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.

Museveni's Family Ownership Of Uganda

Examining the structure of effective political power in Uganda to day and explained; “Museveni appointed his wife, Mrs Janet Museveni, as Cabinet minister for Karamoja and MP for Ruhaama County; his brother, Gen. Salim Saleh, formerly a minister of state for micro finance, as Senior Presidential Advisor on defence, a job at the same rank as a cabinet minister; his brother-in-law, Sam Kuteesa, as minister of foreign affairs; his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, commander of the Special Forces, his daughter Natasha Karugire, Private Secretary to the president in charge of Household.
“Museveni has also appointed his nephew, Joseph Ekwau (son of his younger sister Violet Kajubiri), Private Secretary to the President in charge of Medical Services (HIV//AIDS); his sister Miriam Karugaba as Administrator at State House (she is semi-literate) and her husband (therefore  Museveni’s brother-in-law), Jimmy Karugaba, as Officer in Charge (OC) of the Accounts
Department at State House. Museveni has also appointed his sister-in-law, Jolly Sabune, Executive Director of Cotton Development Authority; his niece-in-law, Hope Nyakairu, Undersecretary for Administration and Finance at State House; his cousin Bright Rwamirama, State Minister for Animal Husbandry; his other cousin, Faith Katana Mirembe, Assistant Private Secretary in charge of Education and Social Services and Justus Karuhanga, Private Secretary to the President in charge of Legal Affairs who is a nephew to Mrs Museveni. 

Many observers say that increasing family influence in government has gone hand in hand with the informalisation of power. Thus, although formal authority is vested in official institutions, effective power is wielded by this informal clique of family and kin. The official structure presents a semblance of national ethno-regional and religious diversity to win the regime legitimacy. The informal but highly powerful structure of the closest of the president’s family and kin is the “real” government.” However, it still comes as a sensation to thousands of Ugandans who did not know, up to that point, the extent to which national power had been concentrated in the hands of one family, the Museveni family and that there was, in reality, no Uganda government in existence. Whoever thinks they work for a Uganda government is, in effect, working as a servant to the Museveni family. “Stanbic Bank belongs to the [First] family. They are paid 200million [Uganda shillings] per month as administration fees via an escrow account in [South Africa].” An escrow account is a kind of temporary account awaiting verification of goods and services.Sources at Stanbic Bank talk of cheques being signed to pay the Museveni family “administrative fees” even though they do not have supporting documentation to justify or explain the payment. The way the Museveni family is paid royalties, or rent, by escrow accounts for their ownership of the title deeds of the Stanbic Bank business name in Uganda (what was once the Uganda Commercial Bank, Uganda’s largest banking group) is the way it is paid for their ownership of other apparently South African or foreign-owned businesses in Uganda. These sources say that it is Stanbic Bank that is used to finance businesses like Roofings Ltd, Speke Resort Munyonyo, the J&M Hotel along the Kampala-Entebbe highway, businessman Hassan Basajjabalaba’s hotel and Kampala International University, all of which actually belong to the Museveni family. Information gathered by Radio Katwe shed astonishing light on the extent to which the Museveni family has taken control of Uganda. In 2002, some officials at the African Development Bank (ADB) headquarters in Tunis, Tunisia, and who had once held President Museveni in high esteem, were shocked to discover, after some investigation, that the money that built Garden City shopping complex in Kampala had been from a loan borrowed from the ADB. However, the ADB officials said that this loan was then used to appear to finance the construction of Garden City, and yet in reality the money that built Garden City had been looted from the Ugandan treasury and the ADB loan was used by the Museveni family to give the Garden City project the appearance of legitimacy. Employees working at Roofings Ltd., owned by Janet Museveni, openly tell their colleagues about how they have been forwarded to the company by State House and how it is owned by the Museveni family. The chairman of Stanbic Bank Uganda, Hannington Karuhanga, is not without coincidence a cousin to Janet Museveni. This ownership of Kampala International University is the reason (and there is no other reason) that explains why Hassan Basajjabalaba is repeatedly given bailouts by the Bank of Uganda on orders of President Yoweri Museveni. Sometimes, it almost appears that Museveni is forcing Basajjabalaba to take the money. Below is a list of the Museveni family and henchmen’s property in Uganda as compiled by the investigative team of Radio Katwe:
Akamwesi — Salim Saleh
Aya Hotel — Yoweri Museveni
J & M Hotel — Janet Museveni
Greenland Towers — Janet Museveni
Roofings Ltd — Janet Museveni
Sameer Dairy Corporation — Yoweri Museveni
Malaysia Furniture — Janet Museveni
Nakumatt complex — Yoweri Museveni
Cham Towers — Yoweri Museveni
Crested Towers — Yoweri Museveni
Imperial Royale Hotel — Yoweri Museveni
Imperial Resort Beach Hotel — Yoweri Museveni
Bidco factory — Yoweri Museveni
Umeme — Muhoozi Kainerugaba
Uganda Telecom — Muhoozi Kainerugaba
Entebbe International Airport — Yoweri Museveni
Orient Bank — Sam Kuteesa
Garden City — Yoweri Museveni
Airtel — Salim Saleh
Warid Telecom — Amelia Kyambadde
MTN Uganda — Yoweri Museveni
ARVs drug factory — Yoweri Museveni
Speke Resort Munyonyo — Yoweri Museveni

The investigating team of Radio Katwe, by April 2015, were not yet sure about the ownership of the Serena Kampala Hotel and the International Conference Centre. However, there was an arrangement that if the Aga Khan was to take over, or buy the former Nile Hotel (now Serena Hotel), then President Yoweri Museveni would own the Bujagali Dam Project and if the Aga Khan wished to own the Bujagali project, then the Serena Hotel would be owned by Museveni.The details of this are still under investigation. Never has greed been so naked, never have the national assets of Uganda been stripped so completely by a single family. The story of the looting of Uganda’s property and the attempt to take total and single-handed control of the Ugandan economy is an even more incredible story than Museveni’s guerrilla adventures. The revelations of how Uganda found itself in 2015 under the control of a single family, as reported by Radio Katwe certainly one of the biggest stories of the year.

