Idi Amin's Link to Kenyan Minister Bruce McKenzie's Assassination

Former Ugandan President Idi Amin was reported to be behind the assassination of Kenya’s former Minister of Agriculture Bruce Mckenzie.

The dictator used agents to plant explosives inside a plane that Bruce was using which exploded as the aircraft flew above Ngong Hills from Entebbe Uganda.

The bomb was reportedly concealed inside a mounted antelope head or a carved wooden statue of a lion's head that McKenzie had been presented as a gift from Idi Amin just prior to the flight.

It was a retaliation for McKenzie’s role in Operation Entebbe, which was a rescue operation of a 106 Israelis, who had been taken hostage after an Air France plane was hijacked and rerouted to Uganda by terrorists.

The Ugandan government supported the hijackers, and dictator Amin who had been informed of the hijacking from the beginning personally welcomed them.

McKenzie who was also an agent at Israeli spy group Mossad convinced the then President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta to allow Israeli fighter jets to land and refuel at Jomo Kenyatta international airport.

The country also provided a base for Mossad agents to gather intelligence on the Entebbe old terminal prior to the operation.

The planning of the raid took place at two secret meetings held at the then Attorney General Charles Njonjo’s home in Nairobi.

Israeli fighters used a motorcade similar to Idi Amin’s to fool the security in order to enter the airport where the hostages had been holed up.

Israel has a long memory of all those who were involved in assisting us. Minister Bruce McKenzie had to pay the ultimate price with his life, while Attorney General Charles Njonjo is still alive to date,” commented Israeli ambassador to Kenya, Yahel Vilan.

Operation Entebbe, which had the military codename Operation Thunderbolt, is sometimes referred to retroactively as Operation Jonathan in memory of the unit's leader, Yonatan Netanyahu who died during the operation.

  • . . . . .