Uganda Elite Continue to Steal from the Sick

[Yoweri Museveni]

After personalising the Army and Police, Museveni moved against the Prison Services. On 13th July 2017, we wrote an article titled; LOOMING CATASTROPHE AS MUSEVENI MOVES TO ‘PRIFESSSIONALIZE’ THE PRISON SERVICES. We highlighted that the regime functionaries will have free access to prisoners for torture and forces disappearance, the well-connected prisoners will be spending nights and weekends at their homes and that the regime will be able to detain people in prison without going through court.

Around mid last month an inmate at Kitgum Prison, Babylon Anywar was sighted riding a police motorcycle Reg. No. UP 4032 belonging to Kitgum Central Police Station. Shortly after, the same inmate was sighted attending an opposition FDC public rally in Kitgum town (seeboth photos).

On 22nd January 2017 we wrote another article titled; WHO WILL STOP THIS CARNAGE IN UGANDA PRISONS? We highlighted the growing trend ofprisoners dying in motor road accidents while being taken to work on private farms for hire. Last month one Prison Warder died on the spot while nine prisoners were seriously injured in Gulu district when a private vehicle they were travelling in plunged into a swamp in Omoro District. They were returning to Gulu from work on a private farm in Anaka. The carnage continues unchecked.

[Yoweri Museveni]

Since 2015 Uganda and Kenya trade relations have been dominated by the ‘sugar politics’. Kenya has persistently suffered a deficit whereby its local sugar production could not meet the demand. Uganda was cleared to export an average of 9,000 metric tonnes of sugar to the Kenyan market.

However, around late 2016 Kenya blocked Uganda’s sugar exports to the Kenyan market accusing it of exploiting regional trade agreements. Kenya claimed that Uganda was simply importing sugar from Brazil and Egypt which is repackaged before being exported to Kenya. Note: Kenya produces more sugar than Uganda but because of poverty, Ugandans consume less sugar than Kenya thus supply in Uganda exceeds local demand. In many Africa governments, affordability of sugar by individual households is a key barometer of an ordinary person’s wellbeing. At the height of the sugar price crisis, a kilo of Sugar in Kenya rose from Ksh. 200 (7,000 Ug shs) to Ksh. 350 (13,000 UG Sh.) and in Uganda it rose from 5,000 to 7,000. This disparity boosted smuggling across the Kenya-Uganda border.

For the last two years now, Uganda has repeatedly and vehemently denied the allegations of sugar repackaging and exporting to Kenya. In July 2017 Museveni ordered leaders of sugar producing districts not to grant any new licences to new sugar factories unless there is sufficient supply of sugarcane. He had earlier decreed that for any new sugar factory to be established anywhere it must be at least 50kms away from an already existing one. This directive was contested by out growers, prompting a bitter row with district leaders. They argued that the directive is unfair as it favours well to do sugar producers and not the ones trying to come in. Museveni is all out to protect the three traditional sugar producers who have sustained his 31 years’ stay in power. He warned that police would step in “to protect the territorial integrity of sugar factories” if his directive is not heeded.

Last week the proprietor of the newly established Atiak Sugar Factory, Amina Hersi Moghe accused the three leading sugar factories of illegal importation of sugar for resale in order to meet the demands. Her revelation corroborates the earlier argument by Kenya that Uganda was repackaging and exporting sugar imported from Brazil and Egypt. The Somali by origin, recently got a 64M shillings bail out from Museveni before he described her as “a gift from God to the people of Amuru”.

Coupled by her high level political, economic and social connections, the assertion is very credible. On the eve of the Kenya general elections, Raila Odinga told NBS Television that Uganda was exporting to Kenya the sugar it smuggles into the country through Somalia. Given the Museveni regime’s historical reputation of involvement in plundering and illicit trade wherever it has military expeditions, Odinga’s assertion could be true. The Old Airport at Entebbe, which is exclusively used by the army, has in the past played a significant role in aiding smuggling. We have heard of commanders selling arms, ammunitions, food and fuel supplies, training for Al-Shabaab etc. and why not smuggling?

[Yoweri Museveni]

amil Mukulu is a Ugandan, Muganda by tribe and a Muslim

Jamil Mukulu is a Ugandan, Muganda by tribe and a Muslim. He came to prominence in the early 1990s when as a member of the Tabliq sect became one of the outspoken Muslims over the role of Museveni in the killing of Muslims in Mbarara in 1979 and Butambala in 1983. In 1991 the Tabliq sect had had a bloody confrontation with Museveni’s security forces commanded by James Kaziini around the Old Kampala Mosque over Muslim leadership wrangles. Jamil Mukulu went into hiding until in 1996 when the ADF rebels struck western Uganda and Jamil Mukulu was alleged to be the leader of the group. With bases in eastern Congo, the ADF managed to survive and in the late 90s, it was about getting accepted in some parts of Bunyoro, Rwenzori and Ankole regions.

The rebel outfit is an alliance of a couple of rebel groups fighting the Museveni dictatorship notably NALU hence tagging it to Islamic fundamentalism is a wrong diagnosis. ADF is alleged to have carried out massacre of innocent civilians in both Congo and Uganda notably the alleged massacre of students of Kichwamba Technical Institute in western Uganda. Recently, it was linked to the spate of assassinations of Muslim Clerics in Uganda in which he is accused with others including the Australian based Cardiologist Dr. Aggrey Kiyingi who is intending to run for the Presidency against Museveni.

Arrest

Uganda had initiated an Interpol arrest warrant for Jamil Mukulu and the USA had placed him on a sanctions list. Around April 2015 Jamil Mukulu was arrested in Tanzania by the Tanzanian authorities on other grounds since it had not identified him as Jamil Mukulu.

Extradition

Extraction is a formal legal process by which persons accused or convicted of crime are surrendered from one state to another for trial or punishment. It takes place in accordance with bilateral treaties or multilateral conventions entered into by sovereign states. It is a form of international cooperation in criminal matters intended to promote cooperation in enforcement of criminal justice. However, any extradition law must contain appropriate safeguards for individuals where they would in the event of extradition suffer manifest injustice and oppression.

Many countries have domestic laws governing matters of extradition. In Uganda, it is the Extradition Act of 1964 that provides for matters of extradition. In Tanzania, there are three pieces of legislation that deal with matters of extradition thus:

– The Extradition Act Cap 368

It applies only where there is extradition agreement with the requesting country. It lists extraditable crimes i.e. Murder and the related offences, injury to person amounting to homicide, abduction, rape and similar offences, narcotics and drugs, damage to property, falsification of currency and similar offences, forgery, misappropriation, fraud, piracy, slave dealing etc. However, it gives exception if the extradition fugitive has committed crimes in Tanzania or is serving a sentence.

The Act strictly prohibits the extradition of political offenders. The request for surrender of the fugitive criminal is made to the Minister by a diplomatic representative or by a Consular officer of the requesting country. The Minister may signify a Magistrate that a request has been made and require him/her to issue a warrant of arrest and detention in respect of the fugitive criminal. However, if the offence is of a political nature the Minister may refuse and in the same regard, the Magistrate must adjourn the case and refer the proceedings to the Minister pending his decision.

– The Fugitive Offenders (Pursuit) Act 57

This Act arises from the East African Community (EAC). The Act enables Police officers of contracting states to pursue within Tanzania fugitive offenders from such countries. In this Act, extraditable crimes are those identified under the Extradition Act Cap 368. The requesting country must have reciprocal provision for it to exercise that right. Under the EAC treaty Article 124 (5), member states agree to enhance cooperation in handling of cross border crime and provision of mutual assistance in criminal matters, including the arrest and extradition of fugitive offenders.

– Mutual Assistance on Criminal Matters Act Cap 254

This Act arises from the Commonwealth member states. It provides for mutual assistance in criminal matters between Tanzania and any Commonwealth member state. There must be an existence of an extradition pact that binds them in the commonwealth family together with an arrest warrant from Interpol or from the requesting country.

In all the Acts, there must be a functional extradition treaty and the fugitive criminal offender is protected from extradition if the offences are of a political nature and not of criminal act. The criminal fugitive suspect has a right of appeal.

Uganda pushes for extradition

During May 2015 Uganda government lodged an extradition request for Jamil Mukulu through the Attorney General of Tanzania. The application seeks to have Jamil Mukulu extradited to Uganda to face charges of murder and aggravated terrorism. Attached to the application were indictment and affidavit of Uganda’s Senior Police Officer SSP Oludu Francis, the Uganda Criminal Procedure Act, a copy of Mukulu’s passport with picture and in names of Thomas Rwanga Musisi, arrest warrant issued by Jinja Magistrate court, Interpol arrest warrant, etc.

The matter is being heard by the Magistrates Court in Dar Er Salaam where the Attorney General of Tanzania is leading the petition. After a short delay for the Commissioner of Prisons to grant permission for Jamil Mukulu’s Lawyers to access him for an interview, his affidavit countering the extradition application is submitted. In his affidavit, among other arguments, he is supposed to argue that he will not get a fair trial in Uganda if extradited.

Uganda’s criminal justice system is incompetent

A recent report by World Justice Project (WJP) ranked Uganda amongst the worst performing countries when it comes to observance and upholding of the rule of law. It is the 95th out of 102 countries; 15th out of the 18 countries sampled in Sub-Saharan Africa and 12th of the 15 low income countries.

Scores and ranking was across eight categories among which is fundamental rights, government powers, regulatory enforcement and government powers. Launching the report, the Founder and CEO of WJP Mr. William Neukon said: “Effective rule of law helps reduce corruption, alleviate poverty, improve public health and education, and protect people from injustices and dangers – large and small.”

The government’s Human Rights Commission recently released its annual report in which the Army and Police were topping the rights violations. Illegal detention, torture, killing and maiming, and forced disappearances are the order of the day in Uganda under Museveni. In particular, illegal arrest and detention of Muslims of the Salaaf Sect to which Jamil Mukulu belongs for alleged links to rebel ADF is a decade old practice.

Victims are moved to various detention places where their families can not locate them. They are sometimes released without charges and Police often denies knowledge of their arrests. During a recent retreat of local government and intelligence officers at Kyankwanzi, Museveni expressed his disappointment with Police’s poor investigation methods accusing them of “not doing enough to interrogate suspects in the murder of Muslim clerics.” It has been widely reported in the local Uganda media houses that Museveni is irking to personally interrogate Jamil Mukulu once he is extradited to Uganda!

Since when did a head of State interrogate suspects or he wants to hold talks with him as earlier advised by Tanzania’s Jakaya Kikwete? Since government has not come out to deny it, it can be taken as the true. A case in point is the recent escape from illegal detention of five victims four of whom were linked to terrorism related charges. They had been held in the notorious Kireka based Special Investigations Unit (SIU) since 2012. The four Ugandan victims had been arrested from the Rwenzori and Bukwo region on suspicion of being linked to rebel ADF.

The fifth victim was a Rwandese senior army officer Brigadier Rutinywa who had been held for over two years without trial on suspicion of having illegally entered the country with the intention of destabilising Rwanda. In spite of the existence of an extradition agreement with Rwanda, the Brigadier was not handed over; leave alone his anti-Rwanda political activities for which he deserves protection.

Brigadier Tomas Kwoyelo

Is a former commander in the LRA rebel group who was captured in 2008. Like others before him who were even more senior, he applied for amnesty under the Amnesty Act. In 2010 the Amnesty Commission forwarded his application to the DPP for consideration. The DPP did not respond but instead charged him with murder. Kwoyelo petitioned the Constitutional Court seeking a declaration that he was being discriminated since his colleagues like Brig Kenneth Banya and others had earlier been granted amnesty.

The Constitutional Court ruled that he had indeed been discriminated contrary to Article 21 of the constitution. The AG appealed to the Supreme Court which in April 2015 ruled that Brig Tomas Kwoyelo should stand trial in the Internal Criminal Division (ICD) of the High Court arguing thus: “it is immaterial that other persons with similar circumstances to the application have been granted amnesty because each case is decided on its own merits.”

James Katabazi Vs Secretary General of EAC and AG of Uganda – 119 (EAC 2007)

The above ground breaking case highlights the sad picture of Uganda’s criminal justice system with regard to political opposition to Museveni’s military dictatorship. Katabazi was arrested in 2004 with others over allegations that they were members of the rebel PRA that had been linked to opposition leader Dr. Besigye. As usual they were detained without trial till 06 November 2006 when the High Court granted them bail but before they could get their freedom the regime unleashed armed commandos who surrounded the High Court, threatened the Judges before re-arresting the suspects and remanding them again.

On 11th November, the same suspects were taken to the Court Martial and charged with terrorism and illegal possession of firearms. The Uganda Law Society petitioned the Constitutional Court seeking a declaration that the act of re-arresting and charging the suspects before the Court Martial was unconstitutional. The court made a ruling in favor of the petitioners but the regime refused to comply thus the detainees petitioned the East African Court of Justice.

The respondents conceded the facts as pleaded by the petitioners but pleaded that the deployment of security at the High Court was meant to prevent them from escaping to resume rebellion and that their re-arrest was for purposes of ensuring that they answer to charges of terrorism and illegal possession of firearms before the court martial. The EAC Secretary General initially claimed ignorance about the incarceration of the claimants but was reminded by the claimants’ Legal team that under Article 71(1) (d) of the EAC treaty one of the functions of the Secretariat of which the SG is the head is to undertake either on his own initiative or otherwise of such investigations, collection of information, or verification of matters relating to any matter affecting the community that appears to it to merit examination.

Court ruled thus: “…. if is immaterial how that information comes to the attention of the Secretary General. As far as we are concerned, it would have sufficed if the complainants had shown that the events in Uganda concerning the claimants were so notorious that the 1st respondent (Secretary General) could not but be aware of them.”

The EAC had not concluded the necessary protocol giving the court jurisdiction to entertain matters of human rights. However, court reflected a bit on the objectives of the EAC as set out in Article 5(1) (2) and (3) on legal and judicial objectives. Article 6(d) rule of law – promotion and protection of human and peoples’ rights in accordance with the provisions of the African Charter on Human and peoples’ rights. Article 7 on rule of law, social justice and the maintenance of universally accepted standards of human rights. The court concluded that it would not assume jurisdiction but would not also abdicate from exercising its jurisdiction of interpretation under Article 27(1).

It ruled thus: “We on our part are alarmed by the line of defense offered on behalf of the government of Uganda which if endorsed by this court would lead to an unacceptable and dangerous precedent, which would undermine the rule of law.”

The petition succeeded but the regime in Uganda refused to comply and continued to hold the victims in illegal detention until some of them died in detention (Kifefe – brother of Dr. Besigye) and others sought Amnesty. Capt. James Katabazi – the lead petitioner died last week in a motor accident.

Conclusion

Jamil Mukulu if it is true that he was the leader of the ADF rebels was pursuing a political goal of dislodging the Museveni dictatorship. Therefore, he can not only be extradited but qualifies for Amnesty under the Amnesty Act like many others who have benefited after committing worst crimes in pursuance of a political goal. If Museveni manages to have Jamil Mukulu extradited from Tanzania by whatever means, it will set a very dangerous precedent for Ugandans who are struggling to free themselves from his 30 years of military dictatorship.

