{UAH} How the general’s return was planned - National - monitor.co.ug

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How the general's return was planned - National

Gen David Sejusa speaks to Sembabule residents after returning from his self-imposed exile yesterday. PHOTO BY MICHAEL j SSALI 

By Eriasa Mukiibi Sserunjogi & Richard Wanambwa
Posted  Monday, December 15  2014 at  02:00

Kampala. The scenes are shifting so fast in Uganda's politics. There will, therefore, be pretty little time to process what exactly led to the sudden return to the country of Gen David Sejusa, previously living in exile in London on claims of intentions to hurt him by some individuals in the Kampala politico-military power machine.
All eyes were on the ruling National Resistance Movement national conference, on today at the Mandela National Stadium in Namboole. The predictions are that President Museveni will prove that he is king and party secretary general and former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi will likely lose the power game.
Therefore, it was hard to process the implication of the uneventful arrival from London, in the wee hours of the morning of Sunday, of the hitherto self-exiled Gen Sejusa, formerly known as Tinyefuza.
The general had been sounding war drums against the regime, while in London, and made an array of claims, ranging to the State possibly poisoning its opponents, to President Museveni having benefitted from a stolen election in 2006. 
However, upon return yesterday, Gen Sejusa was given VIP treatment on arrival at Entebbe airport. He was also accorded a high profile escort to his country home in Sembabule. This gesture, therefore, is so not in tune with the events of the recent past and has raised questions about what is going on.
What type of deal was reached between the government and Gen Sejusa? Who was involved and what is the army General supposed to do now that he is back home? How does it all affect the heated politics of the country?

Two theories
One of the theories we picked up from a top intelligence officer is that on one of his visits to London, President Museveni met Gen Sejusa and former Vice President Gilbert Bukenya, and discussed with them the likelihood of the General's return to Uganda.
The officer said Prof Bukenya had indicated to Mr Museveni that he was open to returning to the NRM fold after his nemesis, former prime minister Amama Mbabazi, fell out with the establishment, but that Prof Bukenya would be more comfortable returning to the NRM in the company of other top guns.
The theory goes that Gen Sejusa, deemed to fit the bill of Prof Bukenya's "top gun", was wooed to return home partly to convince Prof Bukenya to return to the NRM, and partly to weaken Mr Mbabazi's anticipated presidential bid. It was assumed that Gen Sejusa would probably back Mr Mbabazi's bid if it were declared.
When he escaped to exile in April last year, Gen Sejusa claimed he was being targeted for assassination, together with Mr Mbabazi and the then Chief of Defence of Forces, Gen Aronda Nyakayirima, over their opposition to what they said was a plan by the President to install his son, Brig Muhoozi Kainerugaba, as his successor in State House.
But Prof Bukenya, although he has spoken with glee about Mr Mbabazi's woes, as if to say Mr Mbabazi deserved the torment he may suffer after falling out with Mr Museveni because he also previously mistreated others, denied having ever met Mr Museveni and Gen Sejusa in London.
"I have nothing to do with that (brokering Gen Sejusa's return)," said Prof Bukenya. "That is why I told people not to get excited about people. I wonder how many people have given information to him and are now left out in the cold," he added.

Theory two: Did Sejusa request to return?

The second theory, also picked up from intelligence sources, is that the return was initiated by Gen Sejusa (pictured) himself. The theory goes that about two weeks ago, Gen Sejusa, through his family, wrote to Mr Museveni requesting that he is allowed back home. One of the reasons cited for the need for the general to return, the sources say, was to attend the last funeral rites of father, whose burial he missed.
The sources said President Museveni was "pleasantly surprised and excited," and that he immediately asked Gen Salim Saleh to coordinate the process. It is said that Gen Saleh worked the phones for hours, assuring his longtime colleague and friend that nothing would happen to him if he agreed to return.
The coordination between Gen Sejusa and President Museveni, the source told us, was done by a former woman MP from Tooro, who currently works closely with the External Security Organisation.
The source said this former MP, having delivered the original message and Gen Sejusa's return conditions to President Museveni, she returned to the army General with assurances of safety should he elect to return home.
We were unable to discern which assurances were made to Gen Sejusa, but his lawyer, Mr Ladislaus Rwakafuzi, said hours after Gen Sejusa's arrival at his country home in Sembabule District, the State had already sent the General an invitation to name the individuals he wanted to constitute his security detail. 
We were also unable to immediately establish what Gen Sejusa intends to do now that he is back, although Mr Rwakafuzi said the general would like to be retired from the army and live a "free life." Whether being retired from the army was one of his return conditions could also not be readily established.

