Why Does Museveni Bother To Campaign

Driving through the eastern Ugandan districts of Mbale, Budaka, Pallisa, Namutumba, etc, this week, one encountered hordes of yellow-draped campaign convoys complete with public address systems and paraphernalia.

Between Mbale town and Iganga, in just a few hours, you could easily see at least four such convoys that include many government vehicles mostly bearing registration letter 'C', which is for the presidency. There were also army trucks carrying soldiers to boot.

One finds that many of these convoys are without the incumbent presidential candidate, General Yoweri Museveni, meaning they are advance teams mobilizing and ferrying locals to the rallies our great ruler is scheduled to address. One can only imagine the extent of waste, in public resources, that go into Museveni's rather gratuitous campaigns.

The campaigns are done aggressively and opulently. They entail ad nauseam platitudes like "I and the NRM brought peace and security to Uganda".

On the campaign trail, the Ssabalwanyi takes time to explain to Ugandans, using the most paternalistic language that easily beats what the colonists employed, the achievements of his government for which he alone takes credit; but also the failings, for which technocrats and opposition politicians must take blame.

Campaign time is also to make snide remarks about opposition MPs and take a swipe at RDCs for failure to supervise government programmes. But should Museveni be going around the country canvassing votes, anyway? It is difficult to see the rationale. Here is why.

He is on record for saying that Ugandans are not mad as to vote for his opponents who, at any rate, are such an unserious lot. It has also been stated by Museveni functionaries that he hunted his animal and cannot be expected to leave power via a mere piece of paper - the ballot. What's more, everybody else aspiring to lead the country is perforce a liar and only Museveni knows what the country needs and where it wants to go.

This exaggerated self-glorification and somewhat illusory messianic attitude clearly contradicts the desperate combing of the country in search of votes, including the use of unsolicited robocalls. The latter is done of course with the dubious collusion of telecom companies and in utter violation of the right not to receive unsolicited messages, moreover of such a political nature.

Museveni's attitude is such that we cannot have a meaningful contest for the nation's topmost job where the outcome would be generally acceptable to all players, even though some may feel dissatisfied. The only outcome must be that which certifies his continued grip on power. Nothing else. This, to my understanding, was the gist of Professor Oloka-Onyango's rather misconstrued comments that appeared in the Sunday Monitor, December 13.

Why then does our self-assured 'messiah' waste his time going around the country looking for votes when, in the final analysis, the outcome must necessarily go his way? Authoritarian rulers rule with a measure of insecurity and uncertainty. They tend to be unsure about the mood of the people and the level of their popularity.

Campaign time, therefore, offers a window to be gratified with the feeling of love from the people - in the sense of the vintage colonial chief. The need to seek out the people and receive their expression of affection is partly fueled by an army of schemers and hangers-on looking to cash in from the election campaign booty.

The schemers and political merchants work around to raise rented crowds for the ssabagabe using as small a fraction of availed funds as possible so they can make off with as much as they can hold onto. In so doing, they engage in duplicity and outright fraud, sometimes working hard to outdo one another and occupy the front row of the ruler's singing choir.

Apparently, as one very senior government official told me last weekend, our ruler has become deeply hostage to these strings of parasitic merchants who employ both blackmail and deception to extort money and other material returns from the master.

With streams of intelligence and counter-intelligence, quite a bit of it cooked up and embellished, the ruler is conflicted between his self-assured messianic place among the people he rules and the possibility that he could be pushed out of power.

Thus, he acquiesces campaigning to win votes at the same time that he ridicules the very principles of free political contest and tells all and sundry that it must be him to be announced winner of the February 18 polls.

To you, dear reader, I must confess: writing about Ugandan politics, it is increasingly inevitable to end up sounding facetious. Yet there is a profound tragedy that our country faces, wrought by the regressive politics of machination and personal rule at the behest of General Museveni. Sadly, quite many of our compatriots remain either indifferent or ignorant about the scope of the tragedy that continues to stare at us.

Our politics are getting dangerously broken, with grave ramifications for all other realms of our country. The orgies of campaign violence as we saw in Ntungamo at the weekend just add insult to injury in a country in urgent need of fresh leadership and a new agenda for transformation.

Uganda Election Marred By Arrests, Harassment and Torture of Opposition

Ugandan police have arbitrarily arrested political opposition leaders, used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse peaceful demonstrations and tortured opposition supporters, a new Amnesty International report published today has found.

The report, based on 88 interviews including senior police officers and torture victims, documents how the Ugandan police are selectively applying national laws governing freedom of assembly to unfairly target the political opposition, activists and other individuals aligned with them. This is preventing Ugandans from receiving information and engaging with politicians in the run-up to elections scheduled for 18 February 2016.

Muthoni Wanyaki, Amnesty International's Regional Director for East Africa said:

"All Ugandans must be free to attend political rallies and engage with candidates, regardless of their political affiliations.

"The Ugandan authorities must put an immediate end to the harassment and torture of political opponents and urgently, thoroughly and transparently investigate the use of excessive force against peaceful demonstrators. Anyone found responsible for these violations must be brought to justice."

Amnesty is calling on the Ugandan government to allow all its citizens to engage in political rallies, listen to candidates, and freely express their views, regardless of their political affiliation.

Amnesty also urges the Government of Uganda to issue guidelines on policing assemblies that comply with international standards.

Arrest of opposition Presidential candidates

On 9 July two leading political opposition presidential candidates - Kizza Besigye and former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi - were put under "preventive arrest." Although they were released on the same day, their arrests prevented them from holding planned consultations with voters.

At the time of their arrests, they were in talks with other political leaders to form an umbrella group known as The Democratic Alliance (TDA) under which they planned to field one joint candidate to face President Yoweri Museveni at the polls.

Use of torture

Six days later, Vincent Kaggwa, the spokesman for a group allied to Amama Mbabazi, was arrested in Kampala, and held incommunicado for four days. The police refused to disclose his whereabouts to his wife for the duration of his detention. When he was eventually released, he said police had ordered him to undress and sprayed him with high-pressure cold water from a hose pipe directed at his lower abdomen, causing him intense pain. Amnesty considers that Vincent Kaggwa was subjected to enforced disappearance and torture.

Amama Mbabazi's head of security, Christopher Aine, was arrested in Kampala on 14 September. He claims to have been hit with iron bars and canes while in detention. When Amnesty interviewed him on the day after his release, his body was covered in cuts and bruises and showed evidence of torture.

Tear gas and rubber bullets fired into peaceful gatherings

The police have frequently used excessive force to break up political gatherings organised by political opposition parties. A video obtained by Amnesty shows police hurling tear gas canisters and indiscriminately firing rubber bullets into a peaceful crowd in the town of Soroti.