Museveni Tells US Press - I Could Decline to Run in 2016

Museveni has told the media in the United States how he prides in the role he has played in getting Uganda back on track through his thirty year tenure as the president of the Republic of Uganda.

“There is so much freedom in Uganda that it’s nearly anarchy,” Museveni joked, during an interview with the Associated Press in New York yesterday.
Casual in an un-tucked dress shirt during an interview at his hotel room in midtown Manhattan, the president gave his version of power and succession on the sidelines of his appearance at a high-level U.N. meeting, where he scolded the United States and the other permanent members of the Security Council on their approaches to Africa’s problems.
He had earlier on Tuesday met with White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice to discuss the conflicts in South Sudan and the Darfur region of Sudan.

Museveni in the interview is quoted as saying he could choose not to stand in the coming 2016 general elections although he refused to speak more about this possibility.
“There are conditions under which I might decline to run,” he said, “but they are not for the press to know.” (Why not for the press to know)
He said however that the ongoing legal efforts to block his candidature on the basis of his old age were an unlikely reason. Radio Katwe believes that such remarks by Museveni are a clear indication that he will run for presidency.

Museveni will be turning 71 next September, and once elected again, the next term will take him over the constitutional 75 years presidential age limit. A number of his critics including his former spymaster Gen David Sejusa are banking on this to block Museveni’s candidature.
Museveni said however, that he would let court decide on this matter, adding that all powers to decide on who will be carrying the NRM flag still remains in the hands of the ruling party.
“Whoever the party chooses will win. Absolutely, but we shall see that when we get there,” he noted.
Museveni further dismissed allegation that he was grooming his son Brig Muhoozi Kainerugaba to take over from him, stressing that it’s not always his wish but that of his party and the country that matters.
Dismissing accusations from critics that his rule over three decades has become more and more authoritarian, far from the days when former President Bill Clinton praised him as one of a “new breed” of reform-minded African leaders, Museveni said, “If anybody has been bullied, it is me.”

Museveni's Disregard of the People's Voices

Pundits are warning that President Yoweri Museveni's disregard of the people's voices might lead to a chaotic election or even a boycott.
"With these new developments," said Makerere University don Mwambutsya Ndebesa, "the fate of the elections looks very uncertain."
On the day the Constitutional Amendment Bill was presented to Parliament, the opposition pressure group; For God and My Country (4GC) which organised the 2011 Walk-to-Work protests that paralysed the country launched a new campaign.
Dubbed the Citizens' Reforms Now (CIREN), the new 4GC campaign, organisers say, aims to put pressure on government to withdraw the Bill and introduce one that has the reforms that were proposed by a wide-spectrum of Ugandans.
During the launch of the new campaign, former FDC President Kizza Besigye who was at the centre of Walk-to-Work protests said the government's belligerence on electoral reforms has pushed Ugandans to the edge. He said many are at the point of engaging in violence. Besigye, who is a former leader of Uganda's biggest opposition party; the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), was flanked by opposition stalwarts; Erias Lukwago, the embattled Lord Mayor of the Kampala Capital City Authority, and Asuman Basalirwa, the president of JEEMA party.


Although democracy activists and politicians handed over to the government last year 40 proposed electoral reforms; dubbed 'The Uganda Citizens Compact on Free and Fair Elections' (UCOFFE), none of them was in the document on April 30 when the government tabled the long-awaited Constitutional amendment Bill to Parliament.
Instead, the government tabled six amendments with only one of them touching on the electoral process. And, many commentators have said, it is a cynical one. It proposes that the name of the Electoral Commission be changed to the "Independent Electoral Commission".
The coordinator of the Citizens' coalition on Electoral Democracy (CCEDU), Crispy Kaheru, said it was shocking that the government would table a Bill like that after sitting on the proposals they were given for close to a year saying they were discussing them.
"You would think that the length of time cabinet took discussing the reforms would result into acceptable reforms," he said.

But prominent lawyer and former Ugandan representative in the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), Dan Wandera Ogalo, told The Independent that he was not surprised by the government's move. And his comments reflected the anger felt by many.
"Museveni's government has never respected the will of the people," the opposition politician said, "Ugandans are taken as imbeciles and idiots."
Another lawyer and Makerere University law Lecturer; Busingye Kabumba also described the contents of the Bill as "very cynical" and a disregard of the real issues that a range of actors collected from Ugandans.

No chance for opposition
Despite the heated initial reaction, some observers are predicting that Museveni, as usual, might have his way. His party; NRM, has an overwhelming majority in parliament and the opposition MPs have stood no chance in past confrontations.
In the run up to the last election in 2011, the opposition and civil society activists protested on the streets demanding the disbandment of the Electoral Commission.
The protesters were mostly advocating for the sacking of the commission's Chairman Badru Kigundu accusing him of failing to organise free and fair elections. They wanted Kigundu replaced with someone who would uphold the Independence of the commission and defend it from influence and interference from the incumbent government.

The protests were violently quelled by the army and police and some of the protesters, mostly the women led by the leader of the FDC Women's League were hospitalised after sustaining injuries from the scuffles with the police.
Immediately after the 2011 elections, the activists were joined by the donor community in fresh agitation for electoral reforms if there was to be a credible election in 2016.
When the government seemed unbothered, the activists took it upon themselves to undertake nationwide consultations to collect proposals on electoral reforms from Ugandans. The outcome was the 40 proposals handed to the government that have now been trashed.

