Family of Zanzibar revolution leader Field Marshal John Okello seeks his body’s return, support 

Moses Onyok, son and head of the family of the late Field Marshal John Gideon Okello, has appealed to the governments of Uganda and Tanzania to help recover his father’s remains and give him a heroic burial.

Onyok, in his letters dated 13 November 2026, and addressed to Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and the media, said the family is still seeking dignity for Okello.

Their father led the Zanzibar Revolution on 12 January 1964, overthrowing the Sultan and ending Arab slavery in Zanzibar.

Okello was born in Okut village, Alebtong district, Uganda, in 1937.

Also read: Notable Lango who died in 2024

He returned to Uganda and disappeared on 9 September 1973; his body has never been found, and he has no grave, his son told Presidents Suluhu and Museveni.

Onyok said his mother and Okello’s widow, Imat Erin Akao, waited 50 years to bury her husband but died on 30 January 2024 without doing so.

The family, including eight children, lives in poverty in Alebtong and survives on subsistence farming, as revealed in the letters.

Onyok made three main requests in both letters. One, that both governments work together to find and repatriate his father’s body for a decent, heroic burial in Alebtong.

That Okello be officially recognised as a national hero in both countries, with a monument, school or road named after him in Zanzibar and a medal from the Ugandan government.

And that the governments support Okello’s remaining children now that his widow has died.

Onyok noted that the family first petitioned the Ugandan government in 2019 through Denis Hamson Obua, former MP for Ajuri County, but no action has been taken.

He stressed that he is not asking for riches, but for dignity for his father and mother.

Story by Odongo Morish Michael