To justify their abusive activities, the police cite the Public Order Management Act, a controversial law that imposes wide-ranging restrictions on public meetings, including the requirement that organisers notify the police in advance.

Under international law, the right to freedom of assembly states that authorities should not use excessive force to break up peaceful assemblies even if they consider them to be unlawful.

Muthoni Wanyeki said:

"The authorities must take action to rein in the police in the run up to the elections and ensure that their actions conform to both national and international standards."

Why Museveni Sacked Me - Amama

A year after he was sacked as prime minister, Amama Mbabazi, an independent presidential candidate, has started opening up about struggles with President Museveni that led to his dismissal.

Speaking at White Horse Inn in Kabale on Friday, Mbabazi claimed that the government reforms he was trying to push through as prime minister rubbed Museveni the wrong way.

The Kinkiizi West MP was named prime minister, his highest posting in government, in 2011, but was sacked two and half years later, in September 2014.

"Because of what I was doing in government for the purpose of changing government [systems] so that we become more effective in service delivery, it was misunderstood to be preparing ground for launching a campaign," Mbabazi said.

The former premier carefully avoided going into specifics about his reforms that got him into trouble with his erstwhile ally despite prodding from this writer.

But in 2013, we reported about a cabinet disagreement that resulted from Mbabazi's proposals to rearrange the management of government.

According to that report, Mbabazi had, in a cabinet meeting, suggested sweeping proposals that he said would improve service delivery. For instance, he suggested that resident district commissioners (RDCs) be removed from the Office of the President to the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM); but his cabinet colleagues feared Mbabazi wanted to undermine the president and create a parallel government.

Although Mbabazi explained that his proposals were aimed at making supervision and monitoring of programmes by the OPM easier, many Museveni-leaning ministers couldn't buy it.

Mbabazi had also proposed the creation of the position of deputy head of Public Service under the OPM, to enable him to keep tabs on all government employees.

Now Mbabazi says his proposals created unease within the presidency, and soon President Museveni began looking at him as a rival who wanted to snatch the presidency from him.

This created tension in cabinet and the NRM caucus and Museveni loyalists began plotting the former NRM secretary general's removal. It led to the NRM MPs adopting a resolution at Kyankwanzi that Museveni should be the party's sole candidate, effectively locking out other likely presidential candidate within NRM.

"It was obvious, [the] Kyankwanzi [resolution] had a reason, because some people suspected that I wanted to vie for the presidency, which wasn't the case," Mbabazi said.

"It [the Kyankwanzi resolution] was not out of the blue; there was a cause, and the cause was by those who were uncomfortable with the presumed so-called ambitions that I had," he said.

The sole candidate resolution was passed by NRM MPs during their February 2014 caucus retreat at the National Leadership Institute (NALI) Kyankwanzi to cushion Museveni against any internal challenge.

Mbabazi was eventually sacked as prime minister and later ousted as secretary general of the ruling party at a special delegates' conference last December. In the Friday interview, Mbabazi declined to discuss his sacking in detail, saying he was still bound by the Official Secrets Act. But he hinted at sharp disagreements in cabinet.

"Serving in government doesn't mean that you totally agree with everything but the rule is that on the outside you must appear as one," Mbabazi said.

He dismissed as false, any suggestion that he turned critical of Museveni's policies after his September 18, 2014 sacking as PM. At a separate press conference on December 12 at the White Horse Inn, Kabale, Mbabazi discussed his predicament a little more.

Asked why he was sacked as prime minister, Mbabazi promised that sometime in future he would come up with details of his proposed reforms in government that got him in trouble.

"When I was appointed prime minister, I came with a lot of vigor and fire and suggested reforms to improve government that unfortunately didn't see the light of day," he said.

Asked why he is now collecting NRM cards from defectors yet he is keeping his own, Mbabazi said there are two NRMs: the original NRM to which he belongs, and the NRM of those who have veered off track.

He said there's no contradiction in him collecting the cards. The NRM cards, he said, are safer in his hands. He also wondered why Norbert Mao, the Democratic Party president, a former Gulu municipality MP and district chairman could be denied a chance to be registered afresh as a voter.

How will Museveni run 2016 campaign?

Insight. Last Thursday, our correspondent called a source for an interview. The response from the source was punchy. Excerpts:-

Question: What is President Museveni’s game plan for 2016?
Answer: Museveni has one game plan now, he had two at first. He had to rig the election, which is already done. He even knows the percentage. That is how it is done; two, three years earlier. So, he dominates the State institutions to deliver him victory, creates artificial constituencies, beats up people, ring-fences for himself position so that he becomes the sole candidate, creates a fraudulent voter register and controls the media. The whole infrastructure of the State has already been swung to deliver him victory. That is how it has been done over the years.

The source on the other line was Gen. David Sejusa, the former coordinator of intelligence services. After a pause, Sejusa, who has dared his Commander-In-Chief to arrest him, added, “Museveni is now in post-election period; all these fellows engaged in electioneering are wasting time...”
Sejusa remains a puzzle. To work with him or to distance yourself from him, is the question for Opposition parties. For the ordinary Ugandan watching political developments, it is a question of whether to listen to and trust him or not. But all that notwithstanding, Sejusa offers some insight into the election ahead from an insider’s viewpoint.

Kizza Besigye said last week while campaigning for the Forum for Democratic Change flag bearer slot that Sejusa has a detailed understanding of the system. When he speaks, therefore, it is probably foolhardy to write him off.

From that brief interview alone, for instance, we can then start to plot Museveni’s graph. We can look at the 2001 and 2006 elections, which the Supreme Court in the Kizza Besigye Vs Yoweri Museveni and the Electoral Commission petition, held were fraught with violence and irregularities, albeit not substantial enough to affect the outcome of the election. And also look at the 2011 election, where money rained heavily across the country with Bank of Uganda Governor Tumusiime Mutebile admitting that unscrupulous expenditure at the time plunged the country into run-away inflation.

So, which route will the President choose to take?
“2016 seems to be a repeat of 2011 on a grand scale. We have 250,000 LCI villages, which are already receiving money. My village recently got Shs25 million. You heard of the village in Tororo where people complained that money didn’t reach,” opines former Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Prof. Ogenga Latigo.

Violence, the senior politician says, “cannot be sustained with the Erias Lukwago’s planning to counter Kakooza Mutale’s squad. He is also incapable of using the army, which is bruised in Somalia. You can’t be dying in Somalia and accept to be used to brutalise fellow citizens. Besigye was in the north, police tried to stop him and the population intervened.”