Unfortunately, because of the terror link, Ugandans have shied away from decampaigning the impending extradition of Jamil Mukulu yet they strongly believe he like other Ugandans can not get justice because of his political belief. This is not to tolerate impunity; and there is a high possibility that Jamil Mukulu may have committed the alleged crimes but he remains innocent until proved guilty by a competent and impartial court of law which is not present in Uganda under Museveni.

[Yoweri Museveni]

thousands of Rwandese are illegally residing in Uganda

On the morning of 15th August 2017, a joint army and police security operation blocked vehicles along the Isingiro-Mbarara-Masaka highways in which 95 Rwandese children and adults were netted. By the evening of the same day, all the 95 people had been ferried to the Uganda-Rwanda border post in two hired buses. The press was highly stopped in covering this operation. The army’s 2nd Division Intelligence Officer (I.O), Fred Mushambo said that the arrested lacked ID documents before adding that if they were to conduct a countrywide operation, thousands of Rwandese would be netted. However, other reliable sources indicated that the arrested and deported Rwandese had the required national IDs and entry coupons and that is why they could not be taken to court.

Why were these particular travellers of that day hastily targeted when, as put by the I.O, tens of thousands of Rwandese are illegally residing in Uganda? A look at their physical appearance (pictured) gives the answer. Could the victims have been fleeing gross repression and economic hardships in Rwanda? In some instances, it is a state policy for Rwandese to migrate in order to ease the pressure on limited land and other resources and Uganda has been the top most destination.

On 1st January 2014 Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda under the auspice of their Coalition of the Willing (COWI), entered into a pact that allows free movements of their citizens among their three countries. It allows for the use of their respective National ID documents as travel documents to be presented to an Immigration Officer at the border post who in turn issue a stamped coupon as an entry permit. Statistics show that at it’s inception (January 2014 – June 2015) by using ID/students Cards, 1.311,827 Rwandese travelled to Kenya and Uganda while a total of 256,691 Kenyans and Ugandans travelled to Rwanda during the same period.

Through the 1995 Constitution, Museveni recklessly granted Ugandan citizenship to all Rwandese. In pursuance of this golden opportunity, the Rwanda’s Constitution allowed Dual Citizenship to its people. On 10th April 2016, the then figurehead Minister of Internal Affairs, Rose Akol ordered Rwandese nationals holding Ugandan national IDs to surrender them. She said; “There is still a big number of Rwanda nationals possessing our national IDs; the high number of illegal immigrants has increased pressure on the economy.”

The Immigration Officer at Mirama Hill, Stephen Mutambi also disclosed that some Rwandans are using Uganda IDs to enter the country while others were using illegal routes such as River Kagera. He further said; “Apart from those that possess two IDs and are Ugandans, there are those using illegal routes like R. Kagera, especially when the water levels have reduced.” Why would some one take the trouble to use risky and illegal routes when there are no restrictions at the official entry and exit points??? Why would an immigration officer contend that “…those that possess two IDs and are Ugandans”!!!!! No wonder, the following month Minister Rose Akol was sacked because she had questioned the Rwandese possession of Ugandan IDs.

In January 2017 the police in Kabaale rounded up and deported eight Rwandese sex workers whom they accused of stealing from their clients. Since time in memorial Rwandese sex workers are renown for flocking into Uganda for sex business. It’s not by coincidence that last week it was reported that the police chief, Gen. Kalekyezi had hired sex workers at 200,000 to each of the 200 sex workers in order to boost his spy network.

Early this month 9,674 Rwandese in Uganda cast their vote in Rwanda’s general elections at the Rwandese Embassy in Kampala. Of these, 9,554 (99.08%) voted for Paul Kagame. These voters came from different parts of Uganda. Of course, many more tens of thousands of Rwandese who do not wish to be publicly identify as Rwandese did not show up.

On 4th August 2017 the army under Col. Joseph Balikudembe led an operation in Mubende to violently evict illegal gold miners. The army claimed that the mines had become a hub for illegal immigrants including Rwandese and their genocidal Interahamwe rebel group.

On 10th August 2017 a Rwandese National, Reno Rutagugira resident in Kampala was kidnapped and held by Uganda’s CMI operatives under Capt. Agaba. He is accused of having been a Rwanda government spy in Uganda who has been instrumental in hunting down suspected Rwandan dissidents in Uganda. The Rwanda Embassy has come out to say that the victim had lived in Uganda with his family since 2014 as a businessman and that he was being held by CMI.

Is it the Gen.Tumukunde and Gen. Kalekyezi power struggle at play or a resumption of the Kagame and Kaguta power ego of the Congo War? However, what is clear is that Museveni’s constitutional provision granting citizenship and the COWI free movement of citizens’ pact have come back to haunt him and the country at large.

[Yoweri Museveni]

Yoweri Museveni is a Munyarwanda immigrant

Early this month, Museveni was at a local Anglican Church in Ntungamo where he excitedly claimed to have discovered his baptism records of 3rd August 1947. He remarked thus; “I thank God for the 70 years I have spent baptised because those are many years, and yet I am still strong.” He went ahead to reveal that his date of birth is September 1944 before further revealing that; “I was born at Mbarara Hospital when it was still at the current Municipal Council offices; it had not been shifted to where it is now. When I went back to look for my Birth Certificate, I couldn’t find it there. When I started asking old people they told me I was born in September 1944.”

The above revelation comes at a time when the debate over the lifting of the 75 years, constitutional age limit has gained momentum. As usual, gullible Ugandans jumped into conclusion that he is trying to circumvent that obstacle but forgot that being born in 1944 means that by the time of the next elections in 2021, he would be above 75 years. The big question is; what did he intend to achieve from this discovery?

Ever since he embarked on his Presidential ambitions more than four decades ago, his citizenship has always been under scrutiny. He claims to be a Ugandan of Banyankole tribe and a Muhima by ethnicity. During the 1980 elections, the Bahima in his adopted home of Nyabushozi branded him a Munyarwanda immigrant before totally rejecting him in favour of Sam Kuteesa of the D.P. When Museveni took to the bush for his guerrilla war he accorded preferential treatment to the Banyarwanda refugee fighters – a factor that was later on to breed a lot of friction within the NRA ranks.

Immediately after taking over power in 1986, he enacted an Anti-Sectarian law with the sole aim of deterring whoever would attempt to question the presence and dominance of Banyarwanda in the rank and file of his NRA. Shortly after, he repealed the citizenship law that required proof of ancestry as a qualification for Ugandan citizenship. Previously, one was required to prove that at least one of his/her grandparents had been born in what became Uganda prior to the 20th Century. He instead decreed that all one needed was to prove that he/she had been residing in Uganda for five years. The decree attracted a lot of public outcry that forced him to reverse the law. In 1994 while addressing a public rally in Gulu, students of St. Catherine Girls’ Secondary School publicly called Museveni a Munyarwanda; they shouted “…. look at him, he is a Munyarwanda proper.” Museveni retorted thus; “…these girls are saying I am a proper Munyarwanda. Maybe they bore me and they are in a better position to explain to us.”

In 1995 he succeeded in including the Banyarwanda to the list of indigenous tribes of Uganda making every Munyarwanda on planet earth a Ugandan. He did so in preparation of grounds for the central role the Banyarwanda were to take in his life presidency scheme. In May 1997, the then M.P Makindye, Hon. Nsubuga Nsambu at a public gathering warned Museveni against land grabbing by referring to him as a ‘Mujja na nyina’ (a kid who is already born at the time the mother gets married to another man). He was arrested and detained for two days and later charged with sedition but in September 1997 the charges were withdrawn. This incident marked the phasing out of the common reference to his young brother, Gen. Saleh as “Museveni’s half brother”.

All along, Ugandans have never interrogated as to why for many years Gen. Saleh had been referred to as Museveni’s half brother. The rumour had been rife that the young Museveni had come with his mother before she came to be married to Amos Kaguta who fathered Gen. Saleh. It was until he came to power that Museveni adopted the third name, Kaguta.

In 2009 Museveni amended the Citizenship and Immigration Control Act S.12 to provide for citizenship by birth for anyone born in Uganda whose parents or grandparents is or was a member of the indigenous tribes existing in and residing within the boundaries of Uganda as at the 1st February 1926, Banyarwanda inclusive. The amendment went ahead to grant citizenship to anyone born outside Uganda one of whose parents or grandparents was a citizen of Uganda by birth. S.4 (b) grants citizenship to anyone who has continuously lived in Uganda since 9th December 1962. S.14 (2) (b) grants citizenship to any person who has legally and voluntarily migrated to Uganda and has been residing in Uganda for at least twenty years on top of other requirements like a good command of the English language or ‘a prescribed local language’.

A further amendment under S.14 (1) (a) (ii) sought to eliminate Rwandese Hutu refugees from accessing citizenship thus; “…. every person born in Uganda who at the time of birth neither his/her parents and none of his/her grandparents was a refugee in Uganda.” At the time, Uganda was no longer a host to Banyarwanda Tutsi refugees but only Hutu and the few Tutsi who still come in as refugees are simply forcefully returned to Rwanda to face severe persecution. In the 2013 National Land Policy Museveni strongly condemned those who classify “cross border population movement as refugees or internally displaced people because of shared common heritage and culture.” Since then Rwandese Tutsi have been flocking different parts of Uganda under the guise of being nomadic pastoralist Balalo in a well orchestrated land grabbing scheme under the guise of the search for pasture.

There is growing debate over the immense powers wielded by Banyarwanda under the Museveni regime. The most current debate has been triggered by a revelation over how Museveni failed to attend university at Makerere University. It has been revealed that in the late 1960s Museveni failed to rise the required ten Graduated Tax tickets from his father. The then Central Scholarship Committee had that as a mandatory requirement to prove the applicant’s citizenship, belonging and locality since its only Ugandans who would pay that tax. The then President Obote is said to have attempted to influence the committee in favour of Museveni thus; “…. I want him to join Makerere University because he is one of my UPC Youth Wingers who qualifies but he can not meet the requirement of ten Graduated Tax tickets.” The committee is said to have stood its ground prompting Obote to send Museveni and four other youths to Tanzania’s Nyerere for help in having them study at Dar Es Salaam University.

On 8th November 2002 while addressing a three days’ regional integration symposium in Kampala, Museveni dismissed concerns of a conspiracy by some communities to create or revive a Hima/Tutsi Empire in the region. However, he disclosed that he “had learnt of the alleged conspiracy sometime back when Mwalimu Julius Nyerere when he sent me a message about it. Nyerere said that the conspirators were some communities in Uganda and Rwanda.” Museveni further remarked that; “It is true that there are communities in the region that go by those names or their variations. The Hima in Uganda, the Hema in Congo and the Tutsi in Rwanda.” On 29th January 2012, Museveni and Kagame convened a meeting at State House in Kampala with Banyarwanda in Uganda to iron out their leadership wrangles between Dr. Eric Kamuhangire (Museveni’s Senior Advisor on Culture) and tycoon Donant Kananura.

It is not by coincidence that Museveni has stuck to his guns in continuing to have Gen. Kalekyezi as his defacto Vice President despite his gross failures. In the mid 1950s, Gen. Kalekyezi’s father, John Kale stole 30 guns and hundreds of ammunitions that he intended to use against the government. He was arrested by the colonial authorities and deported to Rwanda. Who is fooling who!

[Yoweri Museveni]

When Museveni took over power in 1986, he inherited a vibrant public service and sound government infrastructure. It’s only the army that he had successfully dismantled. He came into office with a biased mindset that the officials manning the different government structures owed their loyalty to the previous regimes. He was therefore concerned over how to bring into the public service his regime cohorts. To overcome this hurdle, he went ahead to discard some statutory bodies like Lint Marketing Board, Coffee Marketing Board, UEB, URC, NYTIL, National Parks and Game Departments, Customs, Uganda Airlines, etc. and instead created new ones to run parallel to Ministries.

Consequently, over 40 statutory bodies have been created during his 31years’ hold onto power. These agencies and authorities have been attracting huge funding from both the central government and external donors. Museveni has been the sole appointing authority for the top executives of these agencies who in turn have been recruiting and firing staff as opposed to the public service standing orders. Museveni has directly been sending individuals to these agencies to be employed as top and middle cadre staff and that is why they are dominated by people from his home region and a few regime cohorts from other regions. The mode of recruitment has been based on patronage – ‘who knows who.’

Their salaries and emoluments are high above the salary structure of mainstream public servants. The Executive Director of URA’s monthly salary is equivalent to the monthly salary of 12 Doctors in a government hospital while the salary of a driver in URA is equivalent to the monthly salary of three Doctors in a government hospital.

These agencies/authorities have been agents of theft of public money and land grabbing. The people from those tribes who are dominating them have accumulated immense wealth that will sustain them and their generations to come. The recent discovery by Ugandans that Museveni had dished out 6b shillings (US$ 1.7m) to a group of 42 public servants who are also among the best paid in the country, ignited a serious debate on wanton sectarian and patronage driven misuse of tax payers’ money. It brought into question the disparity in remuneration prompting Museveni to order for putting in place a Salary Review Commission. The agencies have always been more funded and facilitated than their mother ministries.

By making a sudden about turn and questioning their relevancy and efficiency, he is attempting to diffuse the rising tempers by pretending to do away with these agencies yet in actual fact he is intending to push his people who have been manning them into mainstream public service through the back door.

Most of these agencies and authorities have been involved in heinous crimes against Ugandans:

· NEMA has presided over destruction of wetlands

· NFA has facilitated the destruction of forests and land grabbing

· NDA is responsible for the lack of drugs in public hospitals

· UWA is reputed for stealing tons of ivory from their custody

· FIA is responsible for the chaos in financial institutions

· UIA is responsible for fake investors who provide the cover for landgrabbing and the list is endless.

It is these atrocities that Museveni is trying to cover up from public scrutiny and possible legal proceedings.

When the opposition leader, Dr. Besigye was rigged out of the February 2016 general elections, he threatened to form a parallelgovernment. He mentioned disbanding and restructuring of these bogus agencies/authorities which to this date remains top on his agenda. Somehow Museveni got to know about it and he is now trying to act smart.

The regime is financially bankrupt and on top of the money generated by the presence of refugees and the Somalia Peace Keeping Mission, it intends to tap into and take direct control of the external funding for some of these agencies.

Otherwise, if Museveni is serious with cutting the cost and ensuring efficiency, he would reduce the size of his over 75 Cabinet Ministers, over 400 Members of Parliament, over 130 District Commissioners, over one hundred useless Presidential Advisors, etc. Not to mention the sacks of millions of tax payers’ money that he dishes out at public functions. It is through the same method of creating parallel units that he has managed to undermine the performance of the armed forces and other security agencies.

