{UAH} Sejusa campaign marred by dark past

Sejusa campaign marred by dark past

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THURSDAY, 10 OCTOBER 2013 23:23

WRITTEN BY EDRIS KIGGUNDU

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Ugly past: Gen David Sejusa

Gen David Sejusa has centred his drive to change Uganda on unseating President Museveni; but many will tell you that the first major opponent Sejusa has to overcome is not Museveni but his own past.

He is certainly dogged by a chequered past and, some in the opposition and NRM believe, that makes Sejusa hard to sell as a credible voice of regime change.

Since he fled to the UK in April, Gen Sejusa, the former coordinator of intelligence services, has tried to make a case for regime change in Kampala.

He recently formed a platform, Free Uganda, which he says he will use to dislodge the NRM government using means permissible by the Constitution.

Yet in his zeal to expose the dictatorial tendencies of a government he once served, Sejusa remains haunted by a dark past. He is seen by some as one of the avid enforcers of the regime's highhanded actions to silence dissenting voices.

It is a past the general has tried to exorcise– by claiming that whatever he did, he did at the urging of higher authority– yet not many seem unconvinced. For instance, as a commander of the UPDF in the north in the early 1990s, he was outstanding for his ruthlessness not only towards the rebels but also towards civilians he perceived to be rebel sympathisers.

He also reportedly played a key role in the 2005 siege of the High court by the infamous Black Mamba and in quelling the 2009 riots in Buganda where more than 30 people died. With such a tainted record, some people – in the opposition and NRM – are convinced that Sejusa might not be the right person to advance the cause of justice and democracy.

Writing in the Daily Monitor of October 4, 2013, Augustine Ruzindana, a former IGG and now member of the opposition FDC, said Sejusa cannot wish away his past.

"Indeed some of us in the opposition had also been in the Movement for a long time and at fairly senior levels; so, we are in position to advise those who join opposition ranks at a later stage, that the roles individuals played and their history and conduct will inevitably be examined," Ruzindana wrote.

There are those that still doubt Sejusa indeed fell out with Museveni. These people believe Sejusa is simply an NRM plant (mole) in the opposition. Featuring on KFM's Hot Seat last week, Col Samson Mande, another renegade soldier exiled in Sweden, said Sejusa must convince everyone that he has detached himself from the NRM establishment.

Mande pointed out that Sejusa had neither resigned nor been sacked by the government. Ofwono Opondo, the executive director of the Uganda Media Centre media, said, while it was possible that Sejusa's desire to fight for democracy is genuine, the circumstances under which he fled the country cast doubt on his ability to lead a struggle for justice.

"To justify why he ran away, he says he is fighting for democracy. Do you have to fight for democracy from outside the country?" Ofwono told The Observer today.

Besigye vs Sejusa

Many analysts have drawn parallels between Sejusa's current predicament and that of Dr Kizza Besigye in 1999 after he authored a document highlighting how the NRM had veered off the democratic path. And, indeed, in more ways than one, Sejusa and Besigye have a number of similarities.

Besides having been bosom friends, they are independent-minded and brilliant people who will not hesitate to speak their mind. Yet when push comes to shove, Besigye appears to have more endurance and resolve.

Memories are still vivid of Sejusa's U-turn in 1998, when he returned to a government and army that he had denounced as dictatorial, a couple of years before.

Secondly, Besigye's relatively clean public record while still serving in the government, has served to endear him to more people. While there are some people, especially the youth, who have jumped onto Sejusa's bandwagon, he does not have a mass appeal comparable to Besigye's.

Even the major opposition parties, much as they can work with him, have not been emphatic in stipulating how this alliance will work out.

However, there are some people, like Maj John Kazoora, who opine that Sejusa should not be judged by his past. Kazoora, who fought alongside Sejusa in the NRA bush war before falling out with the regime, said all leaders commit mistakes.

"Must your past hinder your future? Look around, we have people who have a questionable past in positions of leadership. They are not any better [than Sejusa]," Kazoora, now a supporter of FDC, said.

ekiggundu@observer.ug

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower