Uganda Army dissidents Operation Mafuta Mingi (Kiswahili for: "much cooking oil";[3] alternatively spelled "Mafutamingi")[4] was a coup d'état attempt on 18 June 1977 which aimed at killing Ugandan President Idi Amin and overthrowing his government.

The coup plotters were able to amass a substantial force, and planned to eliminate Amin by first bombing his position using combat aircraft, followed by a ground-based attack.

Much of its leadership was killed or expelled, while members of ethnic and religious groups supportive of Amin were recruited and promoted en masse.

[15] The remaining coup leaders were mostly Uganda Army Air Force (UAAF) officers, including Patrick's brother Captain Wilson "Willy" Kimumwe,[14][16][b] Major Anthony Bazalaki,[16] and Lieutenant Sylvester Mutumba.

[17] The coup plotters were reportedly "sickened by the indiscriminate slaughter" during Amin's rule,[18] and wanted to ultimately restore the parliamentary democracy in Uganda.

Even though the coup plotters were concentrated in the Malire Battalion and the UAAF personnel stationed at the Gulu Airbase,[4] they infiltrated a dozen units of the military overall.

[17] Whereas the Malire Battalion had already supported a previous coup attempt, namely the Arube uprising,[19] the air force was considered loyal, as the President "lavishly pampered" it.

[13] An engineer working at Kampala's telephone exchange ensured that they could safely communicate with each other, and an informer in the SRB kept them up-to-date on Amin's plans.

[17] Other coup plotters believed that the SRB had been informed of their plan by Andrew Mukooza, a UAAF pilot who had been contacted by Bazalaki, but refused to join the operation.

[4][17] Amin then attempted to escape from Entebbe to Kampala in security cars,[20] wearing a bulletproof vest and protected by a large number of guards.

In addition, the President's loyalists intensely searched Baitababiri for suspected dissidents, breaking into houses, harassing the locals, and forcibly disappearing several civilians.

[22] Amin also went into hiding, while the SRB organized a "joy-ride" of a body double through Kampala and Entebbe, hoping to provoke another attack and thus draw out more coup plotters.

[10] The SRB also informed the President that Mukooza had stayed loyal during the coup attempt, whereupon the latter was promoted to lieutenant colonel[21] and commander of the UAAF's MiG-17 squadron in August 1977.

[24][25] On 9 September 1977, twelve Ugandans were publicly shot in front of Kampala's clock tower after being convicted of treason by a military tribunal head by Juma Butabika.

[12] In contrast, the main conspirators of Operation Mafuta Mingi initially remained imprisoned, as Amin did not just want to kill them, but have them publicly confess first.

[15][28][29][g] Infuriated at the jailbreak, Amin removed SRB director Francis Itabuka from his position;[15] his successor, Farouk Minawa, promptly launched new purges and ordered the arrest as well as murder of several people who were suspected of connections to Operation Mafuta Mingi.

Kimumwe became part of the militant anti-Amin opposition in Kenya,[15] and eventually met Yoweri Museveni who invited him to join the Front for National Salvation.

[31] Kimumwe joined the Save Uganda Movement[32] and fought for the anti-Amin rebels during the war, drowning when an insurgent vessel sank on Lake Victoria in December 1978.

[15][33] After Amin's deposition, Mukooza was secretly executed by the new Ugandan government, probably as a result of his alleged role in the failure of Operation Mafuta Mingi.