Once again, Museveni has duped gullible Ugandans and they preparing to resume their deep slumber. By the time they wake up again, it will be around the next elections season and he will have prepared another doze of anesthesia. Moreover, at the end of the day his strategic agencies/authorities will remain intact.

[Yoweri Museveni]

Museveni and his top NRA officials embarked on land grabbing.

Immediately after taking over power in 1986 Museveni and his top NRA officials embarked on land grabbing. The first casualty was the prime properties in Kampala and other urban areas in the country. Actually, the earliest disagreements amongst themselves arose from the sharing of these properties. After exhausting these properties in urban centres, they embarked on the vast government and privately owned land in the countryside. Initially it was land in the cattle corridor region of Buganda but with the coming on board of infrastructural projects like roads and oil, areas of Bunyoro, West Nile and Acholi have been targeted. In Buganda, it is now very common to find whole parishes renamed according to the new owners i.e. at General, Brigadier, or Colonel so and so’s ranch. In some cases, top regime cohorts use other people as fronts to acquire huge chunks of land.

In April 2005, Museveni put in place a Military Land Board (MLB) and appointed Gen. Joram Mugume Kanyaruhara as its Chairman and deputised by Col. Arthur Musinguzi. This MLB became another tool for land grabbing on top of the Uganda Land Commission (ULC), District Land Boards (DLB), the Aidah Nantaba Land Committee (LC), the Police Land Protection Unit (PLPU), the Gertrude Njuba State House Land Desk (SHLD), and others. The army is one of the entities that hold big chunks of land. Above all, security forces have been at the center of land grabbing and under the cover of establishing security installations, Museveni has been able to grab land.

Earlier in 1990 the Ministry of Defence through the NEC bought a vast ranch from Hajji Sulaiman Kiwanuka of Kabulasoke in Gomba district. Later on, Museveni just turned it into his personal property by renaming it Kisozi Ranch.

During the 1990s his young brother, Gen. Saleh was accused of using his company, Divinity Union to grab 40,000 acres of land for sugarcane growing in Northern Uganda. He had a scheme of leaving people in IDP camps under the pretext of turning them into urban centres so that their land could be easily grabbed. In August 2001, the army brutally evicted people in Mubende to give way to a German investor in coffee on an 11 sq. km of land.

In April 2005 Gen. Jim Owoyesigyre of Air force grabbed 500 acres of land in Marya Sub County, Masindi after evicting 1,200 people. He claimed to have bough it at 30M shillings. During the same month, local residents of Ntooma village in Masindi district pounced on Lt. Geoffrey Taremwa of the then Presidential Guard Unit (PPU), tied him with ropes and beat him up after accusing him of being part of the group of soldiers who were up to grabbing their land.

In August 2006, West Nile district administration accused top army officers of grabbing land under the guise of setting up military camps to flush out alleged rebels. In April 2007 Gen. Oketta’s troops clashed with those of a State House top Aide, Harriet Aber over 3,500 acres of land in Gulu. The two groups of soldiers had been harassing and torturing locals over the disputed land which neither party legally owned.

Earlier in 2006, Harriet Aber had illegally acquired 10,000 acres of land after which she used soldiers to forcefully evict people in 2007. In October 2007 the then CDF, Gen. Aronda ordered officers at Kabamba Barracks to remove their pastoralist friends and relatives whom they had assisted to encroach on the Barracks land. Around the same time, Uganda Land Alliance presented evidence of security officers in the army, ISO and Police siding with the nomadic pastrolists (Balaalo) in grabbing land. This is what later on prompted Museveni to deploy Gen. Ssejusa to diffuse the armed Balaalo issue.

Around 2008, the army in Arua Municipality evicted residents without compensation from land at Angafio a.k.a Israel Quarters. Around August 2008, the then CDF while addressing the National Universities Guilders Presidents Council denied that army officers were involved in land grabbing but promised to arrest any of them who would be implicated. He urged the youth to support the then Land (Amendment) Bill.

In March 2009, the army ordered local residents to vacate their ancestral land at Natalya village in Entebbe. During the same month, Air force personnel demolished a perimeter wall constructed by a private developer near Katabi barracks in Entebbe. The army simply ignored police summons over malicious damage to property.

In August 2009, the Army’s 409 Brigade in West Nile moved to grab a piece of land located between Arua district headquarters and the army barracks. The district council had allocated it to the Ministry of Lands for the construction of the district land office. In August 2009, while addressing a stakeholders meeting at Nebbi, the Security Coordinator for oil exploration region, Col. David Kaboyo disclosed thus; “…..I have reliable information from some sources that some army officers are frequently grabbing people’s land in Amuru which lies in the oil belt.”

In the late 1990s the army took over a 6.3 acre piece of land belonging to Mulago Hospital and used it to house its military intelligence unit (CMI). In 2010 top army Generals sold the same land to property Mongul, Shudir Ruparelia.

In 2011, at Namaswa village, Mubende district, the army violently evicted over 20,000 local residents after burning to death an eight ear child from land the regime claimed to have leased to a foreign company, New Forest for pine and eucalyptus plantation.

In August 2011, Maj. Luciano Baluku Binobino forcefully grabbed Kasese District land near the airfield. In April 2012 ISO’s Maj. Herbert Muramagi deployed truckloads of armed soldiers in Kisukuma Parish, Kigorobya Sub county, Hoima District to evict 80 families of local residents from their 1,205 hectare piece of land. At that time, Maj. Muramagi was the Director of Maritime and was responsible for Security around Lake Albert. Like other top regime cadres, he rushed to acquire land in the oil rich Bunyoro for future prospects.

Around 2012 Gen. Moses Ali used the army backed by police and Game Rangers to violently evict 6,000 local residents from Apaa that had allegedly been leased to a South African investor.

In July 2012, the Army’s Luwero Industries and Nakasongola Complex evicted over 100 local residents of Kasenyi village in Lwampanga Sub-county in Nakasongola district from their 50 acres piece of land.

In August 2012, the army at Ssingo training School moved to expand by forcefully evicting local residents of Kapeeka from 300 acres without compensation. In August 2012, the army violently evicted over 270 families from Bukuya, Mubende district to give way to gold mining, AUC Mining owned by Gertrude Njuba who heads the State House Land Desk as a front for more powerful regime officials.

In September 2012, the army moved to take over 100 acres of land from the Bukalasa Agriculture College in Luwero under the guise of constructing a military national referral. Eastblished in 1922, Bukalasa has been doing research, training and overall development of the Agricultural sector. Unfortunately, even Gen. Katumba Wamala who is a graduate of the same college was behind its land grabbing.

In late 2012, Gen. Tumwine grabbed and fenced off public land in Kyabahura in Kazo which Kiruhura District Council had reserved for developmental projects.

In September 2013, soldiers brutally evicted over 1000 local residents from land at Bunjako village, Buwama sub-county in Mpigi district and in October 2013, Gen. Aronda threatened to revoke the licences of civil society organisations operating in the oil producing areas after accusing them of sabotaging oil drilling. This is because they were enlightening the locals on land rights.

In January 2014 the army’s 5th Division forcefully evicted local residents from land that formerly housed Acholi Pii Refugee camp. In June 2014, Army officers were cited in an attempt to grab a portion of Mulago Hospital land. In July 2015, the then Lands State Minister, Aida Nantaba disclosed that high ranking army officers and regime officials were behind the illegal evictions from land throughout the country. During the same year, part of the 36 Sq Kms Kaweweta army school land (which formerly belonged to East Mengo Growers Cooperative Union) was given out to a Turkish investor. She went further to disclose that the same people were plotting her downfall and indeed Museveni dropped her from cabinet.

Around 2015, a Kampala businessman, Geoffrey Karugira was used by powerful regime cohorts to acquire 420 acres of land before using armed soldiers to violently evict residents from Nabika village in Nakaseke district. In July 2016, the army at Kimaka in Jinja was embroiled in a row with locals over attempts to grab titled land belonging to two 14 year old local schools in the neighborhood, St. Monica Secondary school and Guardian College. In March 2015, Brig. Phenehas Keitirima was embroiled in a property scandal when he attempted to forcefully evict two local residents of Lyantonde Town Council from their property.

Around March 2017, during a consultation meeting at Nakaseke Town Hall, Maj. Kakooza Mutale accused MUSEVENI of backing “powerful in the army and government who are grabbing land from the powerless.” He had been tasked by Museveni to investigate land grabbing in Bakaseke.

In March 2017, Gen. Angina helplessly ordered Capt Bashaija off the 32 hectares of land belonging to NARO in Mbarara. In April 2017, Museveni ordered for the giving out of 50 acres of Mubende army barracks land to a Turkish investor for agro-processing. In May 2017, local residents of Lungula and Got Apwoyo villages in Nwoya District were subjected to harassment and torture by soldiers before being violently evicted from their ancestral land by a State House top Aide, Harriet Aber and Gen. Charles Otema.

In June 2017, a one Milly Namutebi used armed soldiers under the command of Maj. Herbert Kigambwoha to violently evict 3,000 local people from 3 sq kms of land in the 16 villages of Butologo subcounty, Mubende district.

In July 2017, the army connived with private surveyors to cut out 200 acres from the 36 Sq miles of land allocated to Kaweweta barracks by Uganda Land Commission. The cut out piece was shared by army officers and politicians in Nakaseke district. In August 2017 a top army General was accused of grabbing land belonging to Aqua Coolers at Namanve Industrial Park.

The above list is just a tip of the iceberg. Therefore, the army and security forces in general have been and continue to be at the forefront of land grabbing. Both the individual top security chiefs and the regime use the institution of security forces as a means of dispossessing Ugandans of their land.

[Yoweri Museveni]

How Museveni's sectarian diary development scheme is behind the land grabbing

For the last 31 years Uganda’s military dictator has systematically been executing a scheme of deliberately impoverishing Ugandans as a way of subduing them into submission to his life presidency. When he took over power 31 years ago, he found a vibrant farmers’ cooperative movement that had been established in the 1960s by the first UPC government. Due to their highly democratic and locally autonomous nature cooperatives had a strong role in reducing poverty and social exclusion, and promoting rural and national development. Alongside the cooperative societies, there was the Cooperative Bank. When Museveni came to power he moved to destroy whatever had been initiated by the UPC government including the cooperative movement. First, he destroyed the Cooperative Bank as a result of deliberate government interference, inside lending and failure by the central bank in its supervisory role and it died in 1998.

The collapse of the Cooperative Bank meant that cooperative societies could no longer access low cost loans in form of crop finance to continue purchasing maize, coffee, cotton and others from the farmers. Masaka Union has set up a plant to process pineapple juice closed in 1989 before Ministry officials sold off its properties. Busoga Cooperative Union owned commercial and residential properties in Jinja town that were later sold to individuals, a coffee processing plant in Namulesa and a cotton ginnery in Kaliro that were sold to ‘investors’. Its only the silos at Masese that remained. The other cooperative unions like East Mengo, Acholi, Nyakatonzi, UCTU Bunyoro Growers, Banyankole Kweterana Cooperative Unions and their umbrella organization, Uganda Cooperative Alliance suffered the same fate. The farmers were left helpless in bargaining good prices for their produce but were instead left at the mercy of unscrupulous produce buyers. Consequently, the collapse of the rural economy led to increased poverty levels in the countryside that led to rural-urban migration in search of unavailable jobs.

The haphazard privatisation of state owned enterprises that supported production and marketing coupled by the elimination of civil servants who provided extension services resulted in income inequality and an increase in poverty. NYTIL, Lint Marketing Board, Coffee Marketing Board, Uganda Transport Cooperative Alliance, Cooperative Bank, Uganda Commercial Bank, government Stock Farms, and others are such examples. Under the cover of reforming the Agricultural sector, the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) was established by an Act of Parliament in 2001. Over the years, poverty and food insecurity ensued. For the last two decades now, Museveni has been pretending to fight household poverty through a number of fake intervention measures.

First was the Plan for Modernisation of Agriculture (PMA) – a holistic strategic framework for eradicating poverty through a multi-sectoral interventions to enable people improve their livelihoods. It came as a central element of Uganda’s poverty eradication strategy – a key to enabling the rural population to improve their livelihood and ensure food security through changing subsistence agriculture to doing farming as a business. Increasing agricultural output in itself was not be enough but lack of value addition hampered access to regional and international markets. Eventually, NAADS and PMA proved ineffective as unscrupulous middlemen exploited farmers who lost interest in crop husbandry. In 2009 the Minister of Trade announced that is was in the final stages of reviving the Cooperative Bank, purchase tractors and lorries for cooperative union members. Nothing was done and in 2016 the current Minister of Trade while commissioning an 80M shilling office block for Kyankwanzi Saving and Credit Cooperative Society, promised to the Cooperative Bank. She further promised that the government would first pay off the 13b shilling debt it owed to the ten cooperative unions.

As all the above manoeuvres were ongoing, Museveni was busy executing his long-term scheme of economically empowering his preferred pastoralist community at the expense of other Ugandans. He hasrepeatedly stated that since his school days in the late 1960s, he has been struggling for the economic empowerment of ‘his people’ – the pastrolists communities in the cattle corridor region of south western Uganda. He wanted them to acquire land and abandon nomadic way of life. During his Bush War, he evacuated the pastrolists communities from the war zone to safety. In late 1985 when the western region was under the control of his rebel NRA, he sent Kahinda Otafiire to Rwanda to procure animal drugs for the pastrolists communities as if that was the only item that general population lacked. Immediately after taking over power, he gave free land from Lake Mburo National Park and state and private ranches to these pastrolists communities plus cows bought from Tanzania. He established a special fund under State House to cater for he formal education needs of these communities. Over the years, juicy positions in lucrative government departments and agencies were preserved for the dominance of the same ethnic community. Consequently, they came to acquire the financial muscle that has transformed their economic wellbeing. It is against this background that in September 2014, Museveni told women leaders in Mbale that his successful strategy had eradicated poverty in Nyabushozi county and the neighboring areas. Note: This website analysed that assertion in a piece titled; IS
NYABUSHOZI A POVERTY ERADICATION ROLE MODEL?

That economic empowerment led to increased appetite for more land outside Ankole. It has become fashionable for the Ankole pastrolists communities to acquire land in the Buganda areas of Mpigi, Kiboga,Luwero, Nakasongola, Mubende, Kayunga, Mukono, Masaka, Rakai, and Ssembabule. Tooro’s Kyaka and Kyenjojo have also been targeted. In Bunyoro, areas of Buliisa, Masindi and Kiryandongo have been the target. Most recent reports indicate that they have crossed the Nile River to Northern Uganda and West Nile in search of more grazing land. Museveni has systematically made it easier for their spread by fragmentation of the original district units so as to diffuse any form of united resistance to the newcomers. Further, by appointing in advance district heads of departments like RDC, CAO, DISO, DPC, Forestry and Land Officers makes it easy to suppress the indigenous people’s discontent in favour of the newcomers.

