Bloodshed for Power: the officer who investigated Amin for murder

What the report says

The Observer reported that a book launch held on October 6 at the Four Points by Sheraton Kampala introduced Bloodshed for Power: The Assassination of Uganda, a collection of memoirs by the late Mohamed Hassan. The event was organized by his son, Mohsin Hassan, and drew several prominent attendees. The book focuses on Hassan’s career as head of Uganda’s Criminal Investigation Department under Milton Obote’s government and on the violent political period that followed independence.

According to the article, one of the central episodes in the memoirs is Hassan’s investigation into the killing of a senior army officer and his wife, a case that implicated Idi Amin before he came to power in 1971. Mohsin Hassan argues that the investigation made his father a target after Amin’s coup, leading to imprisonment, torture and eventual death. The book also describes wider abuses attributed to Amin’s rule, including murders, disappearances and repression, and names more than 80 people said to have been assassinated during that period.

The Observer also included testimony from Prof Charles Kwesiga, who spoke at the launch about detention and abuse at Mutukula Military detention camp in the early 1970s. His remarks added firsthand context to the book’s broader account of political violence under Amin. The piece frames the publication as both a family remembrance and a historical record of Uganda’s turbulent post-independence years.