THIRTY YEARS: Museveni vs Besigye

But 2019 marks 30 years since Besigye became disillusioned with Museveni in 1989.

The trigger appears to have been a decision in October 1989 by the National Resistance Council (NRC), which was the parliament of the time, to extend its term purportedly to write the constitution.  The NRC had expanded its membership with 220 county representatives, district women representatives, 10 army representatives, and 20 presidential nominees.

Some people did not support the move and Waswa Ziritwawula, a representative from the Democratic Party (DP), resigned from the NRC. Some people demanded a referendum on the issue. However, bush war acolytes defied them, sometimes with threats.

Kalinaki in his book narrates how one of the Museveni devotees, Gertrude Njuba, assured the NRC that that there was no need to consult the masses “since they had not appointed the NRM or its organs in the first place.”

Kalinaki writes: “The NRC was set up to formalise the decisions of the NRA (National Resistance Army), she told the members, and if they did not comply, more pliant people would be found”.

Commenting on this period, Besigye said: “I could not see how we could make a transition with Museveni. At a personal level that confidence had completely collapsed around 1989. By that time I was convinced that there was corruption, no respect for rules and plans we were making. It only got worse. But from that time, I knew we were in for a difficult time. At the time, however, we could not even persuade anybody that there was a huge problem. Many people had not awoken to the disaster that we were sitting with: corruption scandals that rocked the country; the management of the transition politics, the intolerance that had developed, and the capriciousness of Museveni’s rule. My mind was made up much earlier that we were heading for trouble”.

Besigye initially sought to correct what he saw as going wrong from within the NRA. In one case in 1998, and on the prompting of  Museveni’s brother; Salim saleh, he wrote a dossier addressed to top army officers of the time like Elly Tumwine, Joram Mugume, Pecos Kutesa, Kasirye Gwanga, Stephen Kashaka and others.

In it he pointed issues that were, in his view, not being handled properly including recruitment, training, deployment, legal and regulatory deficiencies, and the ad hoc manner of doing things.

The issue of recruitment to and promotion within the army was contentious at the time after Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Museveni’s son, joined the military with many of his close friends and associates in alleged unclear circumstances.

“How did he join the army and become a cadet?” Besigye asked.

Such questions landed Besigye in trouble. From being Museveni’s blue-eyed protégé, and Minister of State for Internal Affairs at just 29-years of age, to NRM leading ideologue and National Political Commissar, Besigye had by 1993 been reduced to a routine soldier with title of Chief of Logistics and Engineering. That is why some Besigye critics say that he only fell out with Museveni because the president had rendered him irrelevant within the NRM. But Besigye supporters say Museveni shunted Besigye aside because he saw him as a challenger.