The 2001 and 2006 campaigns saw an outbreak of targeted violence designed to cow regime opponents. From security officers hijacking the election process in some polling stations, maiming supporters of Opposition candidates, to torture. That dented Museveni’s human rights credentials with international human rights groups like Human Rights Watch writing reports that presented a doomsday scenario of Uganda.

The worry for Museveni would likely be that he came close to losing the 2006 election; first at the ballot, and secondly at the Supreme Court, where in a thin margin of 4:3 the justices of the country’s last appellate court, came close to annulling the election. The violence that marred those elections, among other pieces of cogent evidence admitted in court, offered quite a good case for Besigye, who has since justified his persistent struggle with argument that his victory was stolen.

Does Museveni want another near loss in court? Can he lean on the judges as is alleged to have happened in 2006, according to then Supreme Court justice Prof. George Kanyeihamba’s revelations?
To indulge in violence can be counter-productive.
But as we write this, Maj. Kakooza Mutale, whose Kalangala Action Plan unleashed terror on the population in 2001, is publicly training militias in the bushes of Luweero ostensibly in preparation to crush any resistance against the President. On the other hand, criticism continues to mount on police chief Kale Kayihura for the massive recruitment of the so-called crime preventers, largely seen as another militia-in-waiting.

Uganda Peoples Congress veteran politician Yona Kanyomozi says: “He (Museveni) will put a lot more effort in the West because if he loses the western region, he loses the whole thing. There will be violence, money and intimidation.”

Kanyomozi predicts, “He will also try to persuade people like Amanya Mushega to cross, appoint him say minister of East African Community Affairs, not that Mushega adds anything to him.”
A member of the Opposition FDC, Mushega, has recently startled observers with a bare knuckles attack against Besigye, criticising him for going against his word on not contesting for the presidency with Museveni still in the picture. Anyone can read anything into this.

Contrary to the notion that he stayed off violence in 2011 and used money instead, Kanyomozi argues, “Actually he used both violence and money. In Ntungamo, Augustine Ruzindana faced the wrath of the State.” Because he cannot bank his trust on Buganda as a voting bloc, Kanyomozi says, Museveni will focus more on the west where he could lose some support to former prime minister Amama Mbabazi, a man who despite being run out of the ruling party, remains a subject of particular interest in those very quarters.

What then does the President have up his sleeves?
The NRM deputy secretary general Richard Todwong is alive to the reality of what Mr Mbabazi has called a tired nation. With one of the world’s youngest populations, the unemployment rate among the youth is choking at a staggering 83 per cent. Todwong says the task for Museveni’s handlers is to coin a message of hope for this large constituency.

NRM Picks Legal Battle With Mbabazi

In an internal memo seen by Radio Katwe, NRM legal officer Mr Mubarak Kalungi argues that Mr Mbabazi must first completely strip himself of NRM membership, by among other things, returning the party card. Short of that, the deposed NRM secretary general, who last week picked nomination forms to run for President, according to the memo, cannot consult as an independent presidential candidate when he still subscribes membership to the ruling party. Kalungi does not cite any law save for his party rules with very loose interpretations such as an implied requirement to pay allegiance to the party and support the official candidate.

Mr Kalungi argues, "Mbabazi cannot consult any party member on his presidential bid as he plans to do simply because the party on July 31 officially got a sole candidate implying that he is now the party's sole candidate who can interact with the party members over his candidature and not any other party member."

For Mbabazi to enjoy his right to consult as provided for under section three of the Presidential Elections Act, he must, according to NRM's legal office, do two things: One is to return the NRM membership card so, "he ceases being NRM to ably go independent. By returning the card, Mbabazi would lose his seat and going independent automatically makes him lose the seat."
 
This is grounded in the party's belief that any attempt by Mbabazi to consult while still a member of the party will, "put him in breach of the party code of conduct specifically rule four which bars any member or leader of NRM from campaigning against the official candidate of NRM." Local Government minister Adolf Mwesigye, one of NRM's legal minds, has already indicated an intention to challenge Mr Mbabazi in court on similar grounds although there does not seem to be unanimity on this course of action.

NRM deputy spokesman Ofwono Opondo when contacted for a comment said, "My political opinion doesn't matter when somebody has gone to court. Talk to Adolf." Appearing on NBS TV last week, Mr Ofwono passionately discussed the futility of picking on the next legal battle. He actually saw no reason for a legal battle, arguing the impasse, if any, should be finished on the political turf. Opondo's take seems to resonate with other top legal minds in the NRM who when contacted, preferred not to be quoted, for fear of being misunderstood. Upon perusing Mr Kalungi's legal opinion, our sources in and out of NRM wondered what law he was reading and ridiculed their peer. One of them said, "I don't see any legal dispute. If Mbabazi wants to leave he can do so, there is no contradiction.
He can't be forced to remain if he has left the party." According to the source, Mr Mbabazi's de facto legal status accruing from his actions, are nothing short of a man who has clearly disembarked from the 'Yellow Bus', the NRM party symbol.

In Islamic family law for instance, one of the ways a man can divorce his wife is by simply saying, three times, "talak! talak! talak!". That is Arabic for "I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you." Those words are tantamount to a divorce and to demand that such a man play to and by the rules of a marriage he has let himself loose from, would be legally unsustainable.

In the 2010 case of Julius Maganda Vs NRM, Justice Stephen Musota held, "In the instant case, the applicant unequivocally opted out of the NRM party on his own volition and opted to move on as an independent, adding, "... the applicant cannot be an independent and at the same time be a member of the NRM party. The applicant's decision to opt out of the NRM and stand as an independent drove the applicant's case into the silent limbo of legal mootness. This immediately erased his membership of the NRM party."

Of course the other argument is why Mr Mbabazi continues to hold his Kinkizi west MP seat yet he has lost his NRM membership but that is debate for the parties that feel aggrieved and which remains unresolved in the Supreme Court matter between the four 'rebel MPs' expelled by their party and NRM.

Another insider who spoke on condition of anonymity also laughed at the assertion that Mbabazi must return his party card before he can enjoy his rights as an independent candidate. "There is no requirement that demands him to return his party card. Kizza Besigye and others who walked out were never asked to first return those cards. Clearly, he has left NRM and should not be pursued and forced to comply to NRM rules," he said.

Mr Mbabazi's lawyer Fred Muwema said, "the law governing nomination of presidential candidates is found outside the NRM rules. Section 10 of the Presidential Elections Act requires one to pick nomination papers and spells out how he intends to be a candidate. Once that is satisfied he is given nomination forms." Mr Muwema's argument revives the debate, a disgraceful debate to have really, in which Mbabazi became a subject only recently when police and Electoral Commission functionaries demanded that he first harmonise his presidential aspiration with the party rules before he can consult. This demand, his team argued persuasively, was out of touch with the law as it contravened an act of Parliament and the Constitution which take precedence over the party rules.

