When did John Kazoora die?
Major (Rtd) John Kazoora, a soldier turned statesman, a revolutionary turned critic, has died today, 20 April 2025 at the age of 67. His death, which occurred on Easter Sunday, was confirmed by family and close associates, sending ripples through Uganda’s political and military communities.
“Betrayed by his leader, now called home by his Creator,” wrote opposition figure Ronald Muhinda, in a poignant farewell shared online. “Kazoora documented his truth. Go well, sleep well.”
A son of western Uganda and a key player in the National Resistance Army’s (NRA) 1981–86 liberation struggle, Kazoora was more than just a veteran of war. He was a man of principle, one who chose to confront power rather than bask in its privileges.
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What did John Kazoora do?
After helping bring President Yoweri Museveni to power through a grueling five-year guerrilla campaign, Kazoora took a different path from many of his former comrades. While others secured positions within the inner circle of power, he grew disillusioned. That disillusionment culminated in his memoir, Betrayed by My Leader, a scathing but introspective account of the revolution’s descent into the very tyranny it once sought to end.
In that book, he bared not just the failings of others, but his own. With the candor of a man carrying the weight of both history and hindsight, he wrote: “We fought for a Uganda where every citizen would be equal before the law. But what we built turned into a pyramid of fear.”
A former director of political affairs in military intelligence, and a parliamentarian for Kashari County under the Movement system, Kazoora was once firmly embedded within the state machinery. Yet, his conscience drew him elsewhere. In the years that followed, he would lend his voice—and his legacy—to Uganda’s opposition movement, standing shoulder to shoulder with Dr. Kizza Besigye, another former NRA insider turned critic.
Their bond was more than political. It was forged in the trenches of war and refined in the fires of resistance. Together, they embodied a rare brand of defiance: the courage to challenge the house they helped build.
Though the cause of his death has not yet been officially disclosed, Kazoora’s departure has left a void in Uganda’s political conscience. He spent his later years warning against the perils of absolute power, of forgetting the ideals of the bush war, and of silencing dissent.
His words—spoken and written—echoed with the pain of a dream deferred. But they also carried hope.
What did John Kazoora believe in?
Kazoora believed that Uganda’s true revolution was not yet over. That it would not come from the barrel of a gun, but from the awakening of civic truth, and the will of an informed people.
He is survived by his family, and by a nation still grappling with the questions he dared to ask: What happens when liberators lose their way? And who will finish the journey they began?
Funeral arrangements are expected to be announced in the coming days.
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