Finishing off Kayihura

Kandiho’s mission

The Independent understands that Kayihura is fighting back. He has said he does not feel safe that the people investigating him are the same people who have been forging all sorts of allegations to implicate him.

The team interrogating Kayihura includes three people who are said to have daggers drawn against him already; CMI boss Brig. Abel Kandiho, ISO boss Maj. Kaka Bagyenda, and Director Criminal Intelligence and Investigations (CIID) Grace Akullo.

Among these three, sources tell The Independent that Kandiho is the one Kayihura is concerned about the most.

Having been appointed only in January 2017 to head CMI, it has taken Kandiho just a year and a few months to disrupt Uganda’s entire security system.

On June 13, the day Kale Kayihura was arrested, of the senior military officers who landed in a helicopter at his home in Kashagama, Lyantonde District, one man stood out.

Tall and pencil-thin, Kandiho approached the task with a unique precision.

He travelled with his senior, Lt. Gen. Wilson Mbadi, but Kayihura must have known that this was Kandiho’s mission. For example while interrogating Kayihura at his home, Kandiho spotted a document in the former IGP’s briefcase and asked for it. Kayihura refused to hand it over insisting that it was meant for the president only. When Kandiho insisted on taking it, Kayihura handed it over to Mbadi.

Even as they searched Kayihura’s house in Kashagama, flew him to Entebbe, drove him to Makyindye Military Barracks, where Kayihura was interrogated and later his house in Muyenga, more than anyone else, Kandiho maintained the quiet intimidating presence of a man on a mission.

Kandiho’s mission against Kayihura appears not to be personal. Instead, it appears to follow the pattern of most of the people who have dominated the security docket under Museveni; from Gen. David Sejusa aka Tinyefuza, the late Noble Mayombo, and lately Kayihura. These have been Museveni’s enforcers and Kandiho appears to be the next in line.

When, soon after Kaweesi’s murder, Kayihura’s men nearly exchanged fire with an ISO force posted by Kaka at the home of one Christine Mbabazi Muhoza, Kandiho remained in the background.

Muhoza is said to have been an intimate friend of Kaweesi – and, therefore, a possible source of valuable information. Kaka’s force was allegedly protecting her as a witness but Kayihura said the police had the mandate to interrogate her. The standoff in Lungujja, a Kampala city suburb was only resolved when President Museveni sent in his personal Special Forces Command.

Kayihura and Kaka again pointed fingers at each other over the investigation into the murder of two foreigners in top Kampala hotels in February this year. Kandiho stayed out of it.

He also did not clash with Kayihura as Akullo did.

The frosty relationship between Akullo and Kayihura had reportedly worsened because of her closeness to President Museveni and First Lady Janet Museveni.

Kayihura reportedly preferred to be the only one with access to the First Family. For that Akullo reportedly feared Kayihura wanted her out of the way.

The tension between them reportedly hit the roof when top government prosecutor Joan Kagezi was assassinated in 2015.  Akullo, who was driving a few metres behind, feared that she had, in fact, been the target.  Where Akullo is said to have even openly confronted Kayihura, Kandiho concentrated on digging up the dirt.