Kalungi and Mr Mwesige's insistence that Mbabazi play by the NRM rules when his actions are in consonance with the national laws, their own colleagues in the NRM's legal circles say, "is most outrageous and a reading of the law upside down with a political rather than legal lense." "If you were previously engaged with a party is not a fact that you are required to inquire into because ultimately picking the nomination forms culminates into presidential candidature. The party has no power to strip you of independent candidature," Muwema says.

The ruling party, Muwema argues, is however free to privately sanction him and take disciplinary action but not over step its mandate and interfere with a national body because presidential nomination is outside the party.

Muwema, just like Mbabazi's other legal mind, Mr Severino Twinobusingye kept saying, the legal battle NRM has picked, "is a non starter. It is a very small issue which doesn't worry us. Actually our client is now busy soliciting signatures for his presidential bid across the country in preparation for the journey to State House. He has no time for non-issues at this juncture." It appears, the legal view within the NRM that Mr Mbabazi be challenged in the courts of law, is the handiwork of a few individuals whom sources in the secretariat, preferring to speak off record, claim is, "a move to ... tap into campaign monies ... . There is clearly no legal dispute to give us sleepless nights."

Whichever way the legal see-saw goes, whether the matter comes up in courts of law which set a precedent in the Maganda matter to the effect that he who goes independent automatically quits the party, and therefore cannot be bound by party rules, the divided opinion even in the fringe NRM legal circles points to an uncoordinated movement of troops, divergence of interests and puts on the spot a party that continues to grapple with harmony in its top echelons.

Janet Museveni's Plunge Into NRM Party Politics

Janet Museveni professes to be a born-again Christian, speaks about decency and goodness among the youth and women. Her addresses in the countryside are always punctuated with preaching of the Word of God peppered with quotes from the Bible.

While Ms Museveni's footprints can be traced in the early fight against HIV/Aids in the country, she has also, over time, evolved as a politician. The Ruhaama County MP is serving a second term in parliament and is a cabinet minister in her husband's government.  Museveni has said many times that he was opposed to her joining politics which is virtually a lie. He seems to have come around and routinely heaps praises on her for the handling of things in the Karamoja ministry docket yet the reverse is true.

Janet Museveni became a major topic of debate in May this year when announced she would not seek a third term as Ruhaama MP. Many praised her bold move and immediately started attacking Mr Museveni, in power for almost 30 years now, for not leaving the stage like her. But others read more into her pronouncment. They argued that her departure was probably part of a wider strategy; to climb to the top political ladder in the NRM hence the so-called 'Muhoozi Project' to get first son, Brig Muhoozi Kainerugaba into the picture.

There are parallels from near and far: In USA Ms Hilary Clinton, wife to 42nd US President Bill Clinton wants to succeed President Barrack Obama. In Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe's wife Grace Mugabe was last year elected head of ZANU PF women wing, and many say she has been put on the path to succeed her husband as the President.

Ms Museveni's picking of forms to contest as Ntungamo district NRM chairperson has sparked off interesting speculations. Is she just interested only in this seat or she is eying a bigger one, so in Ntungamo she is looking for an entry into NRM party politics? Is a there leadership vacuum in the district? This further empahasises the Muhoozi project which is well and alive.

While both President Museveni and first lady are born in the district, Ntungamo is amongst opposition strongholds in western Uganda. FDC icon, Dr Kizza Besigye, commands a big following in the district. He scored highly in both 2001 and 2006 especially in Kajara constituency.
Given that Maj. Gen. Mugisha Muntu, the FDC party president, is also born in Kajara; there is an anticipated shift in voting in favour of the Opposition.

Inside Major Rwabwoni Arrest At Entebbe Airport

Former opposition FDC Secretary for publicity, Anne Mugisha, has chronicled her experience during the dramatic 2011 presidential election campaigns.

The race was quite spectacular considering that this was the first time president Museveni’s presidency and democratic credentials were being openly challenged by a fellow NRA historical, insider and army officer.

Besigye quickly turned into a symbol of resistance and bravery as the state moved in to contain him.
The epic moments were recorded by Mugisha, a close ally of Besigye and his wife Winnie Byanyima.
Anne Mugisha, who is currently serving as Chief, Information Support Management the United Nations mission in Mogadishu, Somalia, has for the last few weeks been revealing eye-witness accounts of Besigye’s trials and triumphs during the election season.

Mugisha’s stories are relevant to today’s political climate as the country prepares for the 2016 presidential elections.

Anne Mugisha recounts the spectacular arrest of then military intelligence chief, Brig Noble Mayombo’s brother, Major Okwir Rabwoni at Entebbe International Airport:
On 20 February 2001, Major Okwir Rabwoni was abducted by the military at Entebbe Airport in full view of the media and members of the diplomatic corps.

His brutal capture and abduction was one of the lowest points of the 2001 presidential election campaign.

The conflicting stories which appeared in the two dailies, New Vision and Monitor about Major Rabwoni’s defection from the EKBTF (Elect Kizza Besigye Tasforce) infuriated the incumbent’s campaign team and government’s coercion machinery was unleashed to make an example of him.
Among those who led the efforts to punish Major Okwir was none other than his own brother, Major Noble Mayombo who at the time was Chief of Military Intelligence.

The night before, it had been decided that Okwir remain with Besigye on the campaign trail because it was inconceivable that anyone would try to arrest or molest him publicly, right? Wrong!
The next morning the candidate and his entourage headed to Entebbe International Airport to catch a flight to north-western Uganda where rallies had been scheduled. I was working at my desk when I received a call from Kizza Besigye.

He sounded out of breath and he asked me to call the press and tell them to hurry up to the V.I.P Lounge at Entebbe Airport where a small battle was underway. I immediately called Andrew Mwenda who managed to get to the lounge in Entebbe and capture part of the ugly scene before it ended.

Soldiers under the command of an army officer, Moses Rwakitarate, had appeared at the lounge and asked Okwir to follow them out of the lounge.

He refused and they decided to physically manhandle him but the EKBTF members who were at the airport including the candidate were not about to let their campaigner go without a fight.
When he called me, Kizza Besigye (KB) was physically battling soldiers. He had a couple of men and three tough women on his side and they were grabbing at any item and throwing it at the soldiers. Phones became flying projectiles as did some high heels and purses.

The soldiers retreated possibly in shock at the determination of this small group which had surrounded Okwir to stop his arbitrary arrest.