Elsewhere, when he took over power in 1986 northern and north eastern Uganda has vast cattle populations. Teso region in particular had an estimated 3M cows and the country’s only meat processing plant with a capacity of 2,000 cows per day. To ensure constant supply the UPC I government had also set up a number of government ranches around Lake Kyoga. Museveni’s NRA depleted the region of its cattle in the late 1980s. The then Brigade Commander, Matayo Kyaligonza would openly load stolen cattle on trailers and ferry them away to his farm in Hoima. The meat processing plant was completely vandalised and looted.

The NRA also failed to stop the Karamojong from rustling cattle to as far as Tororo, Apach and Pakwach thus the regions lost their cattle populations. The two decades of the LRA insurgency also indirectly contributed to depleting the regions of the residual cattle populations. Since the end of the insurgency a decade ago, Museveni has been haphazardly initiating sugar coated restocking programmes. It has become a political slogan whenever there is an election season. The state has lost a lot of money and resources in this direction without tangible results. In some instances, the Ankole cattle supplied to these areas at inflated costs could not cope with the change in climate and were a source of cattle disease.

In 1993 Museveni initiated the Diary Master Plan that culminated into the Diary Industry Act of 1998. Under the Act a Diary DevelopmentAuthority (DDA) was established and operationalized in 2000. With ahead office in Kampala, a regional office in Mbarara and an Analytical Laboratory at UMA Show Ground, DDA’s mission statement goes as follows; “To provide for diary development and regulatory success that will ensure increased production and consumption of milk, sustainable and profitable diary industrial sector that will contribute to development and international standards in Uganda.” It liberalised the diary sector, created a Diary Board and restructured the Diary Corporation into a commercial company. Since then DDA has rolled out programmes aimed at uplifting the standard of diary farming in Ankole.

It has attracted development partners like SNV – Netherland Development organisation which through The Inclusive Diary Enterprise (TIDE) has penetrated farmers’ communities with various innovations and packages designed to improve diary breed and genetic gain. Improved livestock nutrition (pasture and fodder cultivation), water and marketing of safe milk and milk products. It established Practical a € 9.48M Diary Training Farms (PDTF) innovation services to give farmers in S.W Uganda knowledge in diary breedings and genetic gain, pasture and fodder preservation and animal health. TIDE is supposed to run from 2015 – 2019 and is implemented in the districts of Mbarara, Kiruhura, Bushenyi, Shema, Isingiro and Ntungamo.

Funded by the Kingdom of the Netherland, TIDE aims at improving household incomes, house nutrition and creation of job opportunities through a Climate Smart Agricultural approach. It supports individual farmers and cooperatives in acquisition of tractors and tractor implements for pasture cultivation and preservation, fixed and mobile spray races for tick control, milk parlours, dam liners for water production, and fencing. It gives training in cooperative governance, financial management and business and development services.

Under the SNV School Milk Programme, 65,000 pupils from 150 primary schools in that region are taking milk. The programme is implemented in partnership with DDA, Ministries of Education and Health. In December 2016, the Minister of Education, Mrs. Museveni, advised parents in Uganda to buy food flasks for packing hot lunch for school children. She further argued thus; “Someone who has given birth or is still gibing birth and says he can not pack lunch for children is useless.”

During the last election campaigns, Museveni directed the PrimeMinister to ensure that a budgetary provision of 18M for the procurement of handheld hoes for distribution to six million households. A few months later, the same Museveni was handing over brand new tractors to diary farmers in the S.W Uganda districts of Mbarara, Kiruhura, Mitooma, Sheena, Ibanda, Ntungamo, Lyantonde, Isingiro, and Ssembabule. The tractors were to harness production of milk in those so-called Cattle Corridor districts. During the same occasion, Museveni told them thus; “I have given you the tractors free of charge but you must pay something for their maintenance.”

By end of 2016, total investment in milk processing amounted to US $80M (288b Ug shillings). DDA put the value of marked milk at US $ 700M (2.5 trillion shillings) by end of 2016 having increased from US $ 500M at end of 2015 owing to value addition investment in processing. Some 18,506 farmers founded Crane Creameries Cooperative Union (CCCU) targeting collection centres to sell milk collectively to processors in Mbarara and are in the process of setting up their own facility which will have its own brand of product. The following milk processing facilities have been established in the region:

1. Fresh Diary Ltd – 49% shares owned by government. Though based in Kampala, it purchases 560,000 litres per day from the cattle corridor.

2. Pearl Diary Farm Ltd – purchases 500,000 litres of milk daily.

3. Amos Diaries Ltd – owned by Museveni buys 400,000 litres of milk daily. In 2016 it received a financial boost from VOXTRA fund of Norway for powdered products for export to Asian Market.

4. VTD Timosi Diaries Ltd owned by Museveni’s son-in-law, Odrek Rwabwogo – buys 50,000 litres of milk per day. It produces and distributes the Milkman brand introduced in November 2016 using a boost of US $ 13M from the Israel based Vital Capital Fund.

5. JESA Farm Diary Ltd owned by the late Mulwana is found in the central region and utilises 100,000 litres of milk per day.

6. Dembe Distributors for Snowman Ice Cream.

7. Mega Milk

8. Brookside Diary Ug,

These companies buy a total of 1.4 litres of milk daily. 1.4b litres of milk is sold on the local market annually and only 30% is processed. These products are everywhere in supermarkets, retail shops and airlines that leave Uganda. The export market value is expected to increase to US $ 80M from the current $60M – attributed to the youth involvement in commercial diary production. With such huge household incomes coupled by the grabs from the different public offices held by different family members is what prompts Museveni to say that
Nyabushozi is a poverty eradication role model.

In May 2017 Heifer Uganda launched a pilot-testing diary micro-leasing model in Omoro and Gulu districts. Heifer International with funding from Japan International Cooperation Foundation is giving out exotic cattle to the people of northern Uganda. If successful, the program is expected to be extended to other neighboring districts. It aims at transforming the lives of 300 small holder farmers. The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ambassador Julius Onen supported it. Interestingly, the Minister of State for Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Joy Kabatsi vehemently argued that Gulu was not conducive for exotic cattle. She remarked; “This is great news to me, but as a Minister I don’t think that northern Uganda’s weather is good for exotic cows, have you dine enough study to find out where the water is going to come from.” Yet, Dr. Tinny Kidega a Veterinary Doctor and MD of Gulu Uganda Country Diary Farm (GUCD) owns a twenty heifer diary farm (pictured) located 10km north of Gulu town that produces 300 litres of milk daily. It is a model diary farm with a research and training facility. It was voted the best farm in 2015 in a competition sponsored by KLM, Vision Group, Dutch Embassy, and DFCU Bank. During the same year, it received the Platinum National Award for best milk by DDA. Therefore, Minister Kabatsi’s doubts were meant to discourage the people of northern Uganda from venturing into diary farming because that way they would find value in their land hence resist land grabbing.

During the recent state of the nation address, Museveni dwelt a lot on diary farming and declared plans to recapitalize Uganda Development Bank so that such farmers could access loans. He emphasized that in the USA only 2% of the population is involved in farming. This website analyzed that address under the tittle; MUSEVENI’S STATE OF THE CATTLE
ADDRESS.

Therefore, Museveni is bent on promoting the land grabbing by ‘his’ pastoralist communities for the establishment and domination of commercial diary farming. Forget about the cows from NAADS and the long-awaited restocking of West Nile, Teso and northern Uganda. Forget about the revival of Cooperative Unions because those who deserve them, already have them and very soon UDB will be funding them to buy ‘useless’ land from you.

[Yoweri Museveni]

WHEN BRIG. KYABIHENDE’S BROTHER KILLED PRA’S PATRICK MANENERO

Brig. Taban Kyabihende (RIP) who passed away last week had been one of the Bush War fighters who joined in 1981. He had been part of the Museveni FRONASA faction of the post Iddi Amin national army, UNLA. He served under UNLA’s 15th Battalion and was based at Bugolobi flats from where he was an escort to the wife of the late Brig. Oyite Ojok. He joined the Bush War two weeks after the January 6th 1981 attack on Kabamba.

Though he and his group took with them a number of guns that they had stolen from the UNLA, they were initially treated with suspicion owing to the fact that they had earlier made a last hour pull out of the Kabamba Attack Mission. He hailed from Kazo; one of the areas that had unrestricted enlistment into the NRA Bush War.

His elder other two brothers, Happy Kyabihende and Herbert Makanga were also to later join the NRA. While Taban Kyabihende was active in top staff and command positions, his siblings served under specialty units of the NRA. Herbert Makanga served under the Presidential Protection Unit (PPU) where he rose to the rank of Captain and an Aide de Camp (ADC) to MUSEVENI in the early 1990s.
Their elder brother, Happy Kyabihende who served under the former DMI at Basiima House left the army under the Reduction in Force (RIF) in the early 1990s with no rank. He settled at their village home in Kazi before rejoining the intelligence services first as the local GISO and later the DISO of Ibanda District.

Following the Museveni and Gen. Ssejusa fall out in the mid 1990s and the consequential sidelining of Bahima army officers, Taban Kyabihende lost out on command positions. His young brother, then Capt. Herbert Makanga was also relieved of his position as ADC to Museveni. He was instead sent to CMI where he headed the Rwanda Desk codenamed ‘Operation Romeo’ at a time when tensions between Museveni and Kagame were at the climax. Museveni was accusing Kagame of harbouring and aiding the shadowy opposition PRA rebels. Rampant indiscriminate arrests and kidnap of Opposition Reform Agenda supporters saw the arrest of an old man and resident of Kabaale, Mzei Manenero and his son, Patrick Owomugisha Manenero over alleged links with PRA.

On 22nd June 2002 at the former CMI headquarters on Kitante Road, the two victims were interrogated by Capt. Herbert Makanga of the Rwanda Desk. From the adjacent room, Mzei Manenero painfully overheard his
son yelling for mercy from his torturers. In the middle of the night, the yelling was no more but unknown by the father, his son Patrick had been tortured to death. The then CMI boss, Brig. Mayombo promised to investigate the incident before handing over the body to the family members for burial. He also sent a condolence message and one million shillings through the RDC and the area M.P.

Mzei Manenero remained in detention for a couple of months before he was released without charges. According to Brig. Mayombo, three months later on 22nd September 2002, a one Cpl Obiga Mudasiru was arrested and charged with murder of Patrick Manenero before the army Division Court Martial at Mbuya. This soldier is said to have been a guard at CMI when he hit his victim as he allegedly attempted to escape. He went further to state that Cpl. Mudasiru was granted bail on health grounds before he died on 3rd May 2004 at Moto Hospital of natural causes.

With the alleged death of Cpl Mudasiru, then Capt. Makanga got off the hook and was assigned to more sensitive responsibilities including Commanding the 21st Battalion. He is now a Lieutenant Colonel. Interestingly, the Kyabihende’s have had their unique family controversies; initially it was the elder daughter spying for UPC’s NASA which really gave a hard time to the NRA clandestine in Kazo and
Nyabushozi during the Bush War. Then came the marrying of the two sisters by Brig Taban Kyabihende and fathering of forty children but the biggest controversy was the open secret among the Bahima fraternity that the same Brigadier had at one time ‘slept’ with his mother-in-law (akamuzaho).

When Brig. Taban was brought back into active command positions, he used the opportunity to amass wealth through smuggling in eastern Uganda. Following the fleeing of Gen. Ssejusa to London in 2013, Brig. Taban was distanced from command positions by sending him to Congo as a Military Attaché. It was humiliating for a Brigadier to serve under a retired Major James Kinobe as the Ambassador but the humble and soft spoken Brigadier had to swallow his pride and serve his Katebe.
RIP Brig. Taban, RIP Patrick Manenero.

[Yoweri Museveni]

MUSEVEN’S RIGGING MACHINE:

In Uganda, the 31 years old military dictatorship under Museveni changed the constitution to remove the two five years’ term limit to allow Museveni to rule till death. He appoints all the members and staff of the Electoral Commission (EC) and controls its operations. When Ugandans demanded for the independence of the EC, he instead arrogantly added the word Independent to read IEC. He creates geographical electoral constituencies to suit his personal designs. He institutes measures that determine whom he is to compete with. He frames those that he doesn’t approve of with concocted criminal charges as a way of either keeping them out of the race or bogging down their campaign efforts. He compels public servants to campaign for him or else lose their positions. He blackmails voters by telling them how he as the controller of public resources would not extend developmental programs through the representative of their choice unless their choice is his.

During the election campaign period, he creates a war like situation so as to instill fear in the population. He uses the security forces to torment with violence, curtail the freedom of movement, assembly and association of his opponents before, during and after the campaigns. State inspired election violence leaves many with gravious bodily harm, injury, dead, rampantly arrested, detained and kidnapped. It brands the opposition as enemy Terrorists bent on setting the country on fire. It uncontrollably uses public financial and material resources in furtherance of its election campaigns while at the same time suffocating the opposition’s sources of finance and logistics. Museveni publicly threatens to return to war if the opposition is voted into power before declaring that he won’t hand over power if he loses the elections. Regime cadres and security officers prevail over the EC in the conduct of its operations. During the February 2016 elections, the EC Chairman regretted for having allowed Dr. Besigye on the ballot paper.

On election day, the army, police, Prison Warders and other private militias are deployed on every inch of the country in order to instill fear in the population. Through the UCC, Museveni disables communication by blocking social media and even shutting down some radio stations. By the time the final results are announced his main contenders and some of their supporters are either in detention or on the run being hunted by the security machinery over concocted terrorism charges.

[Yoweri Museveni]

The Museveni regime has announced that Al Shabaab militants in Somalia have killed 12 of its soldiers and injured seven others. Unconfirmed reports from other media circles are putting the figure of casualties at a much higher figure. Whatever the case, it is obvious that as usual, the army must have arrived at this figure on account of attempting to downplay the incident.

It is unfortunate that Ugandans have received the sad news with mixed feelings. Instead of uniting in grief, most Ugandans are questioning the purpose of the army’s endless presence in Somalia. It is now 10 years since Museveni sent his army to Somalia allegedly for peace keeping. He has used the Somali mission to blackmail the West over his dictatorship and autocratic reign. President Yoweri Museveni has used the same mission to cater for the poor welfare of his army. He has used the same mission as a foreign exchange earning venture.

Back home, the army is highly privatised and many Ugandans now view it as an arm of the dictatorial regime. It arrests, detains, tortures, maims, kills, Rigs elections, grabs land, persecutes some of its own, and it is run on sectarian and nepotism grounds.

In November 2016 (November 26 and 27) in Kasese, the army killed over one hundred innocent civilians and set the dead bodies on fire. The same army also arrested many others, stripped them naked, tortured, and detained them over 500kms away in Jinja. Amidst the mayhem, Museveni went on an official trip to South Africa. He blocked parliament from inquiring into the matter and promoted the Operation Commander, General Elwelu and assigned him higher responsibility. The matter is now closed but Ugandans are nursing bitterness.