New plots emerge
The activists and the opposition politicians have vowed to fight on to force the government to consider their electoral reform proposals. Kaheru told the Independent that CCEDU and its partners will not give up. He said they are going to continue mounting advocacy for a more inclusive Bill which takes into consideration the concerns of Ugandans which were expressed in the proposals that were submitted.
The opposition MPs have also vowed to fight them in parliament. The opposition MPs on the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee to which the Bill was referred say they will not support the report of the committee if it does not address the concerns that were left out of the Bill. The Leader of Opposition Wafula Oguttu parliament asked Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah to rule on whether the opposition members can table their own separate bill or whether they should submit their proposals to the committee.
It is not clear if the on-going regime of threats will culminate in either a boycott of elections or significant concessions from the government. Part of the problem is that the opposition leaders adopted a very confusing stance on the issue of boycott.
"We shall do everything in our power to stop any other election that does not conform to the principles of free and fair elections," Besigye said at the launch of the new protest group; CIREN.
He added: "We shall not allow Mr Museveni and Badru Kiggundu to organise a sham election... we are saying enough is enough."
But at the same time, JEEMA boss Asuman Basalirwa who was seated right next to Besigye said: "This is not a struggle for a boycott; none of us is going to boycott the next elections".It is, therefore, not clear what the opposition political leadership are planning. In the run-up to the 2011 election, out-going UPC president Olara Otunnu tried to mobilise opposition parties to boycott the election unless the government reforms the process. He failed.
Even before the current frenzy erupted, researcher and political analyst Frederick Golooba Mutebi had in an interview with the Independent warned the opposition not to expect Museveni to hand them the reforms they proposed. He warned the opposition to keep in mind that the ruling government which is prepared to win at all costs must always do things that will give it an upper hand in the election.
Makerere University's Ndebesa echoed this sentiment after the Bill was tabled. He said those opposing him should not expect Museveni to bow to any amount of pressure and he would not willingly do anything that will jeopardise his stay in power. "Besides, he doesn't look at democracy and good governance as very important," Ndebesa said, in a remark that sets the tone for the election which is less than 10 months away.

Major Muhoozi Kainerugaba --- up close and personal

Major Muhoozi Kainerugaba --- up close and personal

Radio Katwe promised its readers in March that we would bring you a dossier on the third most powerful man in Uganda, Major Muhoozi Kainerugaba.

Here it is for you.

Muhoozi as we all know is a son of President Yoweri Museveni (also known as “Mzee”).

The official line is that Muhoozi was born in 1974, but some sources say he could have been born in 1972 or 1973.

As we have been reporting and as the late President Milton Obote told the country long ago, Muhoozi was born out of a union between Museveni and a young Mutooro woman who either worked for the Foreign Service or was a recruit in the FRONASA organisation.

She was called Hope and had been Museveni’s housekeeper. She was a sister to Museveni’s former classmate Valerino Rwaheru at Ntare School in the 1960s.

Some UPC sources who know the story well say that one day in Tanzania, maybe in a state of mental breakdown or depression, Museveni pounced on Hope and cut her up with a panga (machete), killing her.

Other people say he suspected she was a spy planted on him by the Amin regime and he decided to murder her.

But the fact is that Muhoozi’s mother was murdered by Museveni and it has been and remained a closely guarded secret known to very few people.

Anyway, one day in 1978 when the Museveni family was still in exile in Dar es Salaam, Natasha who was still very young became sick with malaria.

Museveni came home in the evening and shouted at Muhoozi, asking him why he did not look after his sister so that she does not get malaria. You can imagine a man who shouts at a young boy who did not even understand what being sick was!

That is how Museveni’s relationship was and has remained with Muhoozi. They are not close in an emotional way. Muhoozi behaves toward Muhoozi as you would behave towards your boss at the office.

When Museveni came to power in 1986, Muhoozi and Natasha were taken to Kampala Parents School which was the best primary school at that time in Kampala.

Muhoozi was raised like his sisters Natasha, Patience, and Diana in the strict Mulokole (born again) way which Janet adopted a few years after Museveni came to power.

His friends at Kings’ College Budo used to wonder when they would see him going to the school chapel alone as a teenager and reading the Bible a lot. He was quiet and down to earth. You can even say he was humble.

He was the same person when he went to St. Mary’s College Kisubi for A’Level.

During their primary and secondary school days, Museveni’s children were not very bright in class and the First Couple used to hire teachers to come to State House and coach them during the holidays.

Museveni feels that his daughters are not very intelligent because they inherited their mother’s dullness.

But he does not tell us why Muhoozi is also not very sharp and yet Janet is not his mother.

Muhoozi did not perform outstandingly his A’Level and he was sent to Nottingham University to study economics and political science.

Some people claim that when Muhoozi was sent to Nottingham University, a one Fideri Kirungi who was an ISO agent was also given a scholarship to Nottingham under the cover of being a student, but that his main work was to safeguard Muhoozi and report on any threats to the President’s son.

Kirungi came back, got a job at the Monitor in Kampala and while he was there, he used to pass information on to ISO about Monitor activities. He later left the Monitor to start the Weekly Observer along with a number of Monitor staff like the late Kevin Aliro, Linda Nabusayi, and Ibrahim Semujju.

A number of reports reaching Radio Katwe say that Muhoozi was dull in school and they go so far as to say he did not even finish his Bachelors of Arts degree.

At the time Muhoozi came back from Nottingham University, Uganda was a country crazy about celebrity and the newspapers reported on any celebrity gossip.

Some observers have reasoned in submissions to Radio Katwe that if Muhoozi had finished and earned a degree, his Nottingham graduation ceremony would have been given mazimum publicity in photo displays and gossip stories in the Ugandan newspapers.

This did not happen at all and it proves that the rumours that he did not finish university could be true.

Instead he came back home and joined the army. He got a number of young people to start undergoing military training somewhere at Kasenyi near Entebbe where the Presidential Protection Unit used to train.

These young people included Victor Rumanyika, Jimmy Bageire, Brian Walusimbi, Bob Drani, and others.

Drani is the bald-headed guy who commanded the Black Mamba during their raid of the High Court last November and it is suspected that Brian Walusimbi who is now in America is one of the ESO agents stationed in North America.

Muhoozi, Victor Rumanyika, Charles Mweibeha, and Karoli Ssemogerere (son of DP heavyweight Paulo Ssemogerere) started the “Frontline” magazine in 1994.

It was supposed to be a magazine on current affairs in Uganda but focusing on the NRM “struggle” and the armed conflicts in Uganda since 1962.

