Makindye Prison started and was built as a conventional civilian prison. It was turned into a military prison in 1971 when dictatorIdi Amin came to power. Amin's authorities then started detaining opponents of the government there.
John Kakonge, Uganda's former Minister of Agriculture under Milton Obote, was taken to Makindye Prison where his skull was crushed by a hammer allegedly by other prisoners.[1] According to one version, prisoners were told that by hitting him, they would be saving themselves a similar fate. 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.[2]