Ugandans don’t have guns to avenge the atrocities netted on them. The killing of some members of the army in Somalia brings about a sense of retribution and justice to the aggrieved Ugandans. This is an unfortunate situation that should be addressed by all those who love Uganda. In the past, http://changeofguards.blogspot.ca

 
has on several occasions highlighted the role of Museveni’s army in Somalia as follows:

1. SOMALIA – PEACE MISSION OR A MUSEVENI ARMY WELFARE SCHEME? 6/11/2014.
https://changeofguards.blogspot.ca/…/somalia-peace-mission-…

 
2. ALSHABAAB ATTACK IS A RESPONSE TO MUSEVENI’S ARROGANCE. 5/9/2015.
https://changeofguards.blogspot.ca/…/al-shabaab-attack-is-r…

 

3.
SGT WANYAMA’S REMAINS WILL NEVER BE FOUND. 7/9/2015
https://changeofguards.blogspot.ca/…/sgt-wanyamas-remains-w…

 
The army has promised to institute an inquiry headed by Brig. Jack Bakasumba. He is from Bundibugyo, started his military career as an instructor, mentored by the Presidential Guard Unit for regime cadreship, is the commandant of the Peace Keeping training centre at Singo and has been implicated in repeatedly abusing his office by taking bribes from soldiers for secondment to peace keeping missions.

With Brig. Bakasumba heading the inquiry, Ugandan should not expect the truth of what transpired in Somalia. What happened to the inquiry into the helicopter crashes where the Air Force chief, Brigadier Moses Rwakitarate was consequently suspended? He is the now the Military Attaché to the European Union in Brussels. Whenever there are such attacks and losses, inquiries are always carried out just for the purposes of processing financial compensation.

The African Union pays US$ 50,000 (180,000,000 Uganda shillings). With the 12 soldiers reportedly killed, the regime is warming up for US$ 600,000 (2,160,000,000 Uganda shillings). On August 5th 2011, 29 years old, Pte Eunuch Robert of UGABAT VIII was killed by All Shabaab insurgents in Somalia when a bullet went through his eye and came out through the neck. A Board of Inquiry was convened on 19th October 2011. It made a finding that Pte Eunuch had not been negligent and it recommended that he should be compensated with the usual US$ 50,000. His family is in the High Court seeking for an order to have the compensation paid.

The most recent attack was on the 7th Battalion which is one of the original battalions that captured Kampala in 1986 under the command of Matayo Kyaligonza. After take over, it was stationed in Jinja. During the 1996 presidential elections, it was based in Mbuya, Kampala under the command of Hudson Mukasa. It was chased out of Kampala on the eve of the polling day after it was discovered that it was sympathetic to DP’s Paulo Ssemogerere. Truckloads of troops left and drove through the city center chanting; “Ssemogerere, gira offuge Uganda, Museveni Tumukooye (Ssemogerere, prepare to rule Uganda, we are tired of Museveni). This particular incident shaped Museveni’s scheme to privatise the army – a move he has successfully achieved. Hudson Mukasa lost out on his military career and has been Uganda’s ‘permanent’ Military Attaché to Burundi.

[Yoweri Museveni]

Maj. Rurangaranga's son manned Museveni's Kololo torture chamber

In the 1950s, a young teacher, Edward Rurangaranga from Bushenyi joined other Ugandans to found the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC). He was later to abandon the teaching profession when the UPC government banned public servants from active politics. Instead he remained in the Ankole District Council where he became the Deputy Speaker and later Speaker until kingdoms were abolished in 1967. He was very instrumental in promoting the health and education services in Bushenyi – an act that saw the elevation of Banyankole Bairu’s social status.

When Obote was overthrown in 1971, Rurangaranga was briefly detained at Makindye Barracks. Upon release, he concentrated on working with Kitagata Bus Service – a local transport company in Ankole. Following the foiled September 1972 armed attack from Tanzania by Ugandans in exile, Rurangaranga was arrested, shot and dumped in River Rwizi. He miraculously survived and was smuggled to Kenya where he spent most of his life in exile.

In 1978, Maj. Rurangaranga joined the Tanzania backed Uganda exiles armed wing, Kikosi Maalum. Upon crossing the Uganda/Tanzania border, Rurangaranga led a campaign in the Ankole region aimed at undermining Museveni’s influence. Rurangaranga accused Museveni of being a Rwandese who was bent on recruiting Rwandese into FRONASA and dissuaded several Banyankole Bairu boys from joining FRONASA. As the administrator for Bushenyi immediately after the fall of Iddi Amin, he was accused of having incited the April, 1979 massacres of Muslims in Ankole.

Rurangaranga accused Museveni who was the then Minister of Defence of having been responsible for the massacres. Rurangaranga went ahead to challenge Museveni to join him in addressing a joint rally in the affected area of Kiziba in Sheena in order for the locals to pinpoint the right culprit.

Under the first post Iddi Amin governments, Edward Rurangaranga was made a Deputy Minister of Local Government. He played a vital role in neutralizing Museveni’s influence in Ankole by pulling quite a good number of Bairu young men from Ankole into the new post Iddi Amin army, UNLA. He played a leading role in the return of Milton Obote from exile in Tanzania before he landed in Bushenyi on 27th May 1980 and this day became a Heroes Day under the 2nd UPC government.
In 1980, Rurangaranga contested for and won the Bushenyi West parliamentary seat on the UPC ticket by defeating UPM’s Kahinda Otafiire.

In 1981 Obote appointed Rurangaranga as the Minister of State in the President’s Office. Dr. Milton Obote also gave Maj. Rurangaranga the military rank of Major and appointed him a member of the Defence Council. Within the ranks of the then Museveni’s rebel NRA, Rurangaranga was the enemy of the people.
Fighters were being indoctrinated with declarations of destroying the likes of Rurangaranga. Intact, Rurangaranga’s name featured in most of the so called NRA ‘patriotic songs’. One of them went as follows; “Rurangaranga eh, tutampiga, amba iyo iyo amba (we shall attack Rurangaranga”).

Following the overthrow of Obote by the army in May 1985, Rurangaranga’s village home was attacked by neighbours and his property was destroyed.

In October 1985, Rurangaranga fled the country only to return in March 1986 after Museveni had taken over government. Rurangaranga was immediately arrested and detained without trial until March 1991 when he was released. Among the concocted charges was that he had masterminded the killing of a one Kaburingo in the early 1980s.

Maj. Rurangaranga’s son, Charles Aine joined the NRA and served under Internal Security Organisation (ISO). Being a University graduate, Charles Aine was automatically made a Lieutenant and for many years served as the DISO of Masaka District.

In March 1998, Charles Aine was transferred from Masaka to ISO headquarters in Kampala to deputise the then Director of Collection, David Kasura Kyomukama. Charles Aine was later seconded to the inter-agency Joint Anti-terrorism Task Force (JATTF) base at Kololo.

Right from its inception, JATTF has kidnapped, tortured, framed, illegally detained, maimed and killed. In July 2011, Charles Aine was appointed the Kampala Metropolitan Regional Internal Security Officer (RISO). He rose to become a Major in the army under ISO and his military service played a major role in mitigating Maj. Rurangaranga’s relationship with the Museveni regime.

In Bushenyi, Maj. Rurangaranga contested for the position of Constituent Assembly delegate but lost to Prof. Eljah Mushemeza. Maj. Rurangaranga later won unopposed the position of Councillor for Kitagata Sub County in the Bushenyi District Council. He became the UPC National Chairman and an influential political figure in Bushenyi and Ankole sub-region. His strong opposition to Museveni was often undermined by his son’s sensitive military service.

However, whenever Maj. Rurangaranga would get a chance, he would pour out his anger. In some of such interviews, he made statements expressing his disgust for Museveni. In one instance, he accused Museveni of “allowing refugees to be saluted by Ugandans under the Uganda flag” adding that “it was a grave mistake any independent state could ever make”. He went ahead to state that the Rwandese were still “so many in the army and regime structures.” He argued that Uganda could not claim sovereignty over security thus; “How could you develop antagonism, to the extent of fighting, with a country like Rwanda when you have their nationals in your security system!!”

Maj. Edward Rurangaranga passed on two days ago and Museveni allowed him to be accorded a State Funeral. Maj. Rurangaranga’s body lying in state in the Parliamentary chambers, Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda described him as a patriotic Ugandan who served his country diligently.

Like many others, Edward Rurangaranga was a nationalist whose political career was destroyed by Museveni. President Yoweri Museveni fabricated a lot of lies about the UPC government and the individual party members to suit his designs of ascending to the presidency for the reasons that even the doubting Thomases have now come to accept.
Had it not been for Maj. Rurangaranga’s son, Maj. Charles Aine, Maj. Rurangaranga would have had a lot of trouble under the Museveni regime and at worst died in detention many years ago. In the same vein, though he had no army number, we are likely to see him being accorded a military burial parade, if Museveni so wishes. This is because there is no law pertaining to national honours, entitlements and emoluments of past fallen leaders.
Maj. Rurangaranga may have been erratic but not as demonic as portrayed by Museveni for selfish gains.

[Yoweri Museveni]

Who is Brig. Octavious Butuuro – the new Uganda UPDF spokesman

Late this week, Museveni promoted Col. Octavious Butuuro to the rank of Brigadier and appointed him as the Managing Director of Luwero Industries Ltd – a subsidiary of the Ministry of Defence’s National Enterprises Corporation (NEC).

Brig. Octavious Butuuro is a Munyankole from Bunyaruguru. He is a young brother to the Chief Justice, Bart Magunda Katureebe, former Bishop of Kasese, Nkaijanabyo, and Journalist Bart Kakooza. Butuuro joined the NRA in the late 1980s under the special recruitment for the Air force. After undergoing basic military training, the entire batch was taken to Nakasongola Air Wing where it was grounded for a long time without any progress towards the Air Force career. A good number of members of this group deserted the force. At the time, the NRA was using the tactic of enticing educated potential recruits with false promises of serving under the Air Force.

It was around 1990 that the then Air Force Intelligence Officer, Richard Nana selected a number of these abandoned soldiers and seconded them to the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) at Basiima House. At DMI, most of these boys who were Banyarwanda were incorporated into the Banyarwanda dominated Counter Intelligence department. Butuuro was seconded to join the Research Desk under the Office of the Director, at the time Lt. Col. Byemaro Mijumbi. The others were now Col. Dan Munyuza who is now with the RPF in Rwanda and Col. Abdu Rugumayo who is still under CMI.

In the early 1990s, then Private Butuuro was seconded for automatic promotion to the rank of Lieutenant under the University graduates scheme. However, his academic papers allegedly written in Latin raised controversy. Efforts were made to have them interpreted by the Vatican Embassy in Kampala. Eventually, Butuuro was promoted to Lieutenant.
With the coming of Henry Tumukunde who renamed DMI as CMI, his scheme to dismantle the old establishment, the Research Desk under DMI was scrapped. The developments came at a time when relations between Museveni and Kagame were very bad. Tumukunde sought to neutralize the Rwandese spy networks by displacing all the senior staff who had served under DMI when it was dominated by Banyarwanda who went to form the RPF. The officers under it (including Butuuro) were dispersed.

The now Capt. Butuuro had a short stint at the IGAD secretariat in Nairobi. His woes were also attributed to the politics of the day then. In 2001, Museveni dropped his elder brother, Bart Katureebe from cabinet. As Attorney General, Katureebe has lost the case in The Hague where Uganda was accused by DRC for among other charges, plunder of natural resources. He went into private practice by starting Kampala Associated Advocates.

Katureebe had also been suspected to have been among the top politicians from Ankole who were opposed to Museveni’s 3rd Term. In April 2009, Brig. Butuuro’s other elder brother and TV Journalist, Bart Kakooza caused a stir when he illegally accessed the highly restricted notorious torture chamber at the infamous Kololo Safe House. In 2002 Butuuro as a member of the probe committee that investigated Maj. Sabiiti Mutengesa’s alleged creation of ghost soldiers, made a minority report that exonerated him to the displeasure of Gen. Kaziini who had been witch-hunting the Major. Later on, Mutengesa fled to exile after Museveni failed to protect him.

In 2005 Museveni appointed Bart Katureebe as a Justice of the Supreme Court. In 2006 Museveni appointed then Lt. Col. Butuuro to the position of Deputy CMI. In 2008 he was replaced by Lt. Col. Dominic Twesigomwe as Deputy CMI. He proceeded to a one year course at the College of International Security in 2009. In 2010 he was awarded the Luwero Triangle Medal though he was never anywhere near the Luwero Bush War. He was promoted to Colonel and posted to Rwanda as the Defence Attaché.

In 2013, Museveni rejected the Judicial Service recommendation of Bart Katureebe as Chief Justice. Museveni was bent on reappointing Benjamin Odoki who had clocked retirement age to continue in the office as Chief Justice. It took the Constitutional Court in 2014 to declare that the reappointment of Odoki was unconstitutional. In 2016 Museveni had no alternative but to appoint Bart Katureebe as the Chief Justice. In 2016, Col. Butuuro was moved from Kigali and posted to Khartoum as the Military Attaché.

Brig. Octavious Butuuro is an officer and a gentleman. That is why despite the long service in intelligence circles, he has never been directly implicated in Human Rights abuses. With minimal military training and exposure to command positions, Luwero industries is the best place for him.

As to Butuuro’s managerial capacity, it doesn’t matter because the so-called arms industries are nothing but a tax payer’s money trap. Amama Mbabazi’s wife made a fortune out of it. However, of recent the industries have switched to production of highly classified war materials with technical expertise and aid from Moscow. Museveni has been stuck with getting a trusted and loyal cadre to entrust with the industries thus why Gen. Mugira has been managing both NEC and Luwero Industries.

Under the circumstances, Octavious Butuuro is the best candidate. His undisputed loyalty arises from the role played by his uncle, the Chief Justice in sustaining the regime. For the doubting Thomases, backing by political leadership plays a big role in the military careers of some officers. Andrew Mwenda’s bootlicking has helped shape Brig. Kayanja Muhanga’s military career. Kasese politics have shaped Gen. Mbadi’s military career. Bank of Uganda Governor, Tumusiime Mutebile has helped shape Brig. Sabiiti Mutebiile’s military career as the army’s chief Engineer.
The need to hoodwink Baganda has worked well for Gen. Katumba Wamala’s military career. The politicians from different regions have more often pleaded for the easing of persecution of certain army officers. The endless list is for another day and a story worth telling.

[Yoweri Museveni]

Those who can and cannot be murdered by the Museveni regime

On 20th July 2017 in Lugusulu, Sembabule district, a one PC Canaan Nkamuhebwa shot dead a one Tumukunde Paul following a simple scuffle. The culprit was attached to Police Presidential Guard Unit under as a guard to Museveni’s relative commonly referred to as Senga wa Museveni (Museveni’s aunt), a one Jovia Kabuganda. The victim was a son of the LC 3 Chairman for Lugusulu Sub county, Fred Karakure. Two days later, on 22nd July 2017, the army court martial convened in Sembabule, tried, convicted and sentenced PC Canaan Nkamuhebwa to death. The army issued a statement to the effect that the punishment is to be carried out shortly after the condemned PC Canaan has exhausted the appeal process.

