{UAH} Uganda: Sejusa Must Tell Us More About the Stolen Elections

Uganda: Sejusa Must Tell Us More About the Stolen Elections

BY ROBERT ATUHAIRWE, 26 DECEMBER 2013OPINION

Recently, renegade Gen David Sejusa addressed a gathering in London where, among other things, he told his contained audience that the 2006 elections had been fixed in favour of eventual winner, President Yoweri Museveni (of NRM).

The same election had come in the wake of a reversion to multipartyism and removal of term limits under article 105(2) of the Constitution to allow the incumbent contest again. The 2006 election came at a time when President Museveni's vitality was under severe test.

The foregoing season had seen the spread of LRA activities to eastern region on top of Karimojong cattle rustler incursions. The anguish this created alienated that part of the country against Museveni. In the north, the people were still disillusioned at their suffering, living in camps in unbelievable conditions.

There were unprecedented power shortages countrywide after the failure to put up a new dam at Bujagali and the carefree attitude of consumers who hadn't woken up to alternatives. Buganda, too, had lost patience as it was over a decade since the kingdom had been reinstated but with ceremonial existence, lacking grounded property and real power sharing.

When Dr Besigye returned from exile at the time, he was really a new face of hope and it's with that background that the 2006 ensued. When all was said and done, Museveni took home 59 per cent while Besigye retained 38 per cent or thereabout. At parliamentary and local council level, NRM swept the scene with a majority but the discontent persisted, particularly after the Supreme court dismissed Dr Besigye's election petition.

The judgment only served to reiterate what is expected in an imperfect world; that the polls had irregularities which were not significant enough to cause a cancellation of the elections. But the same learned bench said nothing of whether a Museveni loss would automatically denote a Besigye win despite the fact that he was the lead petitioner.

During the same campaign, Besigye was under trial before court for a number of crimes. This won him sympathy of persecution hence the scepticism of defeat that has persisted till now and is being recycled by Gen Sejusa and like-thinkers.

As a former insider, Sejusa's angle refreshes against all attendant tests of proof beyond reasonable doubt. He said as intelligence chief, he set up a base at Basiima House where results from the field were altered before forwarding them to the Electoral Commission, whose operation headquarters were situated at Namboole (Mandela national stadium).

As somebody who puts a lot of interest in things electoral, I remember FDC too ran its own tally centre, according to party officials. Did FDC gain access to Gen Sejusa's favourable results? This renders it quite a job to determine whom he fed with correct data.

He wasn't in NRM, therefore, there is nothing to show that he could have worked for the party's good against others since he was a serving soldier.

The public would like to know why he believes Museveni couldn't have defeated Besigye at the time and why the winner limped away with 58 per cent and not some "dictatorial" figure like 93 per cent.

Mr Tony Owana, a blogger and journalist, also fed me with a puzzling flashback on the ownership and use of the alleged operational base of Sejusa's electoral commission.

According to Owana (and this is information that can be crosschecked), by 2006, the headquarters of military intelligence was at Yusuf Lule (Kitante) road, near Mulago hospital.

Basiima House had been headquarters for the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) of the National Resistance Army (NRA) before it was handed back to its owners - Buganda - under the regime of Brig Fred Tolit, somewhere around 2000.

Could Buganda have rented it to Gen Sejusa for his election-thieving operation (against Dr Besigye, who had also been his best man at his wedding)?

In 2006, the chief of military intelligence was the late Brig Noble Mayombo, then a colonel, whose closeness to Sejusa was suspect, before he later met a sudden demise (2007).

In 2006, the katikkiro of Buganda was Dan Muliika, a very sensitive gentleman who has since worked with Ssuubi and IPC pressure groups. Gen Sejusa should help audiences who need to understand if he was operating with orders from a particular beneficiary or implementing a policy passed by a large group such a party caucus or council.

What role did he play in the 2001 and 2011 elections? There exists a possibility of self-incriminating himself as the sole architect of a project similar to what took him to the jungles in the 1980s.

That would be very dreadful indeed for his imposing career.

The author is a media and political commentator.

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

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