The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Political civility
Kaheru added that the political competition should be seen within the preview of civility.
“If I am competing against you President Museveni, I should not be seen as a nemesis, but should be treated as a competitor in the sense of ideas, alternatives, and policies not as being seen as somebody who wants to take you away from power,” he said.
Going forward, Kaheru said the country needs to first sanitize its politics because it is the first thing that is infested with the coronavirus.
“There is going to be an increasing political polarization – where those who are on the other side are going to go extreme and Museveni too will do whatever it takes to stay in power. And where will this leave the rest of Ugandans?” Kaheru said.
Kaheru said the current political situation leave citizens to continuously bear the brunt of poor politics in terms of poor policies, poor health and education services.
What next for Tumukunde
As of March 17, Lt. Gen. Tumukunde was reportedly still at Kampala Hospital where he was taken for treatment after collapsing in a cell. His upcountry home was also still under security search for the unknown. It remained unclear on when he will be taken to court to answer charges slapped onto him.
Whatever the case, political commentators say Museveni will do all it takes to fail Tumukunde’s attempt for presidency.
“They will block him,” said Mwambutsya Ndebesa, a lecturer of history at Makerere University’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Ndebesa said Tumukunde need to mobilise other people to support him if he is to beat Museveni’s machinery.
Similarly, Kaheru said, just like Dr. Kizza Besigye was treated in 2001 and 2006, Tumukunde will be inconvenienced with several arrests.
“Tumukunde will ran (for presidency) but under extreme circumstances,” Kaheru said, “they will install and institute a 24/7 surveillance on him and his home.”
Other pundits have said that the arrest of Tumukunde will negatively impact Museveni’s popularity.
But Kaheru says Museveni does not mind about negative publicity because he knows very well that the votes he gets do not come from foreign countries.
Who is Tumukunde?
Lt. Gen. Henry Tumukunde was born in February 1959 in Rukungiri District. He attended Bishop Stuart College Demonstration School for his primary schooling. He studied at Kigezi College Butobere (Senior) and Kibuli Secondary School for his O-Level and A-Level education, respectively.
Tumukunde graduated from Makerere University with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1981. He obtained a Diploma in Legal Practice awarded by the Law Development Centre in 2010. He also holds an Executive Masters in Oil and Gas Management, awarded by the Graduate Institute of Geneva in 2013.
During his time at Makerere, Tumukunde was involved in anti-government politics, which subsequently led to his joining of then rebels, the National Resistance Army, led by President Museveni.
He was hounded by the government security services during his last year at the university and on completion, decided to join the struggle, along with two of his friends Major General Mugisha Muntu and Colonel Jet Mwebaze.
In the early stages of the war, Tumukunde was a machine gunner and eventually went on to become one of the senior officers in the rebel army, indicated by his senior number RA 0111.
In 1985, during one of the bigger battles with the Uganda National Liberation Front in Luweero District, Tumukunde was shot multiple times in his legs. He would later be smuggled out of the country to Nairobi and to London to be operated on.
After capturing power, Tumukunde was promoted to the rank of major and appointed first secretary and military attache at the Ugandan Embassy in the United Kingdom.
Subsequently, he was sent on a Command and Staff Course at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji, in Kaduna, Nigeria.
He later on returned to Uganda where he became the Army’s director of planning. Tumukunde served in this role for many years and was very instrumental in the setup of formal military structures in the UPDF, which had until then been a rebel army.
In 1994, Uganda held elections for the Constituent Assembly and Tumukunde sought to represent his home county Rubaabo. His main competitor was a government minister and senior figure Mondo Kagonyera. Tumukunde, who was in early thirties at the time, was thought to be the underdog in the race; however, Tumukunde was a very good mobiliser and won by a landslide margin.
He then joined the CA, which formulated the current 1995 Ugandan Constitution. Tumukunde was known to be a regular and astute contributor to the sessions and debates that preceded the formation of the Constitution.
Following the set-up of the constitution, Uganda held elections and Tumukunde subsequently became a member of parliament representing the Army as a special interest group. He went on to serve as an MP until 2005.
At a political retreat in 2003, the general, in the presence of the president and his cabinet, argued against the impending removal of term limits that would give President Museveni the right to stand for re-election on an infinite basis.
Tumukunde stated that this would be in direct contravention of the rights that they fought to establish and that he was not willing to take part in what he considered to be grossly unconstitutional behaviour. Predictably, this put him at loggerheads with the establishment and more so the president.
He was charged with the offences of abuse of office and spreading harmful propaganda. The abuse of office charges were eventually dropped in a manner suggesting that they had been politically motivated in the first instance.
On May 28, 2005, he was forced to resign from Parliament and subsequently arrested on the orders of the president.
On 18 April 2013, the UPDF General Court Martial sat to bring an end to the process that had lasted 8 years and summed up its deliberations.
The charge of spreading harmful propaganda was dropped while the joint charge of military misconduct was upheld and Tumukunde was subsequently sentenced to a severe reprimand which meant that he would have to appear before either the Commander-in-Chief, President Yoweri Museveni or the Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima to sign an undertaking that he will not commit another crime.
What goes around come around. Because of what he did in order to come to and hold onto power, Mr. Museveni has no moral authority to complain or get angry over his soldiers or anybody plotting to eject him. In other words, if he had left power 25 year ago, he would have had his peace, with a quasi statesmanship. But because he didn’t, he has to be running and hiding for his life inside State House.
On “Democracy and Freedom”; in his book Escape from Freedom, Eric Fromm says that a successful revolutionary is a statesman. But the unsuccessful revolutionary is a criminal. In other words, instead becoming a statesman, in 34 years, Mr. Museveni ended up becoming a wanted criminal, who has to hole himself up in State House in order to avoid serious criminal prosecution.
Mr O, why waste your time spewing shit?? You should have used the time to quarantine yourself, because you may infect others with your spew shit.
But John, for kids Kaka means shit!
By clinging to power at all cost, president M7 has also put his son, Muhoozi in harms way. Like for example, by appointing his son Muhoozi and step brother as Senior presidential Advisors on Security; how can Mr. Museveni avoid being accuse of nepotism and/or familism? No wonder Allan Tacca, the Sunday Monitor’s Columnist (Cynic) one time commented that Muhoozi’s smile is like something extracted from a place full of pain.