President Museveni revealed quite a lot during the weekend discussion, the first of its kind in many years, with opposition leaders.
In the two-hour discussion at State House Entebbe, the president said Michael Kabaziguruka, the jailed Nakawa MP and FDC deputy electoral commission chairman, tried but failed to kill him at his farm in Kisozi. Kabaziguruka is battling treason charges.
The president also told political party leaders who met him under the auspices of the Inter-party organization for dialogue (IPOD) that he has evidence that Kizza Besigye, the incarcerated second-place finisher in the just concluded general election, Kabaziguruka and Gen David Sejusa, the former coordinator of intelligence services, were planning something dangerous.
IPOD is a platform that brings together political parties with representation in Parliament. Though he conceded that both Besigye and Sejusa had not executed their diabolical plans, he told the meeting that there was incriminating evidence that the two NRA bush war veterans harboured ill-intentioned plans that can disrupt the country’s peace.
Museveni opened up after intense prodding from DP secretary general Mathias Nsubuga Birekeraawo who accused him (Museveni) of witch-hunting his political opponents.
“I reminded him that the UPC leaders that he is now fraternizing with are the same people he fought and demonized in the 1980s and he [president] said that his soldiers told him that they have evidence pinning Besigye, Kabaziguruka and Sejusa,” Nsubuga told The Observer on Saturday.
According to Nsubuga, Museveni did not specifically say what Besigye and Sejusa’s plans were but he said that Kabazigura wanted to assassinate him sometime back.
“He [Kabaziguruka] came to Kisozi [Museveni’s farm in Gomba] to assassinate me,” Museveni reportedly told the meeting.
Kabaziguruka on June 28 was arraigned together with 21 soldiers in the Military Court Martial in Makindye on treason charges. The arraignment came a day after he was rearrested from his Luzira home and briefly taken to Nalufenya detention facility in Jinja. He was first arrested on June 5 and locked up at the Kireka-based Special Investigations directorate (SID) before police severally-searched his home.
“We cannot release Kabaziguruka when we have evidence of plans to commit crime; there should be accountability first before reconciliation; otherwise, it would breed impunity,” Museveni told the meeting.
OVERZEALOUS
Asked why he doesn’t release Besigye, Museveni said his soldiers would riot because they claim to have evidence pinning the colonel. Museveni was then drawn to the continued arrest of FDC activists notably Ingrid Turinawe who has been in and out of police cells since the February 18 elections. Museveni squarely blamed those arrests on an overzealous police.
Museveni said pursuing Turinawe and other FDC leaders because they appeared in a video in May featuring Besigye’s mock inauguration as president was a waste of time.
“Those [FDC activists] are confused fellows whom we don’t need to waste time on,” Museveni reportedly said.
But the opposition politicians warned Museveni that his government’s continued persecution of political opponents could push them to use unconstitutional means. Nsubuga urged Museveni to open up to meaningful dialogue with his political opponents to which Museveni reportedly retorted; “If there is anything concerning dialogue, I am ready. It’s a gift from God; no leader should refuse it,”
APOLOGY
At the meeting, the UPC delegation led by Edward Ssegwanyi, the secretary general of the Jimmy Akena faction and his deputy, former Kole MP Fred Ebil, thanked Museveni for appointing their member, Betty Amongi as minister for Lands, Housing and Urban development.
The DP group, on the other hand, was bitter with Museveni for appointing Florence Nakiwala Kiyingi as minister and the president reportedly apologised to the DP leaders. He said, however, that he doesn’t look at Nakiwala as a DP member but, rather, as a sister to his good friend, Dr Grace Nambatya, a board member of the National Drug Authority (NDA).
Museveni also accepted blame for NRM turning its back on IPOD’s previous resolutions but promised to fix an appointment in the first week of August to meeting all presidents of the four political parties under IPOD namely, NRM, FDC, DP and UPC.
FDC is the current chair of the IPOD summit but its secretary general, Nathan Nandala-Mafabi did not attend the Entebbe meeting because he was at the Chief Magistrate’s court at Nakawa standing surety for Turinawe.
This article appeared first on: The Observer