Two months ago, in May 2017, Museveni attended the wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Kabuganda in Lugusulu where he donated three Friesian cows to the newly wed and ten million shillings to the local church. The other two bodyguards of Senga Wa Museveni have also been found guilty of abetting the murder and sentenced to 15 and forty years respectively. This is madness of the highest level; two days of investigation, trial and sentencing a capital offence!!!!!!!!! The supersonically speedy summary trial also poses the question of whether the convict, PC Canaan Nkamuhebwa is a police officer or a soldier in police uniform and the entire mixing up of security management

It happened during Museveni’s Bush War where a few unfortunate victims were arbitrarily executed by firing squad just to hoodwink the public. Ever since Museveni took over power 31 years ago, his security personnel have committed grave heinous crimes against civilians but no one has ever been put on firing squad. It’s only in March 2002 when an Irish Priest was shot dead in Karamoja and the army executed two Acholi junior soldiers within 24 hours. It later emerged that those soldiers had been sacrificed to cover up for the state sanctioned murder of the Irish Priest because he had highlighted the army atrocities in Karamoja during the brutal disarmament exercise.

In the instant case, the hasty trial and threats of execution is prompted by the fact that the Victim, Paulo Tumukunde was a son of a prominent Muhima who is also an LC 3 Chairman. Further, it’s because the incident involves abuse of power where the so-called Senga Wa Museveni is irregularly accorded a VIIP treatment with a government fleet of cars and bodyguards. But above all, it demonstrates that there are people who are supposed to be murdered and those who should not be murdered. In December 2014, another untouchable prominent Muhima in the neighboring Ntusi Sub county, Emmanuel Kamihingo, the LC 3 Chairman murdered a one Nkatunga.

The police arrested him and took him to court but before he could appear before the Magistrate at Sembabule, armed security operatives forcefully got him from the police custody and drove him away. The DPC claimed to have got a call from the DPP ordering for his release without charges. The Resident State Attorney, Masaka, Baxter Bakibinga who had sanctioned the charges claimed that the file had been prematurely sanctioned before promising to reinstate Kamihingo on the charge sheet after gathering sufficient evidence. That was the end of the story but it later emerged that the powerful, Sam Kuteesa had threatened the law enforcement agencies into letting Kamihingo off the hook.

It is a fact that the Museveni regime security machinery has a licence to maim and kill with impunity. For the past one decade and more so in recent times, killing of innocent Ugandans by security officers has been the order of the day. The perpetrators have maimed and killed with impunity in a wider scheme to spread terror among the population. Where the regime purports to apprehend the culprits just for the sake of public relations, the cases take years and in many instances, are either swept under the carpet or end in favor of the perpetrators.

The most recent examples are as follows:

June 2017 in Mbale a police officer shot and injured three senior two students.

March 2017 in Mityana police shot dead three years old baby.

In July 2017 in Kasese police shot dead a lorry driver.

In June 2017 three top security managers of Ntoroko district, DPC, DISO and Battalion Commander killed two local residents.

In June 2017 in Serere district, Sgt Richard Oring shot dead two people.

In October 2015 in Akokoro, police shot dead three fishermen.

In March 2017 in Soroti, SP Charles Opiko murdered Joseph Ochodu.

In July 2017 in Rakai, police shot and injured a senior two student.

In 2006 in Soroti, PC Francis Odeny shot and killed a senior two student, Francis Asiate.

In April 2011 in Masaka, PC Paulo Mugenyi shot dead two years old Juliana Balwanga. The police chief told mourners that the culprit was to be tried by the military court.

In 2010 in Ntoroko district, CMI’s Allan Kyomya killed a local resident, Babulitega.

In March 2016 in Kiruhura district, PC Sam Babirweki shot dead two people.

In 2011 Cpl Fred Makanya shot dead two people around Kabalagala in Kampala.

In December 2012 CMI’s Alex Kitiyo shot dead PC Chemtai.

In 2009 Army PGB’s Cpl. Mucunguzi shot dead eight people in Kampala.

In December 2012 Army Cpl Rwakihembo shot dead three people and injured others in Kampala. He was sentenced to 95-year imprisonment. On appeal, it was reduced to 30 years. Further appeal before the Court Martial Appeal Court, it was reduced to three years. He is out of jail.

In 2013 Col. Kaye shot dead a one Kabuye.

In 2012 two Local Defence Unit personnel at Lodwa army detach in Karamoja beat to death a 75 years old woman before sexually assaulting her two daughters.The Police December 2012 crime report indicated that security personnel had killed 40 people and attempted to kill 15 others.

In March 2015 Cpl Kennedy Okum shot dead a bar maid over a 1,000 shs note.

In March 2015 Pte Anguilla George shot dead five local residents of Kabong district.

In April 2014 Pte Chris Amanyire shot dead ten people in Karugutu, in Ntoroko district.

In March 2013 Pte Patrick Okot killed ten people and wounded two others and was sentenced to 90 years.

In 2008 Cpl Francis Okello shot dead his girl friend in Karugutu, Ntoroko district. The Court Martial sentenced him to 95 years’ imprisonment in 2010.

In June 1994 the Army ASU’s Richard Komaketch shot dead fourteen people and injured 13 others in Naguru, Kampala.

In December 2014 PC Ogwang shot dead 13 people and wounded 14 others in Kamwenge district.

In March 1998 Police’s Fred Ngobi shot dead seven people including four Chinese.

In October 2006 army Cpl Bono Lino shot dead seven people at an IDP camp in Padyere.

In September 2006 the army’s Pte Andrew Wanyama of 409 Brigade shot dead seven people at a night club in Arua.

In October 2013 a private security guard shot dead eight people at Top Pub in Kampala.

In December 2013 Police’s Patrick Odong shot dead three people at a pub in Kabalagala.

In January 2014 Pte Andrew Shikaya shot dead a tractor driver in Moroto district.

In July 2012 CMI’s Major Joel Babumba murdered Moses Kazungu in Kalungu district.

The above is just a tip of the iceberg but the fact is that Museveni’s security officers have a licence to kill and enjoy state protection in return for keeping the regime in power. Therefore, the hasty mock trial in Sembabule is meant to play on the psychology of Ugandans.

[Yoweri Museveni]

Why the Banyarwanda question and the land issue are inseparable

Between the 16th and 19th Centuries, there existed the state of Mpororo which stretched to parts of the present day Ankole, Kigezi and Rwanda. Its ruling family has close ties with the ruling families of the Tutsi in the ancient kingdom of Rwanda. The collapse of the State of Mpororo gave rise to the Kingdom of Ankole which incorporated some of Mpororo territories.

In the pre-colonial Kingdom of Rwanda, Tutsi occupied a higher strata in the social system while the Hutu occupied a lower strata. The Kingdom was ruled by a Tutsi monarchy and the Tutsi were cattle keepers while the Hutu were cultivators. A Hutu could be assimilated into Tutsi if he accumulated wealth in terms of cattle in a process called Kwihutura and a poor Tutsi could be regarded as a Hutu. By comparison, the Tutsi are the equivalent of Hima in Ankole or Balangira in Buganda while the Hutu are the equivalent of Bairu in Ankole and Bakopi in Buganda.

During the Partition of Africa by colonialists, some Banyarwanda were left out of the original Rwanda empire. Those who remained under the Belgium Congo in areas of Mulenge Hills came to be known as Banyamulenge and those in areas of Rushuru and Misisi came to be known as Banyarushuru and Banyamisisi respectively. Those near the Bufumbira ranges came to be known as Bafumbira when the present-day Kisoro was added to Uganda in 1918. In the early 1920s some Banyarwanda, mainly Hutu and a few Tutsi, escaped Belgian colonial repression and Tutsi enforced labour and fled to Uganda. These were mainly petty Tutsi cattle herders and majority Hutu agriculturalists. The estimated 120,000 migrants settled mainly in the South Western region of Buganda and some parts of Ankole and Kigezi as farm labourers. The 1921 census report identified Banyarwanda as a tribe in Uganda after Kisoro had been added on Uganda in 1918.

In 1926 the Belgian colonialists in Rwanda made some reforms in labour laws where by, subjects were allowed to seek employment abroad. Many Banyarwanda, more especially Hutu who were under the yoke of forcefully working for Tutsi under the Ubuhake arrangement left Rwanda for Tanzania, Uganda, and Congo. The exodus of Banyarwanda continued through the 1930s and 1940s but this time as economic immigrants. They were coming in search of economic survival by way of casual labour and settled in Buganda, Ankole, Busoga, Kigezi, Tooro, and Bunyoro. They worked on fields of agriculture, construction, local government, industries, ginning, cattle herding, forestry, fishing, Kilembe Copper Mines, sugar and cotton plantations in Busoga etc.

Hutus assimilated in Buganda while Tutsi assimilated in Ankole through intermarriage with Hima. They took on local names and clans, spoke the local languages, intermarried and acquired land as tenants (Bakopi). Together with their Burundian cousins, they were actively involved in the Baganda led Bataka Movement that was agitating for land rights. It was a coalition of indigenous Baganda peasants, tenants and labourers (Abapakasi) seeking land rights. In the 1940s, almost 35% of migrants in Buganda were from Burundi and Rwanda.

From the foregoing, it can be authoritatively argued that up to the late 1950s Banyarwanda in Uganda were of two categories. First were the indigenous Banyarwanda who had been made part of Uganda by colonial boundaries demarcations like in the case of those from Kisiro who chose to call themselves Bafumbira. Then there were the migrants who came to look for economic opportunities and mostly settled in Buganda and Ankole.

Between 1952 and 1959, the Belgian colonialists began putting in place political reforms in preparation for relinquishing their hold on Rwanda. The Tutsi formed a Union Nationale Du Rwanda (UNAR) as a pro monarchy movement. The Hutu had earlier formed the Party for the Emancipation of Hutu (PARMHUTU). The reforms by Belgians challenged the status quo of the Tutsi establishment/monarchy. In early November 1959, Tutsi UNAR youth wingers attacked a prominent Hutu Sub Chief, Mbonyiumutwa, but he managed to escape. However, rumours spread that he had been killed. Consequently, Hutu resorted to reprisal attacks against the Tutsi. The violence marked the start of an uprising that has been branded a Hutu Peasant Revolution. It marked the beginning of the end of Tutsi domination and opened a new chapter of Hutu/Tutsi ethnic tensions.

Hundreds of Tutsi were killed, property was destroyed and thousands fled to Congo and Uganda. The Belgians worked with the Tutsi monarchy to take control of the late ugly 1959 situation. Prior to the arrival of Banyarwanda refugees in late 1959, earlier during the same year government conducted a census that revealed that Banyarwanda in Uganda were the sixth largest ethnic group after Baganda, Iteso, Banyankole, Basoga, and Bakiga. This earlier Banyarwanda migrants’ arrival provided a local texture into which the new arrivals, refugees could merge. The demand for labour and the physical appearance had helped intermarriage but the tag of foreigners endured thus they were a prey to political machinations.

In October 2009 during the AU summit on refugees in Kampala, Museveni argued that; ” why don’t we think of refugees outside camps because land will not always be there”.

Earlier before 2009, the Belgians in Rwanda had notified their British counterparts in Uganda about a planned exodus of Tutsi from Rwanda to Uganda. The British colonialists passed Legal Notice No. 311 of 1959 declaring any such people unwelcome and illegal in Uganda. The Governor, Sir Charles Hartwell addressed the LEGCO (Parliament) thus “…there was no political persecution in Rwanda. The Tutsi who are fleeing Rwanda were either misinformed about the situation in Rwanda or were political criminals.” Members of the LEGCO from the areas where the fleeing Tutsi were settling, Ankole and Kigezi, the likes of Hon. Bikangaga, Hon Katiiti and Hon Babiiha supported the protectorate government. However, the LEGCO members from the north and eastern regions like Hon. Milton Obote, Hon. Obwangor, and Hon. Nadiope vehemently opposed the protectorate government.

On 29th February 1960, Dr. Milton Obote moved a motion on the floor of LEGCO calling for the revocation of Tutsi Immigration Rule, thus; “…. the rule of terror was so bad that the people of Rwanda wanted to seek safety somewhere. A number of them wanted to be refugees in Uganda. But I wish the house to know that they did not come as ordinary immigrants. They were running away from acts of violence which were the order of the day in the country. Indeed, these people are kinsmen of the people of Ankole of Uganda and the only thing that anyone of them could do was to go to his fellow brother to seek for his safety. I am pleading for the whole of the Batutsi tribe who came to Uganda to seek for safety. I am pleading for the case of a people who are now being ruled by another race. I am pleading for the principle of offering asylum to those who need it.” Those against, argued that “…….it was impossible to accommodate such a big number of illegal immigrants with their cattle anywhere in the country, especially since western Uganda was already overstocked, overgrazed, lacked water, and the cattle the Tutsi brought with them were diseased and would spread disease in the country.” The motion was defeated.

In 1961 the UN supervised elections in Rwanda were won by the Hutu party, PARPEHUTU. Violent ethnic clashes ensued and more refugees fled to Uganda, Tanzania, Congo and Burundi. Around that time, the British in Uganda were also grappling with political violence and instability in some parts of Buganda, Bukedi, Bugisu, and Tooro. However, Refugee Reception Centres were set up at Kamweezi in Kigezi and Kizinga in Rwampara. Some refugees dodged these reception centres by simply going straight to their relatives who had arrived much earlier and settled in Ankole and Kigezi. In 1960 the Uganda government put in place a law, Control of Alien Refugee Act 1960 which prevented these refugees from accessing citizenship by naturalisation. S.18 stipulated that; “No period spent in Uganda as a refugee shall be deemed to be a qualification for being a resident of Uganda.”

In Rwanda, the Tutsi King, Kigeri was deposed and he fled to Uganda where he was a guest of the Kabaka of Buganda, Muteesa who at that time was the President of Uganda. In July 1961 Tutsi refugees in Uganda under the umbrella organisation, INYENZI attacked Rwanda but were repulsed. They attacked again in May 1962 and were repulsed again. The Uganda government warned the refugees against using Uganda as a base to attack Rwanda. In all the attacks, the Tutsi inside Rwanda were left vulnerable to reprisal attacks and hence more were fleeing. In 1962 the government set up the first refugee camps at Nakivaale in Ankole. The deposed Rwanda King’s loyalists, ABADAHEMUKA linked with the Kabaka’s party, KY (Kabaka Yeka) at a time when there was friction between Buganda and the central government over lost counties.

In March 1963, Prime Minister, Milton Obote warned refugees against incursions into Rwanda thus; “If hospitality is abused, we have no alternative but to withdraw the protection we granted to these people.” In late 1963, the then Minister of Community Development, Kalule Ssetalla told Parliament that thousands of Tutsi refugees had been continuing to pour into Uganda with tens of thousands of their heads of cattle. During the same year, government set up Oruchinga and Ibuga refugee camps in Ankole and Kasese, respectively. The following year, in 1964, four more camps were set up at Kahunge, Rwamwanja and Kyaka in Tooro and Kyangwali in Bunyoro.

