{UAH} WHAT WAS THE ROLE OF ISO AND ESO IN THE NRA'S INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY?
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WHAT WAS THE ROLE OF ISO AND ESO IN THE NRA'S INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY?
In the bush all intelligence gathering and processing was under the Director General of Intelligence and Sucurity. Under it was the DMI. Given the prevailing circumstances then, civil and military intelligence was kind of fused together. There was no formal external intelligence gathering within NRA structures but Amama Mbabazi of the External Wing secretly ran a spy network among his coleagues for Museveni. When the NRA came to power, civil intelligence was separated from military intelligence. The later remained a branch of the army while the former was placed under Presidents office with Jim Muhwezi as its Director General. An External intelligence structure was also created and housed at former Park Hotel with Amama Mbabazi as its Director General. Civil Intelligence maintained officers at all Districts called Civil Intelligence Officers (CIO) and agents in major government bodies and parastatals. During the late 80s, the two organisations became statutory bodies and were rebranded Internal Security Organisation (ISO) and External Security Organisation (ESO) respectively.
Both organisations were supposed to enlist civillian staff members under the Public Service but ISO maintained a military presence. ISO was tactically used by Museveni as a warehouse for those highly educated individuals whom he did not wish to be in the mainstream NRA. Jim Muhwezi who had been the Ag. Director General of Intelligence and Security (DGI&S) in the bush after the Tinyefuza was detained, became the Director General Internal Security (DGISO). He was Deputised by Major Kazora and other Directors heading different departments. These Directors were to delibarately remain junior officers for fear of a possible replacement to Jim Muhwezi. Capt Kwiringira, Capt Kasura, Lt Baguma, Lt Dr. Kagoro, Lt Dr. Rwekikiga, Lt Dr Mukumbi, Lt Roni Balya and others were some of the Directors. They had innitially joined the NRA with the hope of building a military career. All the District Internal Security Officers were Leutenants as if it was a statutory requirement. However, these ISO dirrectors enjoyed higher privilleges. They were all members of the Army Council and enjoyed alot of funding from the state that helped some of them to accumulate alot of personal wealth.
After a decade at the helm of ISO, Jim Muhwezi accumulated too much personal wealth. Among his visible wealth was the hair-rising multbillion mansion populary known as Basilica at his country home in Rukungiri. It is said that the said residential house holds a top position among the best south of the Sahara. It is this accumulation of wealth that made Jim Muhwezi feel insecure and wanted to remain the only bull in the kral. In the process his deputy John Kazoora was convicted for abuse of office involving 10 (ten) million shillings of office funds. Kazoora served the sentence in prison and was never to return to ISO. Museveni did not intervene to save Kazoora because it had been alleged that Kazoora had illegally recruited and trained ISO operatives with the aim of building his own empire within ISO. The said batch of trainees at the ISO Makajjo training school in Sekanyonyi in Mityana were discarded and instead were sent to the army. Driven by envy and a genuine fear that Jim Muhweezi could get compromised, Aronda as usual whispered to Museveni and Jim was relieved of the decade long leadership of ISO. The Sudhir US dollars saga at entebbe Airport, the Murder of Lt Sharita and the plane crash carrying an international money launderer are some of the dark incidents during Muhwezi's tenure. At the time, in Rukungiri it was only Jim Muhweezi who demonstrated power and his entourage would cause inflation whenever he visited his country home. By that time the sons of Rukungiri like Tumukunde and Aronda had not acquired the power and wealth to match Jim Muhweezi. It is said that Museveni was amazed when he viewed Jim's Basilika from the air but was inspired to build a modern home at Rwakitura.
For Museveni, the security threats inside the country at the time required more of a military approach thus military intelligence took upper hand. But had it not been for Museveni's preference for a militaristic approach to national issues, ISO would have become a proffessional national intelligence body. During the first half of the 1990s when Aronda war the D/Director of Military Intelligence, he would incorporate ISO into his military intelligence operation structure. However it was discovered that Jim Muhwezi long stay had left a presence hence an overhaul that displaced many of the long rerving Directors. But still Lt Dr Mukumbi who had been Muhwezi's ADC remained the DG. Instead, the CDF Aronda and State House would by pass Dr. Mukumbi and instead deal with his Junior Roni Balya who had been the Director of IT that was responsible for intercepting enemy communication (code named RABIT). Soon after he was made a Colonel and appointed the DGISO.
Both organisations were supposed to enlist civillian staff members under the Public Service but ISO maintained a military presence. ISO was tactically used by Museveni as a warehouse for those highly educated individuals whom he did not wish to be in the mainstream NRA. Jim Muhwezi who had been the Ag. Director General of Intelligence and Security (DGI&S) in the bush after the Tinyefuza was detained, became the Director General Internal Security (DGISO). He was Deputised by Major Kazora and other Directors heading different departments. These Directors were to delibarately remain junior officers for fear of a possible replacement to Jim Muhwezi. Capt Kwiringira, Capt Kasura, Lt Baguma, Lt Dr. Kagoro, Lt Dr. Rwekikiga, Lt Dr Mukumbi, Lt Roni Balya and others were some of the Directors. They had innitially joined the NRA with the hope of building a military career. All the District Internal Security Officers were Leutenants as if it was a statutory requirement. However, these ISO dirrectors enjoyed higher privilleges. They were all members of the Army Council and enjoyed alot of funding from the state that helped some of them to accumulate alot of personal wealth.
After a decade at the helm of ISO, Jim Muhwezi accumulated too much personal wealth. Among his visible wealth was the hair-rising multbillion mansion populary known as Basilica at his country home in Rukungiri. It is said that the said residential house holds a top position among the best south of the Sahara. It is this accumulation of wealth that made Jim Muhwezi feel insecure and wanted to remain the only bull in the kral. In the process his deputy John Kazoora was convicted for abuse of office involving 10 (ten) million shillings of office funds. Kazoora served the sentence in prison and was never to return to ISO. Museveni did not intervene to save Kazoora because it had been alleged that Kazoora had illegally recruited and trained ISO operatives with the aim of building his own empire within ISO. The said batch of trainees at the ISO Makajjo training school in Sekanyonyi in Mityana were discarded and instead were sent to the army. Driven by envy and a genuine fear that Jim Muhweezi could get compromised, Aronda as usual whispered to Museveni and Jim was relieved of the decade long leadership of ISO. The Sudhir US dollars saga at entebbe Airport, the Murder of Lt Sharita and the plane crash carrying an international money launderer are some of the dark incidents during Muhwezi's tenure. At the time, in Rukungiri it was only Jim Muhweezi who demonstrated power and his entourage would cause inflation whenever he visited his country home. By that time the sons of Rukungiri like Tumukunde and Aronda had not acquired the power and wealth to match Jim Muhweezi. It is said that Museveni was amazed when he viewed Jim's Basilika from the air but was inspired to build a modern home at Rwakitura.
For Museveni, the security threats inside the country at the time required more of a military approach thus military intelligence took upper hand. But had it not been for Museveni's preference for a militaristic approach to national issues, ISO would have become a proffessional national intelligence body. During the first half of the 1990s when Aronda war the D/Director of Military Intelligence, he would incorporate ISO into his military intelligence operation structure. However it was discovered that Jim Muhwezi long stay had left a presence hence an overhaul that displaced many of the long rerving Directors. But still Lt Dr Mukumbi who had been Muhwezi's ADC remained the DG. Instead, the CDF Aronda and State House would by pass Dr. Mukumbi and instead deal with his Junior Roni Balya who had been the Director of IT that was responsible for intercepting enemy communication (code named RABIT). Soon after he was made a Colonel and appointed the DGISO.
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