I heard the fracas over the phone and begged KB not to participate in the fight as my mind played out the publicity angle and how it would damage him as a candidate.

He said “If I was not participating they would have taken him already.” The call ended mid sentence and I wondered if that phone too had become a flying missile.

At some point during this drama the Norwegian Ambassador and the Secretary General of the East African Community Francis Muthaura, arrived at the V.I.P lounge on their way to catch a flight and they were shocked at what they encountered. Kizza Besigye spotted them and shouted, “Come and see how we are consolidating our democracy!”

After some aborted attempts to forcibly capture Okwir, the soldiers were reinforced with higher command when Col. Kasirye Ggwanga appeared on the scene asking, “Whodunnit?” They moved in for the final assault, Kizza Besigye was thrown on his back and a soldier held him down with his knee pressed in the candidate’s belly. Okwir was pulled away and taken forcibly from the team.

Human rights 

The flight to Adjumani did not happen.

This is how the rights advocacy organization Human Rights Watch, reported the incident back then in their report; ‘UGANDA: Not a Level Playing Field:’

‘Maj. Rabwoni Okwir, the head of Dr. Besigye’s youth desk was violently detained without charge at Entebbe Airport on February 20. Military police and armed men made the arrest in civilian clothes after a four-and-a-half-hour stand-off between Okwir’s supporters and security agents in the VIP lounge.

Okwir was beaten and carried away by soldiers who threw him into the back of a pick-up truck, hit him with rifle butts, and sat on him as they drove away. He sustained injuries to his ribs.
The security personnel said they had strict orders to take Okwir to Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) headquarters.

Okwir was taken to CMI, where he was stripped to his trousers and then interrogated by seven military intelligence officers for six hours, among other things about the political opposition’s internal dynamics as well as its funding sources. They threatened him, but did not physically abuse him.

The following day he was released on condition that he wrote a statement disavowing the opposition. He read a statement to the press at parliament that night saying that he had withdrawn from Dr. Besigye’s task force.

He said he had not been tortured or in any way intimidated. No questions were allowed at the press conference which only plain-clothed security personnel and a few MPs attended.

As he left Mr. Okwir told a journalist from the Monitor newspaper that he was feeling ill and was going home to rest. “I am going home; I have pain all over my body.”

Okwir was never charged, although the army subsequently claimed that he was detained in his own interest to protect him from a plot by Dr. Besigye to kill him and blame it on the government. He has since left Uganda for medical treatment.”

I sat in James Musinguzi’s living room in Mbuya, with a few members of the Task Force. There was anger, rage and disbelief in the air but no one seemed to be able to find the words to express it so we sat quietly and fumed inside as we waited for a much publicized television statement that was to be made by the Head of State on the arrest of Okwir Rabwoni.

By and by the President appeared on the screen and James Musinguzi got out of his chair and moved to sit behind the television. We looked at him curiously and he said, “I will listen to him but I do not have to look at him.”

I kind of understood how he felt. The President made a statement in which he basically said Okwir Rabwoni had been arrested to save him from the opposition which was planning to abduct him and harm him. I did not need to hear or remember any more than that so I grabbed my car keys and returned to my apartment.

Okwir was never charged with any offence in any court of law. He was sent off to exile in the United Kingdom where he remained for many years.

He returned quietly to the country and is still an activist but he keeps a low profile away from the glare of unwarranted publicity.

Ssematimba's Rigged Elections

Radio Katwe has received reports that former prime minister Amama Mbabazi was involved in ballot stuffing and other electoral malpractices to facilitate the victory of Peter Ssematimba in the hotly-contested 2011 Mayoral elections.

Ssematimba was floored by opposition strongman, Erias Lukwago despite widespread violence and street battles between the former’s supporters with security forces. Bullets and teargas rocked Kampala suburbs as Lukwago’s supporters foiled attempts to rig the polls.

Retired Maj Gen Benon Biraaro said he was among the first people to witness attempts by government officials to rig the elections in favour of Ssematimba. “At around 6:00am, I drove to Kisugu polling station along Entebbe Road where I found ballot boxes full of pre-ticked votes,” recounted Gen Biraaro. “Then I picked my mobile phone and called then army commander, Gen Aronda Nyakairima. I asked him: ‘What is this? I am seeing ballot boxes full of ticked votes. What’s going on?” revealed Biraaro who has since declared plans to contest for president in the 2016 elections. “I told Gen Aronda that it is now 6:00am. People haven’t started voting. Where did these votes come from?” In his response, Gen Aronda seems to have been aware of the rigging plot.

Gen Biraaro said he was shocked by the response from the Chief of Defence Forces: “Gen Aronda told me that the rigging was being spearheaded and supervised by Mbabazi.” Biraaro quoted Aronda as speaking: “It’s Amama and team who slept at Conference Centre (Kampala Serena Hotel) doing that. Ooh, that’s good news if they have delivered already.” A baffled Biraaro hit back: “But that’s not what we promised people; we promised free and fair elections. I called you to complain that this is very wrong and unacceptable. This is not right at all.”

Biraaro said he realised that the Mayoral elections would not be free and fair thus mobilising his colleagues to bust the rigging racket.  “We managed to help Lukwago to nip this plan in the bud. So opposition should know that some of us played some roles to ensure free and fair elections,”
The revelations come at a time when Mbabazi is expected to announce his 2016 presidential bid. He has since called for the implementation of the proposed electoral reforms to deliver free and fair elections. Mbabazi has previously denied rigging elections. He served as NRM’s Secretary General before being removed from office by his party in December 2014.

With such damning revelations, Radio Katwe calls on Ugandans not to trust Amama Mbabazi who was involved in evil deeds of Museveni's NRM government and rigging election on a wider scale.

RADIO KATWE SALUTES AFANDE BIRAARO FOR EXPOSING THIS ROTTEN REGIME.

General Sejjusa's Assignment

Sejjusa's current assignment is to cripple and destroy opposition but first he must win their trust. And  it seems the gymic is working. However, This is the man who was in Museveni's brutal government for 27 years. He was Involved in running Museveni's Torture machinery and responsible for brutal deaths in Northern Uganda. What has changed or new for General Sejjusa to come out calling for new Leadership in Uganda yet he would have resigned or jumped ship at his spell in the early years of 1990's. What goes around comes around.

Radio Katwe brings you General Sejjusa's full statement.