With the fall out between the central government and Buganda Kingdom, the UPC government under Prime Minister Obote expelled the Tutsi King Kigeri who relocated to Kenya. The pressure had also come from Hutu refugees for the government to prevail over Tutsi invasion of Rwanda. The law of refugees was also amended to prohibit anyone from keeping refugees without permission from government. Refugees were also required to stay in designated refugee settlements. The Director of Refugees was also given powers to deport any refugee who violated the law and those who did not meet the asylum criteria.

In setting up the camps, the government had anticipated that the refugees would stay for a short time and return to Rwanda. Between 1960 and 1964, half of an estimated 120,000 Tutsi who fled Rwanda came to Uganda. Some 40,000 went to Burundi, 60,000 went to Congo, 35,000 came to Uganda and 15,000 went to Tanzania. By 1967 about 300,000 Tutsi and a few Hutu elites had fled Rwanda. In 1968 Oxfam International appealed to the International community for a special fund to help in the repatriation of Banyarwanda refugees.

The refugees did not show any interest of repatriating and the government got convinced that they were bent on remaining in Uganda. The then Information Minister, Adoko Nekyon, told the OAU summit in Lagos, “……Uganda has no alternative but to send these people away, unless Uganda receives help.” He added that the same refugees were selling off government assistance to buy arms and to raise money for King Kigeri’s upkeep in Kenya.

The hospitality and generosity by locals also ran out due to a number of factors. In Buganda, the peasants called on government to expel Banyarwanda whom they accused of taking their land. In Ankole, the rivalry was based on the ethnic connection between the low caste, Baitu/Hutu and the high caste Hima/Tutsi alliances. The predominantly Catholic DP (Democratic Party) alliance with the predominantly Catholic Banyarwanda refugees against the predominantly Protestant UPC was another factor. The UPC government banned Banyarwanda refugees from having ID cards and taking on government jobs. UPC also planned for a countrywide census of indigenous Banyarwanda but before it could be implemented, Iddi Amin overthrew the UPC government in 1971. The violent political crisis in Rwanda triggered a fresh exodus of Tutsi refugees from Rwanda. Between 500,000 – 600,000 Banyarwanda Tutsi refugees were spread throughout the Great Lakes region but not all of them were registered under the UNHCR. Uganda had only 82,000 registered refugees.

Iddi Amin invited, welcomed, and hosted King Kigeri from Kenya and settled him in Kampala. Banyarwanda refugees were allowed to join the public service, the security forces including the dreaded Public Safety Unit (PSU) and State Research Bureau (SRB) where a number of Banyarwanda was dominant. It is a fact that the Banyarwanda spies under the Iddi Amin regime helped in containing the activities of the anti-Iddi Amin dissidents and in particular the 1972 invasion from Tanzania.

Note: The forward base of the Tanzania based dissidents had been Kagera region which is another Banyarwanda stronghold. The Banyarwanda refugees in the security agencies terrorised and murdered perceived regime opponents. It’s during the Iddi Amin regime that a number of Banyarwanda refugees managed to get out of refugee settlements and acquire land, jobs and business enterprises.

In 1978, Iddi Amin blamed the Banyarwanda refugees for sabotaging government’s political and economic policies. He reverted to the 1971 order by deposed President Obote for all refugees to register with government and to be confined in settlement camps. As had been the case with Obote in 1971, even before Iddi Amin could implement this directive, he was overthrown in April 1979.

Meanwhile, Museveni who had been involved in anti-Amin campaigns had managed to recruit a Munyarwanda refugee, Fred Rwigyema in 1976 from Mbarara High School whom he took to Tanzania as part of his 28 man FRONASA that he claims to have got training in Mozambique. In 1978 when the Tanzanian troops crossed the Uganda/Tanzania border against Iddi Amin, Museveni recruited a number of Banyarwanda refugees from the refugee settlements of Nakivaale and Oruchinga. By the time the war against Iddi Amin ended, Museveni’s FRONASA had a sizeable number of Hima and Banyarwanda refugees.

During the process of reconstructing the new post Iddi Amin Uganda army, it was agreed that Banyarwanda refugees should be eliminated on account of their being non-citizens. Consequently, a number of Banyarwanda refugees including Fred Rwigyema were dropped. Paul Kagame survived because at that time he was attending a military intelligence course. But still a sizeable number of Banyarwanda refugees remained in the UNLA because it was difficult to accurately tell a Munyarwanda Tutsi from a Munyankole Hima. Museveni who was the Minister of Defence retained these rejected Banyarwanda refugee soldiers as his private army.

In 1980, Museveni contested for the presidency in the general elections by founding the Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM). The main contestant, UPC, was warry of Banyarwanda refugees voting for the Catholic dominated DP. In Museveni’s newly found home, Nyabushozi, he was branded a ‘stranger and migrant’ and totally rejected in favor of Sam Kuteesa of DP.

Actually, some Banyankole including ethnic Bahima out rightly branded Museveni a Munyarwanda. After loosing the presidential bid in December 1980, Museveni took to the bush to start a guerrilla war in January 1981. He took with him the Banyarwanda refugee soldiers who had been eliminated from the national army. Museveni’s choice of Luwero triangle as his theatre of war was precipitated by the presence of large numbers of Tutsi Banyarwanda migrants and casual labourers in those vast savanna lands. They were always in land conflict with the Baganda landlords and ranch owners.

Banyarwanda refugee soldiers were among the squad that Museveni used to launch the first attack on Kabamba barracks in February 1981. They took part in the March 6th, 1981 ambush on government troops at Lawanda where over 70 soldiers lost their lives. They took part in the ambush and destruction of a civilian bus on Bombo road in which over 40 innocent civilians were killed. Refugee settlements and other Banyarwanda refugees settled outside the camps became NRA’s main source of recruitment, logistical supply and intelligence.

Note: In July 2016 Museveni visited the family of the late Gregory Karuretwa in Kigali, Rwanda. He described him as “a Bush War hero who had migrated to Uganda in the 1960s and settled in Sembabule as a refugee. He recruited combatants, provided food and finance.” Earlier, this gentleman had been invited to Uganda to be awarded the Nalubaale Medal (pictured). The late Fred Rwigyema’s mother is also staying at the Karuretwa family home.

It became an open secret that Banyarwanda refugees were closely associated with Museveni’s NRA rebels. The UPC members of parliament attempted to move a motion on the floor of parliament on expelling Banyarwanda refugees but it was defeated. Instead, a proposal was floated for refugees scattered in the countryside to move into refugee settlements.

The UNHRC representative in Uganda, Tom Inwin, vehemently protested against the government plans to push refugees into camps. This implied that it was not the UPC as a party that was against Banyarwanda but individual UPC stalwarts mostly from the Ankole sub region. In Ankole the hostility was mainly the outcome of decades of conflict over land, jobs, and social services between the host communities and the refugees. In Buganda, the former Banyarwanda casual labourers who had joined the NRA more often came back to haunt their former masters.

In October 1982, Mbarara District Administration issued a memorandum to government demanding for the eviction of Banyarwanda refugees over their role in the Iddi Amin regime atrocities, failing the 1972 invasion by dissidents from Tanzania, grabbing of land from nationals, voting for UPM in the 1980 elections, and links with the then Museveni’s rebel NRA. The government simply ignored this memorandum.

On 1st October 1982, teams of local UPC officials, Youth Wingers, Police Special Forces, with the blessing of top UPC stalwarts from Ankole like Chris Rwakasisi descended on Banyarwanda homesteads. On October 2nd, columns of Banyarwanda with their herds of cattle were streaming to the refugee camps while others were headed for the border with Rwanda. Roadblocks were erected on the way where refugees lost some of their properties. On the way, local people were stopped from helping the refugees with even drinking water. Those who fled to the camps continued to live in fear.

In Rwanda, the Hutu government responded humanely by providing a fleet of trucks that ferried the evictees into reception centres. The Rwanda government working with CARITAS and OXFAM provided food and temporary shelter. At the request of the UN Secretary General, the UNHCR coordinated emergency programs. The UNHCR in Rwanda appealed for aid and countries overwhelmingly responded. A US$ 400,000 fund was raised for emergency assistance for camps in Rwanda and relocation sites in Uganda. They set up two camps to accommodate an estimated 44,000 evictees who crosses into Rwanda.

Mahango Camp initially housed 13,000 refugees with their 50,000 heads of cattle. Kanyinya camp housed 30,000 agriculturalists. When the cattle started dying due to lack of sufficient pasture and water, the pastrolists left the camp and trekked the 70 kms journey through the Akagera National Park for ten days before settling at the southern end near Lake Nasho. During the trek, they lost one percent of their cattle to disease and lions. The cultivators at Kanyinya camp were moved to a tented camp at Kibondo. Interestingly, some of the Hutu who were sent back to Rwanda had so much integrated into the Ugandan society that they had even forgotten the Kinyarwanda language.

With a population of 5.5M at the time, Rwanda was the most densely populated country in the world. By November 1st it had been overwhelmed by the influx and it closed its border leaving thousands of refugees stuck around the border. This was after the Hutu government in Rwanda gathered intelligence that some members of the dissident Rwandese Alliance for National Unity (RANU) were senior officers in Museveni’s rebel NRA. It suspected systematic infiltration by armed Tutsi dissidents. A few refugees kept moving back and forth across the border at isolated points while coordinating the NRA recruitment drive.

The eviction had taken place when President Obote had been away visiting Italy for medical treatment. The Minister for Refugees Affairs, Hon. Rwanyarare was also away in Geneva attending a refugee conference. Upon return, President Obote issued a statement calling for a “return of law, order and constitutional rights that protected citizens, aliens and refugees alike”. He added that the matter was a local misunderstanding between refugees and indigenous inhabitants in Ankole. A five days later, a ministerial committee meeting was convened in Gabiro Rwanda from 22 – 27 October 1982. They agreed on a plan to resolve the crisis. President Obote appointed a team for a fact-finding tour of south western Uganda.

In Uganda, 35,000 displaced Banyarwanda remained in refugee settlements having joined those who had been living there since the 1960s. A sizeable number had succeeded in sneaking into Tanzania with thousands of their heads of cattle. There were 4,000 people stuck around Mirama Hill border encamped within several hundred yards of the border bridge. In March 1983, a follow-up meeting between Uganda and Rwanda was convened in Kabaale. A joint communiqué was issued committing the two countries to resolve the tragedy.

Uganda committed itself to provide additional land to relieve the overcrowded settlement camps. Indeed, another camp was set up at Nsungyerezi becoming the 8th settlement camp. However, around December 1983 about 19,000 Banyarwanda were forcefully evicted from Rakai district. In July 1984 Uganda and Tanzania signed an agreement to take back 10,000 Banyarwanda Tutsi.

Note: After Museveni took over power in 1986, former Minister Rwakasisi was charged with kidnap with intent to murder – related to Banyarwanda refugees, convicted and sentenced to death in June 1988. As the then Minister for Security, he had spearheaded the Banyarwanda eviction. During sentencing, he made a statement to the effect that he “was grateful that he was to die rather than live under the regime of Museveni.” He had set up a detention and torture chamber at Kamukuzi in Mbarara Municipality where victims were held before being transferred to Nile Mansions and Kireka in Kampala. Apart from Nile Mansions, the Museveni regime is also using the same facilities for the same purpose.

In February 1883 government troops launched a major offensive in the Luwero Triangle dubbed Operation Bonanza commanded by Col. John Ogole with the technical backing of the North Korea military team. Some 18 internally displaced people’s camps (IDP) housing about 20,000 locals mainly Baganda peasants were set up in different places in Luwero Triangle. Relief agencies swung into action around July 1983 to provide relief assistance. The NRA (National Resistance Army) had evacuated Banyarwanda residents to Ankole and other areas with able bodied males enlisting in the NRA ranks. You should note that the skulls on display in Luwero are of Baganda peasants and soldiers but hardly of Balaalo.

The NRA took custody and ate the Balaalo’s 21,000 heads of cattle with promises to compensate them after the war. In Ankole, the so called Balaalo from the Luwero Triangle intermingled with their ethnic Hima. They joined their colleagues in occupying the government ranches and parts of Lake Mburo National Park. In 1933 the area that later evolved into Lake Mburo National Park was declared a Controlled Hunting Area. In 1963 it was elevated to a Game Reserve. In 1983, it was made a national park and the illegal occupants (Balaalo) were evicted. The UPC government fell in 1985 at a time when the Balaalo led NRA rebels were controlling the western region. The Balaalo reoccupied the park after attacking and expelling the park staff, destroying infrastructure and killing wildlife. In 1957, the government ordered people to temporally vacate areas that had been infested by tsetse flies in Nyabushozi to allow spraying.

Towards independence, the USA and World Bank gave loans for the establishment of ranching schemes for beef and diary products. Government and private ranches were established in Nyabushozi, Buruuli, Kiboga, Masindi, Kabula and Sembabule. Over the years, Balaalo squatters encroached on these ranches. The children of these squatters on ranches and the national park joined Museveni’s NRA rebels in Luwero and were promised free land at the of the war. Immediately after taking over power in 1986, Museveni appointed a one Commander Kuteesa as the Commandant of the so called Luwero War Balalos in Nyabushozi. He advised those who had land in the Luwero Triangle to go back and promised free land to those who had none. Museveni used government money to buy cattle from Tanzania which he issued to these Balaalo.

In 1988 Museveni set up a Prof. Mugerwa inquiry into the question of ranches and encroachers but the regime ignored Prof. Mugerwa’s recommendations. In 1999, the regime inspired violence between the now armed squatters and the private ranchers erupted. Museveni set up the David Pulkol led Ranches Restructuring Board (RRB). The board had Balaalo soldiers like now Gen. John Mugume Chaga and Col. Eric Kamugunda. About 100 sq. kms of Lake Mburo National Park and huge chunks of ranges of land was illegally allocated to the Balaalo squatters. Col. Kamugunda is now one of the richest landlords in Masindi and Ngoma.

Note: According to Mzei Boniface Byanyima, since the 1960s Museveni was opposed to private ranches. Before Iddi Amin took over in 1971, Museveni had started campaigning for the position of Member of Parliament for North West Ankole on the UPC ticket. His agenda was to fight the ranching scheme and to unseat John Babiiha who had been the brain behind the wider diary development program through establishment of ranches.

During the bush war, Museveni practiced preferential treatment for the Banyarwanda fighters. Unlike the Baganda, Bahima and other tribes, the Banyarwanda fighters owed the total loyalty to Museveni. Externally, the Banyarwanda Tutsi political organisation, Rwandese Alliance for National Unit (RANU) banked on the Banyarwanda in the NRA for its future prospects of “liberating Rwanda.”

