[h=3]Ugandan Bush War[/h] Main article:
Ugandan Bush War
Kagame served under
Yoweri Museveni in the Ugandan Bush War and later in the Ugandan national army
In 1978, Fred Rwigyema returned to western Uganda and reunited with Kagame.[SUP]
[18][/SUP] During his absence, Rwigyema had joined the rebel army of Yoweri Museveni, which was based in
Tanzania and aimed to overthrow the government of
Idi Amin.[SUP]
[18][/SUP] Rwigyema then returned to Tanzania and fought in
the 1979 war in which Museveni's army, allied with the Tanzanian army and other Ugandan exiles, defeated Amin.[SUP]
[19][/SUP] Following Amin's defeat, and inspired by Rwigyema, Kagame and other Rwandan refugees pledged allegiance to Museveni, who was a cabinet member in the transition government.[SUP]
[20][/SUP] Kagame travelled to Tanzania where the Tanzanian government, which sought to protect the new Ugandan regime, trained him in
espionage.[SUP]
[21][/SUP]
In late 1980
a general election was held in Uganda, which was won by former incumbent
Milton Obote. Museveni disputed the result, and he and his followers withdrew from the new government in protest. In 1981, Museveni formed the rebel
National Resistance Army (NRA); Kagame and Rwigyema joined as founding soldiers, along with thirty eight Ugandans.[SUP]
[22][/SUP][SUP]
[23][/SUP] The army's goal was to overthrow Obote's government, in what became known as the
Ugandan Bush War.[SUP]
[23][/SUP][SUP]
[24][/SUP] Kagame and Rwigyema joined the NRA primarily to ease conditions for Rwandan refugees persecuted by Obote. However, they also had a long term goal of returning with other Tutsi refugees to Rwanda; military experience would enable them to potentially fight the Hutu-dominated Rwandan army.[SUP]
[25][/SUP] In the NRA, Kagame specialised in intelligence gathering and he rose to a position close to Museveni.[SUP]
[26][/SUP] The NRA, based in the
Luwero Triangle, fought the Ugandan army for the next five years and continued the war despite Obote's deposition in
a 1985 coup d'état and subsequent
peace talks.[SUP]
[27][/SUP] In 1986, the NRA captured Kampala with a force of 14,000 soldiers, including 500 Rwandans, and formed a new government.[SUP]
[28][/SUP]
After Museveni's inauguration as president, he appointed Kagame and Rwigyema as senior officers in the new Ugandan army; Kagame was the head of military intelligence.[SUP]
[29][/SUP][SUP]
[30][/SUP] As well as fulfilling their army duties, Kagame and Rwigyema began building a covert network of Rwandan Tutsi refugees within the army's ranks, intended as the nucleus for a putative attack on Rwanda.[SUP]
[31][/SUP] In 1989 Rwanda's President
Habyarimana and many Ugandans in the army began to criticise Museveni over his appointment of Rwandan refugees to senior positions,[SUP]
[32][/SUP] which led him to demote Kagame and Rwigyema.[SUP]
[33][/SUP] They remained de facto senior officers, but the change caused them to accelerate their plans to invade Rwanda.[SUP]
[34][/SUP] They joined an organisation called the
Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a refugee association which had been operating under various names since 1979.[SUP]
[35][/SUP] Rwigyema became the RPF leader shortly after joining and, while still working for the Ugandan army, he and Kagame finalised their invasion plans.[SUP]
[36][/SUP]