When Muhoozi joined hands with Ssemogerere’s son in a publishing venture like this, observers felt that he was showing some tolerance and liberal thinking which respects other political views, unlike his father Museveni who hates views different from his.

But around 1996 after the presidential elections, the old liberal Muhoozi began dying out. He was being groomed by his father to succeed him and Museveni was making that clear to the boy. “Frontline” magazine died out.

In 1996 or 1997, Muhoozi once tried to have sex with Lenina Mbabazi the daughter of NRM heavyweight Amama Mbabazi at the conference center or the Nile Hotel.

Nina resisted his advances and he then tried to rape her. He failed to rape her and the scandal was quietly buried.

Muhoozi became interested in a number of girls and wanted to get married, but Janet Museveni would vet them and refuse them.

Muhoozi once dated a girl called Flower who used to work at Wina Classics boutique on Kampala Road.

He invited her to State House one day for lunch. Flower came in a sexy and provocative dress. The whole family was at the table.

Museveni kept eyeing Flower and asking her questions about her life, her family, and her school. He was enjoying himself and he found Flower amusing.

Janet was seated at the other side of the dining table and she was becoming angry at the attention her husband was giving Flower. She knew what he wanted from Flower.

Muhoozi was quiet the whole time and said very little.

After that, Janet flushed Flower out of State House and told Muhoozi point blank that she never wanted to see Flower again there.

Muhoozi after that dated Olivia Sabune (or Sabuni). Janet Museveni refused to hear Muhoozi when he wanted to marry Olivia. She was vetoed by Janet also.

Olivia Sabune is now living in Sweden.

Muhoozi clashed over Olivia with a guy called Andrew Kananura or “Desh” as he is nicknamed.

A big problem came when Natasha Museveni became crazy about Desh. There was no way Muhoozi was going to allow Natasha to marry Desh when Muhoozi was a bitter rival with Desh over Olivia.

There was another problem and this problem made Janet Museveni almost go mad.

Andrew Kananura’s mother, Stella Kagandi Kananura, was a first aunt of Winnie Byanyima. Andrew and Winnie are first cousins.

There was no way in hell that Andrew was going to marry Natasha and then at the wedding, Janet Museveni finds herself sitting in the same room as Winnie and moreover from then on, Janet and her bitter rival Winnie become in-laws!

The relationship between Desh and Natasha was crushed to death. But up to now, Natasha says that is she had had her way, she would have married Desh because that is where her heart was in a sincere way.

When Muhoozi’s turn came to get married in 1999, Janet made it clear that all other girls had been vetoed and Muhoozi was instead to marry Charlotte Nankunda Kuteesa, the daughter of Sam Jennifer Kuteesa.

Muhoozi complained and complained but Museveni and Janet put their feet down.

Just before their glamorous wedding in July 1999, Muhoozi went on a sex spree with other girls as a protest against being forced to marry Charlotte whom he did not love or like.

After they got married, Muhoozi refused to sleep with Charlotte for even one hour for the first three or four months of their marriage. He even left Charlotte and moved to another house in Entebbe.

But Janet and Museveni forced him with threats to go back to his wife. Muhoozi’s life became a living hell to this day.

He went on with his sex sprees. One of the high profile girls he slept with was Jackie Rwivanga Rugasira, the wife of the businessman Andrew Rugasira. What could Rugasira do but swallow?

Muhoozi is reported to have even slept with Susan Muhwezi, wife of Brigadier Jim Muhwezi but Radio Katwe cannot confirm this yet.

Muhoozi was sent to the military college Sandhurst soon after his wedding. How Muhoozi went to Sandhurst showed the criminal character of Museveni, a man who will bend any rule and tell any lie without shame to get his way.

The students who are admitted to Sandhurst must be soldiers already but Muhoozi was not. So State House created the lie that Muhoozi was a Local Defence Unit paramilitary soldier and he qualified.

Pressure was also put on the British High Commission in Kampala to put in a word for Muhoozi and he ended up being admitted to Sandhurst.

There is a Japanese army officer who was a student at Sandhurst at the same time as Muhoozi. One day he met a Ugandan in Tokyo and when the Ugandan told the Japanese that he was a Ugandan, the Japanese officer asked him what he thought about Muhoozi.

The Japanese laughed and said he had not seen an empty head like Muhoozi’s for a long time. He said at Sandhurst, Muhoozi failed to impress anybody and he was always at the bottom of the class.

Another Ugandan familiar with Sandhurst said Muhoozi never used to feature much in the classes for strategic planning and military doctrine. He was usually in the gym and the physical fitness classes.

But when the boy graduated, his graduation was given several pages in Uganda’s newspapers and he was treated like a celebrity. Museveni attended the ceremony in person along with two of his daughters.

That is why we are telling you that if Muhoozi had finished at Nottingham University, we would have seen his graducation photos everywhere in Uganda.

After his Sadhurst course, he was deployed in the Presidential Protection Unit. Muhoozi recommended that the Commandant of the PPU should be Lt. Leopold Kyanda.

There was a time when Leo Kyanda was making a habit of sleeping with many men’s wives and one of these women was Alice Kaboyo, who is related to Janet Museveni. Alice Kaboyo’s husband, the late Kenneth Kaboyo complained bitterly at what Kyanda was doing with his wife.

When the scandal became too much for State House, Kyanda was transferred to become the Chief of Military Intelligence, to cool the situation down.

Muhoozi has now become the right-hand man of his father and he is a deputy to his uncle General Salim Saleh in doing special duties for Museveni.

The latest reports we have are that Muhoozi is the guy who actually runs the External Security Organisation and Lt. John Maku-Iga is just a miserable figure head.

Muhoozi walks to ESO and gets the largest chunk of the operational budget and spends it as he likes. The staff at ESO have become demoralised.

Agents and operatives who work for ESO and ISO are given 300,000 shs. A week as an operational allowance but many in ESO are complaining that they are no longer getting their benefits because of Muhoozi.

Muhoozi has taken charge of a top security site on Mutungo Hill called the Katonga Complex. This is where ESO has its listening station and gadgets to intercept satellite phone communication and conversations.

