Student victim of Amin’s goons
Esther Chesire (left) as a 22-year-old university student when she disappeared. At right is how we think she would have appeared today at 59. ILLUSTRATION BY JOHN NYAGA
What you need to know:
- Born in 1954, Esther disappeared at the age of 22. Soon afterwards, all Kenyan students at Makerere University were recalled to continue their education at the University of Nairobi. Some made their way to other universities out of the country.
A younger sister of politicians Reuben Chesire and Zipporah Kittony, Esther Chesire was a Second Year law student at Makerere University when she disappeared.
She was picked up by Idi Amin’s security agents at Entebbe airport in March 1976. Her whereabouts remain unknown 37 years down the line.
The reasons given for her disappearance are varied, but the oft-repeated story is that it started with the shooting to death on March 5, 1976, of Paul Serwanga, a classmate in the Faculty of Law.
This prompted 4,000 university students to take to the streets in Kampala, calling for Amin’s overthrow.
The street protests grew, with about 30,000 city residents joining in.
The Amin government set up an inquest to investigate the Serwanga killing. It is speculated that Esther could have been a witness in the investigation.
Five days later, she disappeared as she was about to board a plane for Nairobi.
She had been booked on the same flight with her friend and fellow Kenyan, Sally Githere.
Born in 1954, Esther disappeared at the age of 22. Soon afterwards, all Kenyan students at Makerere University were recalled to continue their education at the University of Nairobi. Some made their way to other universities out of the country.
Efforts by the Kenyan government to make the Ugandan authorities to produce Esther were met with cover-ups and flimsy excuses.
One of them was that Esther “never reported back” for studies at the beginning of the semester, yet she had signed her Africa Hall’s registration book at the beginning of the term.
Ms Theresa Nanziri Bukenya, the warden of Africa Hall, was also killed when she reportedly refused to lie at the inquest that Esther had not reported to college.
Eight months pregnant, Theresa was abducted and her body later dumped in the college compound after two days, with her head chopped off.
To date, nobody has openly provided information as to whether Esther knew anything about the shooting of Serwanga or if she could have played a role in the riots that followed.