But if Gen Sejusa initiated the talks over his return, it may have been because he was confident that the government would receive him back with open hands.
Prof Amii Omara-Otunnu, the leader of the pressure group Freedom and Unity Front (FUF) based in the Diaspora, said in a telephone interview yesterday that Gen Sejusa indicated to him that the government had opened negotiations with him.
"He had a very good line of communication with people in the government in Kampala," Prof Otunnu said, which he said worried some members of FUF. Prof Otunnu, a brother of UPC leader Olara Otunnu, said Gen Sejusa would meet up with Ugandan state officials even without informing the FUF leader.
Prof Otunnu said he was introduced to Gen Sejusa by "very reputable" people, including former FDC leader Kizza Besigye, but that doubts about Gen Sejusa's genuineness in the fight against President Museveni persisted.
Gen Sejusa gave an explanation about his activities in the government over the years which "seemed to make sense" to Prof Otunnu, only that the professor could still not understand "why he had been very ruthless to Opposition people."
In particular, Prof Otunnu said their relations with Gen Sejusa were soured by his insistence on using military means to solve the country's problems, and that they came to discover that Gen Sejusa is "militarist at heart."
At one point, Prof Otunnu said Gen Sejusa asked the members of FUF to establish contact with Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army, which the professor said was "flatly rejected." He said, however, that Gen Sejusa later turned around and claimed that it were the FUF members who had wanted him to work with Kony.
Gen Sejusa could not be interviewed for his article because, according to his lawyers, Mr Rwakafuzi and Mr Joseph Luzige, he was resting at his home in Sembabule.
The other issue, Prof Otunnu said, was that Gen Sejusa tried to restrict the organisation's dealings with other "democracy-seeking organisations and individuals."
When Prof Otunnu once met up with the activist Bishop Zac Niringiye, he said, "Gen Sejusa was mad." The other organisation that Gen Sejusa tried to restrict FUF from dealing with, Prof Otunnu said, was the Federalist Alliance on Democracy and Development in Uganda (FADDA). On another occasion, Prof Otunnu said, Gen Sejusa declined an opportunity to be interviewed on the BBC's Hard Talk programme, "yet we had worked so hard to get him on to it."

These and other issues, Prof Otunnu said, increased their suspicions about Gen Sejusa's genuineness about the fight in which they were involved and eventually led Gen Sejusa to break away from FUF and found another organisation, Free Uganda (FU).
Free Uganda, Prof Otunnu said, was smaller and much less influential than FUF, and many people in the diaspora became even more apprehensive about working with Gen Sejusa, eventually making him "largely isolated" in London.
Our intelligence sources say Gen Sejusa will likely be followed from abroad by a number of people he was working with or he convinced to return. 
But Dr Vincent Magombe, the Free Uganda publicist, indicated in a message on the organisation's Facebook page that a number of people may follow Gen Sejusa from abroad.
"After serious consideration and consultations within FU leadership and with FU activists and supporters outside and inside Uganda," Dr Magombe wrote, "Free Uganda has decided to relocate to Uganda to continue the struggle for change while based on the ground."
Dr Magombe did not elaborate and neither has Gen Sejusa yet spelt out what they will be doing. "The question that lingers, said Prof Otunnu, "is what he returned to do, after his scathing indictment of the regime in power. Who and what will he betray? What were the terms for his return?"
In most ways, early interpretations by analysts indicate President Museveni may be the biggest beneficiary from the General's return, even if he only uses it to demonstrate that his government is tolerant to dissent. Attempts to get a comment from Dr Besigye, who had embraced Gen Sejusa as a possible ally, were futile. Earlier, Col Besigye had also questioned Gen Sejusa's democratic credentials.

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com

How the general's return was planned - National - monitor.co.ug

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/How-the-general-s-return-was-planned/-/688334/2556364/-/6to0m0/-/index.html

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