton Obote (28 December 1925 – 10 October 2005) was a Ugandan political leader who led Uganda to independence from British colonial rule in 1962. Following the nation's independence, he served as prime minister of Uganda from 1962 to ...

, was taken to Makindye Prison where his skull was crushed by a hammer. Prisoners were told that by doing so, they would be spared. In turn, each prisoner was given a hammer to do as the previous one had done believing the same. A second report stated that prisoners were placed in a line and bludgeoned the person in front while waiting for a blow from behind. * Bob Astles was imprisoned for seventeen weeks in the prison during 1972, transferred to

Luzira Maximum Security Prison Luzira Maximum Security Prison is a maximum security prison for both men and women in Uganda. As at July 2016, it is the only maximum security prison in the country and houses Uganda's death row inmates. Location The prison is in the Luzira nei ...

and released in 1985. * Basil Kiiza Bataringaya was imprisoned here before his execution in 1972. * Benedicto Kiwanuka was a Ugandan lawyer who was mutilated, castrated and finally immolated in the prison in September 1972. The prison is still located in

Makindye Makindye is a hill in Kampala, Uganda's largest city and capital. The name also refers to the neighborhood that sits on that hill. Makindye is also the seat of Makindye Division, one of the five administrative zones of the city of Kampala. Loca ...

, one of the suburbs of

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...

city in Uganda.

References

Prisons in Uganda {{Uganda-struct-stub