We also have reliable information to the effect that in the Presidential Guard Brigade, the soldiers who guard the First Family do not like Muhoozi at all. They see him as a privileged boy who does nothing but order them around.

The hate and resentment became so serious that since February, the PGB has slowly been undergoing a reshuffle and many PGB boys have been re-deployed to other units in the regular army.

This is why Museveni is wearing body armour so much these days. He knows that even the PGB can no longer be counted on to be loyal to him. The problem is that the PGB is made up mainly of the Bahima who are the people in Uganda who are the closest to Museveni and who have benefited most under his regime.

Museveni now wonders that if the Bahima are becoming disgruntled, who can he turn to?

Muhoozi now takes care of the First Family’s business interests. When the issue of selling the Dairy Corporation to a Thai “investor” collapsed, Andrew Rugasira contacted some South Africans to see if they could become the new owners.

He was doing the deal on behalf of the First Family and he got a phone call one night. Muhoozi was on the line and after talking to Rugasira, he transferred Rugasira directly to a line where Museveni was waiting.

Museveni stated the First Family’s interest in the deal and Rugasira took his marching orders.

This is why we wonder when some people still believe that Museveni is not the Thief-in-Chief of Uganda. He is the Mastermind of all the corruption we see.

Muhoozi’s wife Charlotte opened an Internet café at Garden City in Kampala.

When another company also came up and tried to open a café there, Charlotte ordered the authorities to block the other café from operating there. She said point blank that she did not want competition near her business.

You can read more on Muhoozi in our earlier story on how he was ordered by Janet Museveni to kick Amelia Kyambadde out of State House after the Kisozi ranch title was registered in the names of Amber Kyambadde, a child who Museveni has with Amelia.

We shall be bringing you more dossiers on the top people in the NRM inner circle so that the cycle of ignorance that Ugandans have suffered is broken.

What is Driving Jim Muhwezi's Actions?

Last week, the Minister of Health and former Director General of the Internal Security Organisation, Major General Jim Muhwezi, was in the news again. He was appearing before the commission of inquiry into how the Global Fund on AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria was misused in Uganda.

The swindling of the money led to the fund cutting off more than 145 million dollars in funding in 2005 to Uganda.

The public has failed to understand this man Muhwezi. He has been censured before but was re-appointed. He has money that cannot be explained except for massive corruption, but he cannot be removed from the political scene.

When he faced Justice James Ogoola last week to testify his side of the story, Ogoola asked him, “Have you no sense of horror?”

Ogoola was asking the wrong question and addressing the wrong man.

In this intelligence briefing, Radio Katwe will trace the public life of Muhwezi and we shall help the public understand how he operates.

Jim Muhwezi was born into a family in Rukungiri in western Uganda. His father was an Anglican Protestant Reverend and a staunch supporter of the Uganda People’s Congress ruling party of Milton Obote.

Muhwezi is a Muhima of the Bahororo sub-tribe (the same group of the Chief of Defence Forces, General Aronda Nyakirima.)

Radio Katwe has not managed to find out the name of the secondary school Muhwezi attended for his O’Levels, but what we know is that he fled that school after raping a female student there.

He completed his A’Level exams at Old Kampala Senior Secondary School. He joined Makerere University in the late 1970s where he studied for a Law degree. At that time, he also secretly joined FRONASA, the rebel group commanded by Yoweri Museveni.

Museveni found a way of getting Muhwezi to join Idi Amin’s State Researh Bureau, the intelligence service at that time. Muhwezi was planted in the State Research Bureau to gather information that would help Museveni fight Amin better.

Muhwezi during his time at the State Research Bureau saw something which shocked him. Most of the killings under Amin which were allegedly being committed by Amin’s Kakwa, Lugbara and Nubian tribesmen were actually being committed by the exiled Tutsi refugees in Uganda (the Banyarwanda) on orders of Museveni.

The purpose was to commit these heinous crimes and have the world blame them on Amin. That was when Muhwezi developed an intense hatred for the Tutsi.

After Amin fell, Muhwezi joined the Uganda police force while still a Museveni sympathizer. He was arrested in 1981 after Museveni started his bush war and he was detained by the UPC government at Jinja Road Police station.

He escaped, he claims, with the help of Hope Kivengere, the daughter of Bishop Festo Kivengere.

In the bush, Museveni appointed him head of intelligence after the head of intelligence, David Tinyefuza, misbehaved so many times.

Muhwezi continued in that role when the NRM came to power in 1986.

In 1987, Muhwezi married a pretty girl called Susan Kabonero and their wedding reception was hosted at State House.

According to some reports Radio Katwe has, Muhwezi like many of his fellow NRA officers became a serial womanizer and he got a child with his cousin, a woman who worked with the UNDP either in Nairobi or Kampala.

He also loved the flashy life and used to siphon off money from the classified ISO budget for his extravagant lifestyle.

Some relatives who have lived in the Muhwezi home say he is vain and childish like Kampala businessman Peter Sematimba.

These relatives say that Muhwezi and his wife Susan used to spend around the same time in front of the mirror each morning.

One day at Kisementi in Kampala around 1997 or 1998, Muhwezi was trying to impress a certain woman at the Just Kickin’ sports bar. He pulled out a ward of U.S. dollar bills from his wallet and was running his fingers through them.

He had an affair with the Kampala lawyer and socialite Candy Wekesa.

He is as childish as that. But although he has that pimp-ish character, under his watch for 10 years until he was replaced in 1996, there was no coup in Uganda or too much instability to threaten the centre of power, Kampala.

It seems that late in the 1990s, President Museveni started sleeping with Muhwezi’s wife Susan. Jim was humiliated but as a serving officer he could do nothing about getting even with his commander-in-chief.

In 1998, Museveni told a meeting at State House of Ankole members of parliament that he had information that Muhwezi was plotting against him.

Even recently in February, Smart Musolin reported that Muhwezi had refused to give rooms in his Rukungiri hotel for the Elect Museveni task force.

When Muhwezi is humiliated as a man, he uses sex to retaliate.