The current struggle for political change in Uganda has arrived at a pivotal stage. The warning lights for Mr Museveni to leave power, in order that Ugandans can begin to construct a new society that is politically stable, socially cohesive and economically fair and progressive, are no longer mere warning lights, but flood lights, foretelling the coming victory of the People in the decisive final battles for change. The dismantling of Mr Museveni’s corrupt and repressive regime has entered a new critical phase where all the patriotic freedom forces, be they political opposition groupings, youth movements, religious organisations, civil society activists or even progressive Ugandan citizens within the NRM ruling party, are converging into a formidable anti-regime frontline determined to deny any political oxygen to Mr Museveni and the few remaining supporters of the embattled regime.

And for those who may not know, there is now clear evidence that even Mr Museveni himself is aware of the disastrously fragile state of his government and the unstoppable and incredibly formidable forces that are now assembled against the regime. Unfortunately for Mr Museveni, the goings-on in Uganda’s current political space are rapidly becoming an inextinguishable political dynamite, and his usual ‘bully-boy’ tactics and violence- parked survival antics are edging to near- obsolete. The fear-factor and scaremongering techniques which he has habitually applied to tame and silence anti-regime activists is no longer applicable, as the people have lost their fear and their determination to stand up and be counted is at its highest since Museveni came to power.
Within the ruling echelons, not only have the topmost government leaders and party functionaries abandoned Mr Museveni, but, even the NRM youths and grassroots activists, who have always been the mainstay of the ruling establishment, are now actively involved in the struggle to take Uganda to the next juncture beyond Museveni.

In the next few months this precarious situation for the president will unravel into an unstoppable dynamic of revolutionary activism for change even within his own NRM party.In the meantime, the traditional opposition political parties and formations which have, hitherto, been divided and fragmented in their approaches to the regime, and also indecisive as to which path to take in regard to the way forward, are now beginning to unanimously echo one serious message between them – they are all starting to call upon the masses to prepare to confront and disable Mr Museveni’s final tramp card in his floundering survival game-play – i.e., the 2016 election. The resounding message, that is shaping up by the day, right across the nation is that the masses will not allow Mr Museveni to ever again organise and make happen the type of sham and fraudulent elections that have been the norm throughout the nearly three decades of his rule. The people of all political persuasions are preparing to prevent Mr Museveni to operationalise the nakedly fraudulent processes and illegalities which have qualified the 2016 elections, even before they can happen, as being “already rigged” and incapable of being free or fair.

The 2016 elections are “already rigged” because of the fraudulent processes of ID provision, which are involving the giving of Ugandan IDs to foreigners, while denying them to many Ugandan citizens without any reason, unacceptable practices of bribing some sections of the electorate, and the wanton misuse and abuse of state resources and institutions to ensure a Museveni victory, not to mention the absolute determination by Mr Museveni to maintain the current biased and zealously pro-regime electoral commission structures and processes unreformed. Truth be told – the Mr Museveni, with his entrenched undemocratic credentials, is not about to suddenly change his colours and deliver the necessary electoral and political reforms to ensure free and fair elections in Uganda. Whoever is hoping for this eventuality must be the greatest day-dreamer in the country.

The hard choices before the Ugandan people, therefore, are only two: Whether to allow Mr. Museveni to remain in power indefinitely, by letting him to carry through his 2016 and post-2016 “family project”, which seeks to create a life-presidency for the incumbent and his family, Or, on the other hand, to say NO – IT WILL NOT HAPPEN, and proceed to dismantle the regime, in accordance with the provisions of the constitution, whereby the people are supreme and are required to express their patriotism by intervening and putting a stop to the type of grievous violations and rape of the constitution witnessed by Ugandans across the decades. Embracing the Struggle for a New Political dispensation Without Museveni.

With the Uganda nation firmly positioned at the cross roads of its political destiny, Ugandans are not only becoming bold enough to publically and determinedly demand for their rights and freedoms as citizens and human beings, but they are also starting to engage in an open debate about the type of society they would like to live in, post-Museveni. Of course, it is only logical that a fully-fledged national dialogue will be inevitable to harmonise all the various strands of political, economic, socio-cultural aspirations and ideas that have been taking shape in the diverse public spaces, be it among political activists, civil society campaigners, religious fraternities, youth forums, rural community settings, market places, work places and all other such localities.

That dialogue will capture the unavoidable practical realisms, such as how to set up an all- inclusive transitional political governance arrangement to oversee the creation of a new constitutional framework that can ensure that Uganda is a truly modern state with all the inherent rights and freedoms for the country’s citizens not only guaranteed as such, but permanently safeguarded with the necessary enforcement and actualisation systems and institutions.

It is worth noting that, already, a national consensus does exist around the fundamentals of the new society that has to emerge once the dictatorship is fully dismantled The fundamental pillars for building a new society will include a properly functioning and unadulterated judiciary and legislature, an unviolated Bank of Uganda and the rest of the banking sector; security services that are non- partisan and are not subjected to abuse by those in power; the all-important conducive democratic infrastructure that is fortified by an independent electoral commission; and all the other associated democracy-defining indices, such as the citizens’ right of assembly and freedom to protest; as well as a free press and the media in general that is nourished by the core values of freedom of expression and freedom of speech, and not one that lives in total fear and gets calls from state operatives and is under constant threat of closure.

Regrettably for Uganda, the last three decades have seen Mr. Museveni, capture, subvert and personalise the only existing institutions of state, an incredible idiosyncrasy that has, for example, transformed the country’s elections from a process of democratic contest into a presidential procession, where a disempowered, choice-less electorate and subservient institutions, such as the police and the security services, merely escort the incumbent president and his ruling party to statehouse.

To bring about an enduring and sustainable democratic infrastructure in a post-Museveni Uganda, all the citizens will have to embrace, the virtues of constitutionalism, and, in particular, the principles of accountability for those tasked with managing the country’s affairs. It is important to note that this is not just about any reforms that would merely alter the status quo, but rather a systemic overhaul of the decayed state.

The new Uganda will be a place where public institutions are respected and protected, and not abused or misused; where corruption and nepotism and all manner of bad governance, are not tolerated; where tribalism is rejected, and multiculturalism and inter-ethnic co-existence are upheld; where religious tolerance is the norm, and social harmony as well as mutual inter- dependence of all the people of Uganda define the collective identity of the New Uganda – a Uganda where all citizens are equal before the law of the Land.

The emergence of a totally new political dispensation will help to usher in a pro-people governance and societal management ethic, where those in power are subservient to and not masters over the people. Federal Arrangement for the New Uganda nation: Power will be devolved away from State House right to the people, through a mutually agreed Federal governance arrangement that emphasizes the centrality of the people themselves in developmental decision-making. Accordingly, all the nation’s economic advancement and development will manifest through the principles of equitable sharing and distribution of the country’s wealth and resources to ensure progress for all. Fellow citizens, lets us all work for a new future and destiny. Let us embrace a new beginning that will bring love between the peoples, rather than hatred; reconciliation and forgiveness, rather than revenge and retribution.

