Idi Amin - Family and Associates

Family and Associates

A polygamist, Idi Amin married at least five women, three of whom he divorced. He married his first and second wives, Malyamu and Kay, in 1966. The next year, he married Nora and then married Nalongo Madina in 1972. On 26 March 1974, he announced on Radio Uganda that he had divorced Malyamu, Nora and Kay. Malyamu was arrested in Tororo on the Kenyan border in April 1974 and accused of attempting to smuggle a bolt of fabric into Kenya. She later moved to London. Kay died on 13 August 1974, reportedly from an attempted surgical abortion performed by her lover Dr. Mbalu Mukasa (who later committed suicide). Her body was found dismembered. In August 1975, during the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit meeting in Kampala, Amin married Sarah Kyolaba. Sarah's boyfriend, whom she had been living with before she met Amin, vanished and was never heard from again. By 1993, Amin was living with the last nine of his children and a single wife, Mama a Chumaru, the mother of the youngest four of his children. His last known child, daughter Iman, was born in 1992. According to The Monitor, Amin married a few months before his death in 2003.

Sources differ widely on the number of children Amin fathered; most say that he had 30 to 45. Until 2003, Taban Amin (born 1955), Idi Amin's eldest son, was the leader of West Nile Bank Front (WNBF), a rebel group opposed to the government of Yoweri Museveni. In 2005, he was offered amnesty by Museveni, and in 2006, he was appointed Deputy Director General of the Internal Security Organisation. Another of Amin's sons, Haji Ali Amin, ran for election as Chairman (i.e. mayor) of Njeru Town Council in 2002 but was not elected. In early 2007, the award-winning film The Last King of Scotland prompted one of his sons, Jaffar Amin (born in 1967), to speak out in his father's defence. Jaffar Amin said he was writing a book to rehabilitate his father's reputation. Jaffar is the tenth of Amin's 40 official children by seven official wives.

On 3 August 2007, Faisal Wangita (born in 1983), one of Amin's sons, was convicted for playing a role in a murder in London. Wangita's mother is Amin's fifth wife, Sarah Kyolaba (born 1955) a former go-go dancer, but known as 'Suicide Sarah', because she was a go-go dancer for the Ugandan Army's Revolutionary Suicide Mechanised Regiment Band.

Among Amin's closest associates was the British-born Bob Astles, who is considered by many to have been a malignant influence and by others as having been a moderating presence. Isaac Malyamungu was an instrumental affiliate and one of the more feared officers in Amin's army.