In the early 2000s, Muhwezi wooed a girl called Ruth Kandehura (better known as “Kande”) Sabiti. Kande is related to Susan and was brought to the Muhwezi home by Susan as a guardian.

Kande’s father, as Radio Katwe has reported, was Thompson Sabiti, a Muhima civil servant resident in Entebbe whom Museveni secretly ordered murdered in 1983 near the Lake Victoria Hotel so Museveni could put the blame on the then Vice President Paulo Muwanga and also get the angry Bahima to hate the UPC government and support Museveni’s NRA.

Muhwezi started sleeping with Kande Sabiti but it seems Susan Muhwezi did not suspect anything. Muhwezi even put Kande up in a flat in Bugolobi at his expense.

But one day, Susan picked up Jim’s cell phone and noticed that there were many SMS messages from Kande. She wondered what was going on and kept track of her husband.

Susan realized that these two were having a sexual relationship and she went mad.

She called her brother Bob Kabonero of Kampala Casino and they called for a wider family meeting to put Jim to task.

It was decided that Kande, who at that time was in London, should be summoned also to the family tribunal. Muhwezi was at the airport to receive Kande and they came walking hand in hand.

At the family meeting, Muhwezi point-blank told Susan that she was his third wife and Kande was now his fourth wife, so Susan should leave him alone.

Muhwezi asked the assembled family members one question: “What moral authority did Susan have to question his relationship with Kande?”

The family members were quiet because they knew he was hurt and humiliated and he was indirectly talking about Susan’s sleeping with Museveni.

The other way he took revenge for Museveni sleeping with his wife was to go where it hurt Museveni most, that is by sleeping with his favourite child Natasha.

So that is Muhwezi for you. The man you see in public flashing money about and dressed in sharp suits is not a happy man in private.

The way he was answering Justice Ogoola, the head of a commission appointed by President Museveni, told a lot. Muhwezi by trying to dismiss Ogoola was indirectly challenging Museveni to sack him as Minister of Health.

Muhwezi was not really attacking Justice Ogoola. He was hitting at Museveni.

Muhwezi knows that Museveni fears him so a number of reasons. Muhwezi is the one man in Kampala who knows Museveni’s most petty and embarrassing weaknesses better than almost anybody in the world.

It is Jim Muhwezi who has acted as Museveni’s pimp for many years.

When Museveni wanted to sleep with housemaids, cooks, office secretaries and take women secretly on his trips abroad, it was Muhwezi who used to arrange for the women to be put on the presidential jet behind Janet Museveni’s back.

Muhwezi also knows Museveni’s personal record of massive corruption and theft of state money and assets, so he knows that by being accused of embezzling Global Fund money, the real culprit, Museveni, is being let off the hook.

Jim Muhwezi also knows the inside story of who really ordered the shooting down of the plane carrying Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana in 1994 and the genocide that followed.

That is why he knows he is untoucheable. He knows who the Thief-in-Chief is in Uganda.

These are things that only Radio Katwe can bring you in Uganda. We explain the political, money, and sexual forces that operate behind the scenes in Museveni’s regime.

The Story of Amelia Kyambadde

Radio Katwe brings you the story of the powerful Principal Private Secretary to the President, Mrs. Amelia Kulubya Kyambadde. Being so close and personal with him for nearly 30 years now, she is one of the few people who could if she wanted, write an authoritative biography of Musevenis rule. According to the modest database that we have pieced together plus the contributions from some of our readers, Amelia Kyambadde was born into a well-to-do Baganda family sometime in the late 1950s. She is the eldest child of the late Serwano-Kulubya of Kulubya and Company Advocates, a law firm. Her father was a well-connected and influential person in the 1960s UPC government. 

According to this information, Amelia's mother is related to Museveni's mother and that is where the "Hima" connection comes in. (With Museveni the confessing "non-sectarian", blood relations seem to be the rule rather than exception.) Amelia's mother now lives in Sweden where she is a naturalized Swede. Amelia Kulubya attended Nakasero Primary School in Kampala in the 1960s. At that time, it was an elite school for Europeans and only privileged elite Ugandans went to that school. Amelia used to tell her friends at Nakasero that she had ever been to Europe, which given the times then, we can take as further evidence of her prominent background. She then went on to Sacred Heart Girls' Secondary School in Gulu from 1969 to 1971. She did her O'Level exams and passed well but did not for some reason want to go back there for her A'Levels. Some of the classmates of Amelia Kulubya were Jennifer Kalimuzo, Florence Kikira, Joy Kanyike, and many more who were a year ahead of Amelia Kulubya. A former schoolmate of hers told Radio Katwe that Amelia Kulubya "spoke very good English and that was her highest score in O' Level exams" While in Sacred Heart "she had everything a young girl could want." This former schoolmate (who seems to be have known Amelia in Gulu) told Radio Katwe that Amelia was quiet at school, "friendly to most girls, she did not have the contempt some Southerners showed towards the Northerners." It is something to note that these people from Northern Uganda who have faced a bitter and hellish 20 years of the Museveni rule have this view of Amelia. 