Message to Mr Museveni: As for Mr Museveni – the special message to you is as follows – you have made your contributions to Uganda during the nearly 30 years of your presidency – some positive, but others grievously negative. Your time to retire from public office is HERE AND NOW. And it makes great sense for you to retire peacefully and honourably, just like the First Lady, Mrs Janet Kataaha Museveni has pledged to do in her recent proclamations. It does not make any sense whatsoever for you to wait to be forced out of power in ways that could sink the country into the ultimate abyss. Uganda is bigger than any individual, including you, Mr Museveni. It is a Land of 35 million citizens, and we all, in our individual capacities, have a choice to make – either to destroy ourselves and our Motherland and have nowhere to call home, or to embrace the promise of hope for a better future for us and our children to come, and to work for that future by doing the right and honourable thing.

Truth and reconciliation: In the spirit of mutual understanding, and through the inevitable processes of TRUTH AND RECONCILLIATION, Ugandans, in the new Uganda, will be capable of examining what went wrong in the past, and going forward, they will seek ways to unite the country in a manner that ensures that the ominous and ruinous demons and nightmares of our dark past do not rear their ugly heads ever again.

Janet Museveni - Uganda's First Lady

Janet Kataaha Museveni has finally announced her retirement from Parliament, Stating that she is not standing again to contest for the Ruhaama MP seat.

Mrs Museveni who is also the State Minister for Karamoja Affairs has represented the Ruhaama people for two terms.

Radio Katwe has received reports that Museveni is planning to front his wife to stand for 2016 Presidential elections. As we previously reported, Museveni treats Uganda as his family asset.

Janet Museveni's Statement to the people of Ruhaama, she says "I am still serving until the end of my term. Therefore, I would like you to stay calm because I am still here". That clearly illustrates that she has not retired but rather still around and greedy to rise to the presidential platform. Furthermore, Janet asks people to stay calm as she and Museveni do not want to experience the exact recent  Burundi chaos which nearly resulted into a coup.

Who is Janet Museveni

Janet Kataha Museveni (nee Keinembabazi) was born on August 15, 1949, in Bwongyera village, Kajara, Ntungamo, Uganda).

Her parents were Mr and Mrs Edward Kataha. Her father also got a child with an aunt of Janet's and this cousin as well as step-sister to Janet was called Jennifer Nankunda, who later became Mrs. Jennifer Kuteesa, wife of the current UN Envoy Sam Kuteesa.
Janet Keinembabazi attended Kyamate primary school around the same time as one Violet Kajubiri, a step-sister to Yoweri Museveni. She went on for high school to Bweranyagye Girls' Secondary School.

As Radio Katwe reported, at Bweranyangye Girls', Janet Keinembabazi was an insignificant student; there were times that she was the bottom of the class. She does not like to be reminded of her poor school performance, and this is why she has rarely identified herself much in public with her former school or its activities.

She did not pass her O'Levels and went to live with a well-to-do cousin, John Wycliffe Kazzora, who financed her overseas studies. She attended a secretarial course in Wales and on returning to Uganda got a job as a ground hostess with the then East African Airways.
She had originally applied to be an air stewardess but was turned down because she suffers from epilepsy. During her East African Airways tour in the Nairobi office, she worked with air hostesses like the late Dorcas Karara.

It is also said by some of her former colleagues in Nairobi that she was a girlfriend of the Nairobi East African Airways manager, Patrick Makumbi, with whom she had intimate relations.
Around 1971, she is supposed to have fallen in love with a young man called William Mwesigwa, nicknamed "Black Mwesigwa". Mwesigwa was a classmate of Yoweri Museveni at Ntare School in the 1960s and he shared Museveni's love for guerrilla warfare and revolutionary talk.
When Mwesigwa fled to exile in Tanzania in 1971 and became involved in guerrilla war against the new government of President Idi Amin, Janet Keinembabazi joined him there. Janet Keinembabazi, Mwesigwa, Museveni, and Hope Rwaheru shared a house in Dar es Salaam because as refugees they did not have much money to rent different houses.

After Museveni killed Mwesigwa in 1972, Janet became romantically close to Museveni. Museveni himself had another child called Muhoozi Kainerugaba by Hope Rwaheru and he murdered Hope around 1974.

Some sources say Museveni and Janet Kataha got married in London in August 1973 but most information available in Uganda says that the two have never formally legalised their marriage and that has remained a cause of tensions between them. For example, no single photograph of Museveni has ever been seen of him with a wedding ring on his finger.

When the Amin regime fell from power in April 1979, the Musevenis moved back to Uganda from Tanzania.

Most reports say a daughter Natasha was born to the couple in 1976 and another daughter Patience, was born in 1980 and their last child, Diana, was born in 1981. But some reports from knowledgeable sources in the Uganda People's Congress party say that details of Natasha are not clear. The UPC people claim that Natasha was a child of Janet and Black Mwesigwa or another comrade of Museveni's called Martin Mwesiga who Museveni murdered in 1974. Others say that Natasha's real father could even be Patrick Makumbi, her former boss and lover when she worked for East African Airways.

They argue that the only children between Museveni and Janet are Patience and Diana. Around the time that Major Muhoozi Kainerugaba got married in 1999, Ugandan newspapers used to confuse Patience and Diana because of how much they resemble, but none of them confused Natasha with any of her sisters.

These pundits also point to the behaviour of the Museveni children. They say that whereas Patience who is now married to Odrek Rwabwogo and Diana who is now married to Geoffrey Kamuntu have been in the public eye like Muhoozi and Natasha, Patience and Diana have remained without any reports or rumours of scandal or strange behaviour all their lives.

But the Museveni children who have gone wild, been violent sometimes, or sexually loose have been Muhoozi and Natasha, because when they were told about their real parents, it affected them. Muhoozi once pulled a gun at the gate of Nile Hotel in Kampala when he was stopped from entering a music show and Natasha's pregnancy and abortion with soldiers' children is well-known.
In 1981 when Museveni launched his guerrilla war against the new government of former President Milton Obote, Janet Museveni and her children re-located to Nairobi, Kenya, where they lived with family friends until 1983.

In 1983, the Museveni family moved to Gottenberg, Sweden, where they lived until May 1986, four months after Museveni had captured state power in Kampala. In Sweden they lived on the same apartment block as the children of Amelia Kyambadde, who is now the Minister of Trade and Industry.