The actions of UPC functionaries against Banyarwanda refugees in Ankole had helped boost the rebel NRA ranks. By the time the NRA took over power in 1986, the Banyarwanda Tutsi in the NRA were about 3,000 out of the force of 14,000. Fred Rwigyema was the defacto Army Commander before he became the Deputy Minister of Defence. Paul Kagame was the defacto head of Military Intelligence while a number of senior Banyarwanda army officers occupied key positions in security circles.

Banyarwanda in the NRA were dominant in strategic departments like intelligence, finance, supplies and logistics, and Presidential Protection. Mindful of the resentment that Ugandans would develop towards Rwandese, Museveni put in place an Anti sectarianism law that penalised anyone who would dare point a finger at the privileged positions and preferential treatment that was being accorded to the Banyarwanda.

Museveni also changed the old colonial law that provided for proof of ancestry rather than birth or residence for citizenship of Uganda. One had to show that at least one of his or her grandparents had been born in what became Uganda prior to the 20th Century. He instead decreed that all one needed was to prove five years of residency in Uganda. Pressure from Ugandans more especially those in the military who saw the law as a first step towards entrenchment of Banyarwanda forced him to reverse the law. The Banyarwanda saw the reversal as a big blow and a month later in October 1990, a sizeable number of Banyarwanda in the NRA invaded Rwanda.

As the NRA set to expand its numerical strength, the number of Banyarwanda Tutsi in the army also increased. The refugee camps became bases for Banyarwanda refugee soldiers. When the Banyarwanda soldiers in the NRA decided to invade Rwanda in October 1990, Museveni chose to give them all the assistance they needed so that they should never come back because Ugandans were tired of their preferential treatment.

The RPF advance into Rwanda was also backed by about tens of thousands of Banyarwanda Tutsi (both refugees and non-refugees) in Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Congo. In Uganda, the chief financiers of the RPF were the likes of Mzei Donant Kananura who is still a top Museveni regime person. His son, Innocent Bisangwa was a top Museveni Bush War operative who hijacked the government plane from Entebbe to Kasese in 1985. While he was a Personal Assistant to Museveni in 1992, he was arrested in the USA as he attempted to smuggle a big consignment of arms to Uganda for the RPF.

By 1991 it is estimated that Banyarwanda in Uganda were 1.3M out of a total population of 18M in the country. Of these, 450,000 were Uganda indigenous Banyarwanda who became Ugandans after Kisoro became part of Uganda in 1918 and 650,000 were the Banyarwanda economic immigrants who came to look for work and a few who came to look for pasture for their cattle between 1926 and 1959 of whom 84,000 were the Banyarwanda Tutsi refugees registered under UNHCR.

Many had left the refugee settlement camps and integrated into local society. In 1993 the then Minister of Local government, Dr. Steven Chebrot estimated that about 300,000 Banyarwanda refugees were spontaneously resettled amongst the locals outside the camps. The able bodied had left the camps to the elderly and settled in urban centres while others had acquired land outside camps and settled there. The UNHCR had handed the management of the camps to the government though food aid continued coming in. Even within the camps, the refugees had become self sustaining by producing enough to feed themselves and surplus for sale.

In July 1994 when the RPF took over power in Rwanda, a reconnaissance party of Banyarwanda civilians left for Rwanda so as to get hold on political fortunes. By end of 1995, an estimated 226,000 Banyarwanda refugees had returned to Rwanda. They deserted the refugee camps and the countryside as far as Ngoma, Kyankwanzi, Masindi, Nakasongola and Luwero and moved en masse and headed for Rwanda. As the Tutsi were leaving Uganda for Rwanda, the Hutu were leaving Rwanda in millions for Tanzania and Congo. A small contingent of 11,000 Hutu entered Uganda and were camped in Kisoro and Ntungamo before being transferred to Oruchinga camp. A departing Tutsi at Oruchinga camp attempted to spear a child of an arriving Hutu but only to injure his fellow Tutsi.

The 1993 Arusha Accord between the Tutsi RPF rebels and the Hutu government of Rwanda had stipulated that returning refugees after ten years were not to seek to reclaim previous properties but were to be resettled on unoccupied land. Once the RPF took over power, the returning Tutsi occupied property left behind by fleeing Hutu. However, as time went on, reconciliation efforts dictated that returning Hutu ought to reoccupy their property. The issue was so controversial to an extent that it accounted for the false accusations of genocide against some Hutu just as a way of keeping them off the property.

To strike a compromise, a villagization (Imidugudu) scheme where services would be centralized and modern agricultural technology made accessible was initiated. The international development partners supported the construction of Imidugudu (pictured). Meeting land and housing needs of returning refugees proved quite a challenge. The situation was worse with the pastrolists Tutsi who needed huge chunks of land for their cattle.

Many returned and settled in Uganda where grazing land was plenty. Those who had anticipated a land of milk and honey, they too were disappointed and retreated to Uganda where land, availability of social services, and economic opportunities including employment were easily forthcoming more than in their new-found home. For the majority of others who had not left for Rwanda, they opted to stay in Uganda. Even the elites in influential positions in Rwanda have been acquiring land in Uganda through proxies.

With the sound availability of cash, the so called Balaalo have evolved from the traditional pastoralist casual labourers to owners of thousands of heads of cattle, huge chunks of land, are armed, and determined to spread to as far as West Nile and Acholi at the border with Sudan.

Museveni managed to push through the 1995 Constitution a provision that recognised Banyarwanda as one of the 56 indigenous ethnic communities. It was not made clear if the constitutional Banyarwanda ethnic group referred to the Banyarwanda who were added into Uganda by colonial boundaries in Kisoro, the economic immigrants of the early 20th century who came to look for work, or those who came as refugees during the 1959 – 1974 exodus escaping political turmoil.

In October 2001, the Uganda government announced that it was probing the composition of 1,252 army Cadet Officers after discovering that several Rwandan undercover spies posing as Ugandans had been recruited for training. The then Army Spokesman, Col. Keitirima confirmed that they had also turned away several Rwandans who had sought to be recruited.

In July 2002, a delegation of 30 Banyarwanda elders met Museveni for a petition over the alleges of harassment of Banyarwanda by security agencies. They claimed that over twenty Banyarwanda were being held in safe houses by intelligence services. This was during the time when relations between Uganda and Rwanda were sour following the bloody clash of the two armies in Congo. To the security agencies, the detained Banyarwanda were Rwandese spies. Appearing on Andrew Mwenda Live radio talk show, Kagame had complained that; “I was told how Rwandese are being arrested in Kampala and in Kikuko wherever they are found.”

On 17th June 2007, the government owned New Vision ran a letter by one Mutesi of Kabale in which she was complaining about Banyarwanda being denied passports. That she had had to consult her friends in security services who advised her not to state that she was a Munyarwanda but should instead call herself a Mufumbira. She went ahead to disclose that since she had worked in Kisoro as a teacher, she travelled there and using the voters card she filled forms, had them approved by the LCs and the area M.P and eventually got her passport. She disclosed that her grandfather had migrated from Rwanda to Tanzania 100 years ago, and that her father relocated to Uganda, died and was buried in Ntungamo, Uganda.

In 2007, the Local Government of Kyankwanzi district offered to take in and accommodate the 100 Banyarwanda Balaalo families that had been evicted from Buliisa following clashes with Bagungu. The move was spearheaded by the LC3 Chairman, Fred Mpora and escorted by Police. Fred Mpora has been a key figure in the incursions by Balaalo into Acholi.

In April 2008 Banyarwanda living in Uganda under their umbrella organisation, UMUBANO held the annual assembly at Lugogo Indoor Stadium under the chairmanship of Erick Kyamuhangire who is Museveni’s Senior Presidential Advisor on Culture. The assembly expressed grave concern over denial of passports, loss of land, denial of recruitment into public service, denial of scholarships and general discrimination by government.

Their Chairman lamented thus; “…. if one happens to have a contact in Rwanda, then it’s enough reason for disqualification.” They gave the example of Balalo who were being evicted in Masindi describing it as paid harassment before accusing the government of being biased against the Balaalo. Note: one of the key state witnesses in the Kyadondo terror attack, Muhammad Mugisha claimed to be a Ugandan who was born in Rwanda but relocated to Uganda in 1998.

In 2009, the Uganda Citizenship and Immigration Control Act was amended to put it in line with the constitutional provision on Banyarwanda Tutsi. S.12 provides for citizenship by birth for any person born in Uganda whose parents or grandparents is or was a member of any of the indigenous communities existing in and residing within the borders of Uganda as at the first day of February 1926, as set out in the Third Schedule to the 1995 constitution.

It went ahead to stipulate that every person born in or outside Uganda one of whose parents or grandparents was at the time of birth of that person a citizen of Uganda by birth, is eligible for citizenship. S.14 (1) (a) (ii) eliminates Hutu refugees from accessing citizenship thus; “every person born in Uganda who at the time of birth neither of his or her parents and none of his grandparents was a refugee in Uganda”.

Since it’s now the Hutu who are refugees, the provision bars them. S.14 (b) grants citizenship to anyone who has continuously lived in Uganda since 9th October 1962. Interestingly, the Act under S.14 (2) (b) gives a blank cheque to Tutsi Banyarwanda who are always on the move migrating to and settling in Uganda thus ” any person who has legally and voluntarily migrated to Uganda and has been living in Uganda for at least twenty years is eligible for citizenship”. The other requirements include a good command of the English language or ‘prescribed local language’.

In July 2010, the Museveni regime in connivance with the Kagame regime in Kigali forcefully returned to Rwanda 1,700 Hutu Asylum seeker and refugees to Rwanda. The victims have escaped Gacaca community courts, land wrangles and general repression.

Note: The UPC government was accused of forcefully returning Tutsi refugees to Rwanda in the early 1980s but in the instant case it looked okay because the victims were Hutu. In 2010, a group of Banyarwanda refugees in Uganda petitioned the Constitutional Court over acquisition of citizenship. They claimed that the Immigration Department was refusing to give them citizenship application forms on grounds that they were not eligible on account of their being refugees. They based their petition on a constitutional provision that made refugees eligible for citizenship by naturalisation and registration. Article 12 (2) (c) and 14 (2) (c) provides that “a person who on commencement of this constitution has lived in Uganda for the last 20 years is eligible for citizenship by registration”. The petitioners had lived in Uganda since 1985. In October 2015 court ruled that refugees were eligible for citizenship not by registration but naturalisation but two of the petitioners had already been relocated to the USA by UNHCR while the 3rd could not be traces.

The 2013 Land Policy condemns those who classify “cross border population movement as refugees or internally displaced people because of shared common heritage and culture”. With Museveni’s treacherous populist refugee policy, what can stop Rwandans faced with land shortage back in Rwanda from coming to Uganda claiming to be refugees from Burundi or Banyamulenge of Congo.

In 2012 the government set up a committee to discuss naturalisation for refugees especially Rwandese and Congolese of 1990s and 1960s lot respectively. The Director of Refugees stated that at least 5,000 refugees had applied for naturalisation. In January 2015, the Ministry of Internal Affairs ran a countrywide awareness campaign to enable any non-citizens that meet the conditions stipulated under S.14 of the Uganda Citizenship and immigration Control Act to become citizens. The Minister made it clear that refugees were not eligible to apply. In both instances, nothing concrete was arrived at and the scheme was simply abandoned.

In 2012, Museveni and Kagame met members of the Banyarwanda community in Uganda (UMUBANO) at State House in Kampala. They were feuding over leadership with one faction recognising Donant Kananura while another one recognized Dr. Eric Kyamuhangire who also doubles as a Senior Presidential Advisor on Culture. The Kananura group was accused of extorting money from Kagame under the guise of assisting Banyarwanda in Uganda. Museveni promised to mediate in resolving the leadership wrangles. On his part, Kagame advised the Banyarwanda not to focus on those small issues of leadership but work for the development of the two countries.

In 2013 Tanzania expelled Rwandese who were illegally staying in Kagera region back to Rwanda. Thousands of them chose to come to Uganda where the Museveni regime accorded them VIP reception, free land and citizenship. The Chairman of the Banyarwanda in Uganda who is also a Presidential Advisor on Culture, Dr. Eric Kyamuhangire wrote a long missive in The New Vision condemning Tanzania’s action. He argued that the people expelled were Banyarwanda who had migrated there in the 1970s and 80s in search of pasture and were therefore both Ugandans and Tanzanians because that region is suitable for cattle grazing.

The expulsion also fermented serious friction between Museveni and Kagame on one hand and Tanzania’s Jakaya Kikwete. Kyamuhangire’s argument confirms the belief by some people that the so-called cattle corridor is for their exclusive occupation. How come they couldn’t trace their previous homes if they were Ugandans? In July 2015 Museveni paid a visit to a one Johnson Nyinondi in Tanzania’s Kagera region whom he described as his relative who had helped a lot in intelligence gathering and recruitment of fighters against the Iddi Amin regime.

In April 2016, the then Minister of Internal Affairs, Rose Akol visited Mirama Hill border post at the Uganda-Rwanda border. She ordered Rwandan nationals in Uganda who were holding both Ugandan and Rwandese national IDs to surrender one. During the same occasion the DPC Ntungamo and Immigration Officers disclosed that the irregularity was making it difficult to fight cross border crime. Immigration Officers further revealed that they were confiscating an average of ten Ugandan IDs per day from Rwandan travellers.

Given the porous borderline, it is obvious that many more Uganda ID card holders move freely to and from the two countries. During the 2016 general elections in Uganda, the opposition decried that the Museveni regime had been issuing national IDs to Rwandans in order to enable them to vote for Museveni. The Minister’s stand did not go well with the regime agenda and she was not only relieved of her ministerial position but made to lose in the parliamentary elections. Its no wonder that even the Uganda national ID is institutionally baptized INDANGAMUNTU – a Kinyarwanda word for Rwandan national ID.

Last week the Rwandan High Commissioner to Uganda called upon Rwandans residing in Uganda to get ready to cast their vote at the embassy during the forthcoming August general elections. He disclosed that there are 55,000 Rwandans in the diaspora of which about 6,000 live in Uganda.

From the above long narration, it can be authoritatively argued that the so called Banyarwanda include all the Rwandans who find themselves in Uganda including the Rwandese embassy staff. The spirit of the constitution was manipulated to cover up for a wider scheme for Tutsi domination of Uganda. The recognition of Banyarwanda as one of the indigenous communities of Uganda was not meant for the migrant Banyarwanda who came to Uganda at the beginning of the last century. Moreover, this category had already integrated into the local Ugandan society and those from Kisoro district who were made part of Uganda by colonialists have their own identity as Bafumbira. Therefore, the Banyarwanda of Uganda are the former Tutsi refugees of 1960s and 70s and the Tutsi immigrants both of whom have found two homes in both Uganda and Rwanda. They are bent on systematically achieving dominance and have the political and financial muscle to achieve this.

Under the guise of commercial farming, Museveni’s scheme is to deprive people of their land and hoard them into urban centres so that they lose their respective community identities to the advantage of Banyarwanda. That is the price of the false so called national unity and regional integration.

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