In the many comments we recieved, they spoke well of her. The bitter resentment sometimes (understandably) shown any westerner or "Southerner" close to Museveni for abandoning them to the dogs these past two decades is remarkably absent. She was attractive and many soldiers liked her. One story goes that while at Sacred Heart Girls', she used to arrive in Gulu in a family chauffer-driven car around a week before school opened for the term and spend time with soldiers in their Officers' Mess in town. But Amelia one of those rare NRM Bantu who is as much liked by the southerners as the northerners. Somewhere in the mid 1970s, Amelia Kulubya got married to Wilson Kyambadde. After the fall of Idi Amin in 1979, Amelia worked as a personal secretary to the new Defence Minister, Yoweri Museveni. When President Godfrey Binaisa transferred Museveni to become the Minister of Regional Cooperation, the man who does not respect institutions somehow moved Amelia with him there to work under him. And Amelia's apparent partiality for soldiers since school at Sacred Heart had not expired because according to impeccable sources, during that time in 1979 or 1980, Amelia got pregnant with a child by Museveni. Among her children are Peter, Ivan, Ishta, Kenny, Amber and Mike. One of her children (Amber?) today is actually a child of Museveni. When her boss went to the bush in 1981 to launch his "fundamental change" rebel war, Amelia fled to exile in 1983 and stayed with her children in Gottenborg, Sweden, in some lower middle class flats not far from where the Museveni family was also staying. When the "fundamental change" that 20 years on has left Kampala in darkness began in 1986, Amelia resumed her job of working under Museveni. What Radio Katwe is not sure about is when Janet Museveni first came to know the full significance of her husbands "working" position in relation to Amelia. It seems that was recent, when Amelia had to flee to London for a brief "vacation" until Janets wrath came under some control. In 1994 or 1995 when Natasha Museveni was sent to London to study fashion (what a waste of tax payers' money, when you look at the poor quality of dresses produced by the now, thankfully, defunct House of Kaine!), State House was worried that Natasha would be lonely. So the state arranged for scholarships for Amelia's daughter, Ishta Kyambadde and Josephine Wapakhabulo, a daughter of the late NRM heavyweight James Wapakhabulo, to go and study in the UK but some speculate that one of the intended side-benefits of these two was to keep Natasha company. In 1996, Amelia went to Makerere University to do a Bachelors in Business Administration. One contributor to Radio Katwe claims that in 1998 during her third year "she had as many as 24 retakes." Whereas anything is possible, one wonders at the credibility of that abnormally high number of retakes. As PPS to the President, Amelia is tough toward the staff around Museveni. Reports from State House say that Amelia has on ocassion treated people like Presidential Press Secretary Onapito Ekomoloit and Media Centre Director Robert Kabushenga like small children, shouting at them in front of their colleagues. So that is Amelia for you. By all accounts professional and a generally nice person. A rare thing to say about anyone so close to Museveni. O how one wishes some of her would have rubbed off on her boss of all these years...!

Maj. Kazoora Exposes Nsaba Buturo’s “Panda Gari” Atrocities

I returned to University after the holiday re-energised. Uganda was still recovering from the vagaries of the Amin Junta.

He warned against tribalism (look at the top Generals in the army today) and said even in Amin’s regime, some Banyankole like Ephraim Rwakanegyere a former Senior Police Officer were Amin’s henchmen. 

He also introduced a friend of his from South Africa called Ibrahim Gora, a freedom fighter based in Tanzania.

In Kamuli, Museveni blasted those who wanted to demonstrate against the postponement of elections; and Obote for having returned to Uganda without consulting anyone.

He said UPM was all-weather and that it changed tactics but not direction. 

He rejected the idea that Uganda should invite foreign observers during elections.

Addressing a UPM fundraising party in Kampala which was attended by Rhoda Kalema, Princess Nalinya Ndagire, Mrs Freda Lule Blick, Mr Agondua Tee and George Magezi among others, Museveni said UPM would never accept anyone taking power by force. He accused UPC of misusing government organs for party purposes and gerrymandering of constituencies, and accusing it of monopolising the media. (Exactly what is happening today)

At another fundraising function for Mbarara and Bushenyi branches held at Fairway, he said Africa was tired of leaders who cling to power against the wishes of the masses. (Today he is the proverbial gooseberry who has been in power for more than 26 years)

He predicted that UPM would take four out of seven of the Mbarara seats, two out of five in Bushenyi and would take all the seats in Kabarole and Rukungiri 

In Mbarara, Museveni said Obote had always suspected him of being a spy based on the fact that he was not related to him.

He accused Boniface Byanyima and Francis Bwengye of resurrecting DP at the expense of the nation.

UPM through one of its lawyers Gideon Mutanga Akankwasa requested court for a temporary injunction to restrain the Electoral Commission from carrying out registration of voters. However the case was thrown out because the Judge Mr Justice Allen made the case “ex parte” since non of the five respondents appeared before court. It was then that Museveni urged all supporters to go and register.

FALLING IN LOVE WITH NRM

Museveni to me was my man and UPM was the way forward .

Unfortunately UPM campaigns were deemed to be full of threats so much so that some people failed to figure out its objectives. 

However the population, to a large extent, expressed their admiration of the ideas and opportunity presented by the young organization, but was pessimistic regarding its electoral success. 

Pessimism was justified, because the new organisation simply had no time and resources to organize effectively nationally; and UPC was already positioning itself very stridently and superciliously to rig the elections and seemed to have what was essential for them to do so successfully.

Meanwhile UPC organised a 4000-strong student match around Kampala to show its strength. Bulls were slaughtered and beer was in plenty. (What NRM now does at Lugogo) They were later addressed by Obote, Adonia Tiberondwa, Ephraim Kamuntu and Wilson Okwengye.

The elections were fought on the basis of constituencies. The party with the highest number of parliamentary seats would form the government and its leader would be President. UPC “won” the elections with 74 seats which was more than 40% of the Parliament and under the constitution it was mandated to choose a President. DP managed to get 51 seats.

UPM despite fighting against all impossible odds lost. Museveni was defeated in the Mbarara North constituency by the DP candidate Sam Kuteesa. During a campaign rally at Kenshunga, Kuteesa had told the electorate that Museveni was a pathological liar never to be trusted. 

Obote had also instructed his voters to ensure that Museveni didn’t make it to Parliament and that they should rather vote for the DP candidate. “I don’t want that war-monger in Parliament, I cannot work with him”, Obote warned. 

Museveni was booed and heckled at all his campaign events in his constituency. In Burunga he was spat at, in Buremba he was called a vagabond, at Kashongi his small convoy was stoned, and he received a hostile reception in Kazo where they called him all sorts of names from a tramp to a mufuruki. 

There was no way he could win the DP-leaning constituency and I really felt for him. It was humiliating for a leader of a political party to be defeated at parliamentary level.

Also defeated was a Toro’s King (Omukama) Prince Patrick Kaboyo standing on a UPM ticket and he was defeated in Kabarole Central by DP’s Pancras Kaboha who had been my teacher at Nyakasura School.