When Museveni captured state power in 1986, he had vowed that his new wife was now Winnie Byanyima, who had been his childhood friend and then secret girlfriend since the late 1970s.
That is why Janet did not immediately come to Uganda when her husband took power because Byanyima was in her way. Prominent church leaders and Museveni's Prime Minister the late Dr. Samson Kisekka told Museveni that his continuing affair with Byanyima was embarrassing him and Uganda.

That was when Museveni ordered his stepbrother Salim Saleh to evict Byanyima from State House and Janet came to Uganda in May 1986. Janet Museveni then started a campaign to show Winnie Byanyima as an evil and malicious woman who tried to kidnap Museveni's son Muhoozi and so on.
Janet founded the Uganda Women's Effort to Save Orphans (UWESO), a private relief agency in late 1986 which she said was shaped by her experience as a refugee. She also became involved with the HIV/AIDS campaign in Uganda through the 1990s.

In fact, the warm feelings between Patrick Makumbi and Janet continued after she became First Lady that for a number of years the Kampala office of UWESO was located at the Kampala City Council offices, where Makumbi was the Town Clerk. When Museveni discovered that the two were still an item, he worked toward the dismissal of Makumbi as Town Clerk.

Many people, though, do not know that under the cover of UNESCO, Janet Museveni has been receiving large financial and material donations from Europe and North America, which she channels to her children and some of her loyal staff. It is the money she raises from local donations that she actually gives to Uganda's orphans.

Around 1988 or 1989, Janet Museveni got the shock of her life when she tested positive for HIV, which she got from her husband. In those days, people who got AIDS were sure they were going to die because there were no antiretroviral drugs yet.

The shock of being found HIV-positive is what made Mrs. Museveni turn to religion for comfort and she started following the �gborn again�h movement. At the same time, her husband's excessive infidelity and getting many children out of wedlock pushed Janet more and more in the direction of religion.

In 1992, the "Uganda Confidential" newsletter reported that Janet Museveni and her half sister/half cousin Jennifer Kuteesa had been involved in a land wrangle with the Kagondoki family in Ntungamo and to resolve it, they arranged for the murder of one of the boys, Aaron Kagondoki.
In 1994, Janet Museveni decided to pursue a degree in education at Makerere University.
As usual, she was dull in class and a no-nonsense and principled lecturer in the Department of Psychology, a Mr. Opolot, marked her exam paper and she had to do a re-take because she had failed the paper.

As usual, she took a leaf from her husband who disregards institutions which stand in his way. Janet Museveni was humiliated by having to be told to do a re-take and using the power of State House, she influenced Makerere University to expel Opolot.
She was awarded free marks in the paper, she did not do the teaching practice which is compulsory for undergraduates pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education, and so she got a junk degree from Makerere. Meanwhile, while Janet Museveni was trying to behave in public as a God-fearing woman of high moral standards, the public was hearing something different.

In the mid 1990s, her daughter Natasha from nowhere turned into a crazy girl and began doing crazy things. She started sleeping with President Museveni's aide de camp, Captain Kavuma, and she got pregnant by a sergeant who used to be a guard at State House. When it came to discussing what to do about Natasha's pregnancy, Museveni took a liberal position saying since it had already happened they had to live with it. (This makes us wonder if Museveni could be so casual about it if Natasha was his real daughter). Mrs. Museveni refused to hear that and insisted that Natasha had to have an abortion so that she could get a "proper" marriage in future. The abortion was carried out on the orders of the God-fearing born-again Janet Museveni.

There were also reports from sources inside State House around 1999 that Janet Museveni had tried to befriend and sleep with a young soldier in State House but the soldier could not imagine such a thing and he refused and fled into exile in London.

The Internet Wikipedia encyclopedia said in a profile of Mrs. Museveni this way:
"[D]uring this same period there grew an impression in Uganda that Janet Museveni, behind her modest Christian beliefs, led an extravagant lifestyle.

In May 2000, the government-owned New Vision published a story saying that the Libyan leader Col. Mu'ammar Gadhafi had donated a $100,000 BMW car to Janet Museveni. The light green BMW, model 740, was flown to Entebbe International Airport from Libya in October 1999. Abbas Misurati of the Libyan embassy in Kampala confirmed the reports, saying the car was a personal gift from Gadhafi to the First Lady.

Janet Museveni has been widely rumoured to be the core shareholder in a number of Uganda's largest businesses ranging from hotels to real estate and telecommunications. Among these are the Hotloaf Bakery, Simu telephone booth company, Garden City Complex, East African Airlines, Crane Bank, and the Imperial Resort Beach Hotel." That is a reputable encyclopedia telling you about Janet Museveni, not Radio Katwe which some people think just hates the First Family.

In 2005, an elusive fellow called Smart Musolin who says he writes from Entebbe broke the story to the world that Janet Museveni has having an affair with a Swedish man of Eritrean origin and she had bought him a lavish house in Sweden. It seems Mrs. Museveni had become tired of all her husband's extramarital escapades. The latest reports say he now has four wives, apart from Janet.
In fact one time on his radio show, the loud mouth Andrew Mwenda told the KFM listeners that Museveni in 2004 was introduced to the family of a young woman for a traditional wedding by Brigadier Jim Muhwezi. State House did not deny Mwenda's claims. Another shocking report says that there is a room in State House which is kept strictly locked, 24 hours a day. The only person who has the key to it and opens it is President Museveni himself. One day, Janet Museveni got the key in one way or the other and went to check the room to see what her husband keeps there which nobody is allowed to see. The sources said she opened the room and almost fainted. On the floor there was something that looked like a traditional African witchcraft shrine and it was surrounded by bones, teeth of animals and other juju things. In the middle of it there was a life-size statue of....Yoweri Museveni! Mrs. Museveni could not believe that her husband had become so mad and was now a full worshipper of witchcraft!

In November 2005, she announced that she would seek the parliamentary seat of Ruhama in the election of February 23, 2006.

On the day of nominations, Janet Museveni was nominated in the morning and her rival Augustine Ruzindana of FDC was nominated in the afternoon. After her nomination, Mrs. Museveni threw a big party in the township paid for by State House.

Ruzindana did not have that kind of money and he instead went about meeting people and asking for their support. Instead of the Ruhaama people abandoning him because he had no money, the villagers contributed their goats, bulls, and chicken and threw a party for him and themselves. That is how little support Janet Museveni has in Ntungamo.

In fact, the thing which got the Canadian journalist Blake Lambert in trouble with the government Media Centre was not because of his anti-NRM views (he is a moderate in his views, we are told), but because he visited Ruhaama and spent a week there and when he came back, he concluded that there was no way Janet Museveni could win the parliamentary seat there.