UPM had 76 candidates but only managed to gain one seat, that of Kasese North where Dr Crispus Kiyonga defeated UPC’s Musa Kiwusu. It was in fact a protest vote after the murder of the 32 year old DP candidate Victor Muhindo by UPC functionaries. 

However, due to the hostile situation Kiyonga failed to take and subscribe to the Oath of Allegiance and of MP within the first 30 consecutive sittings of the Assembly after his election and he was forced to flee the country. All other UPM candidates failed including John Sekaziga, Eriya Kategaya, Jack Sabiiti, Nkobe Ngobi, Mujungu Nyanja, Victor Bijurenda, Agondua Tee and Fred Kamugira among others.

In Bundibugyo, there were orders that the only MP from the area should be its UPC candidate Bwana-Mbere. But it was difficult for the retuning officer and District Commisioner (DC) Vincent Tinkamanyire to rig the elections for him since DP’s candidate and the first doctor from the area Dr W.M. Sikyewunda had won by over 95% of the vote.

(Bwana-Mbere was later killed by our forces under the command of Col Apollo Marufu when NRA captured Bundibugyo in 1985 as he was armed and tried to attack us).

On 15th December 1980, Obote was sworn in as President. Museveni as promised went to the Bush on 6th February 1981. 

There was harassment of all those who were in UPM, yet the majority of UPM leaders did not know that Museveni had left for the Bush. 

In fact Secretary General Bidandi Ssali and Kintu Musoke were very upset upon finding out because they had not been told. 

The UPM Secretary for Women Rhoda Kalema was soon arrested and accused of commanding a battalion in Ssingo and that she had been seen cooking for Museveni on Kaaya’s farm.

At University, harassment of UPM supporters took its toll.

The UPC youth wingers had never been so active. All this harassment was under the hands of the Kampala District Commissioner Nsaba Buturo 

He orchestrated a campaign called Panda Gari (Jump on to the truck) a notorious and deadly way of so-called guerilla identification. 

They didn’t know who to arrest – because they were not sure who was in UPM or not. Some people were made to board trucks and taken to safe houses in Katikamu and Namanve where a number disappeared, while others returned battered and bruised like Napoleon’s army returning from the battle of Waterloo.

NO VISION

It was a tense and difficult time. God help you if Buturo suspected you of being a UPM/NRA supporter or sympathizer. He was in fact responsible for many youth scampering to the bush because of his viciousness. (He later served as Museveni’s Minister of Ethics and Integrity-and now threatens to sue whoever tries to unleash his skeletons from the cupboard)

I remember him in Katikamu together with the Director of Military Intelligence Serwano Kabogorwa and the Security Minister Chris Rwakasisi screaming their heads off that Museveni would never be President of Uganda, come rain or shine because he did not have a “vision”.

Security forces later invaded the University looking for the Guild Leadership as they could not stomach a leadership that was anti-government. In many developing nations, student politics can be quite influential and therefore is seen as threatening to repressive political regimes. 

A number of students were captured and taken to safe houses. For the first time I saw students using pistols on fellow students. One UPC minister Massette Kuuya would come to inveigle the UPC student leadership.

I had a cousin David Mirama who was Minister of Entertainment in University Hall and a UPC diehard. He is the one who used to leak all that they were planning to do. We were physically harassed so much that Hannington Karuhanga and I took refuge at my sister Lois Kazoora’s apartment on South Street.

The Guild President Opiyo Oloya had to flee into exile while Mwalimu Musheshe our former headboy at Nyakasura was tortured and missed a year of studies. Rita Musoke who had been a Chairperson of Africa Hall was taken to an unknown place. A lecturer Beatrice Bateyo Kemigisha was captured and never seen again. 

Outside campus, murderers were on the rampage. Prominent among those who were killed were Lt Col. William Ndahendekire who was killed at his home in Rwobuyengye in front of his kids on July 15th 1981; Hon Prof Joseph Ruremenkuba Muhangi (MP for Bushenyi North) who was killed on the Kampala Masaka highway on 16th April 1981; Hon George Bamuturaki (MP for Kabarole North West) who was gunned down at Kisementi; Noah Mwesige-Ndyanabo who was the Managing Director of Uganda Data Services; Masembe Kabali; and Dr Ibanda among others. My own area MP DP’s Bernard Buzabo fled the country.

One day after the last lecture before lunch, Joshua Mugenyi had just lectured to us and gone to his flat. As we approached Mitchell Hall we found it surrounded by military men.

We got concerned that Joshua could have been arrested and killed. But when the army men asked for Mugenyi, they were mistakenly directed to the nearby Mugenyi Flats. When they didn’t find him there, they proceeded to Mitchell hall where he saw them from his third floor apartment and ran down the stairs.

One of the soldiers met him on the stairs and asked him where Joshua Mugenyi was and he directed them upstairs and he continued walking towards Centre for Continuing Education (CCE) to Jinja Road. We were all worried and thought he had been killed. After a few weeks, our other lecturer Mahmood Mamdani told us that Mugenyi had arrived well and safe in Nairobi. 

Meanwhile his wife Mary feared to stay in the flat and under the cover of darkness she called me and I assisted to carry some of her belongings to her sister Naome (now Mrs Nasasira)’s room in Mary Stuart Hall. Her other belongings were kept by Kyamureku and Sam Nkutsi. Imagine it was a UPC student who wanted his Lecturer to be killed.

When we took over power I remained close to Mugenyi while he was Secretary Bank of Uganda and he would provide me with vital information when I was in Parliament.

His wife Mary later joined me in Parliament as MP for Nyabushozi. (When he died in 2002, I went to bury him in Kitwe, Rukooni, Ruhaama at the Rwanda border. President Museveni arrived late hence delaying the funeral. Mary who had already made her speech had to repeat it. I got back to Kampala at 4am.

At the funeral Museveni attacked Augustine Ruzindana. (the former Inspector General of Government). Turning a funeral into a political melodrama was a sign of no respect to the bereaved family. As for his wife Mary Mugenyi, she was to decampaign me at a function in Mbarara 24 years later – Ekyebba juuba).