{UAH} WE REVEAL WHY TINYEFUNZA HAS RETURNED TO UGANDA

We reveal why Gen David Sejusa has returned to Uganda

Posted on December 14, 2014 by Editorial Team

 

Gen Sejusa (2nd from left) meets some Ugandan exiles at the London School of Economics on the day he helped launch the Freedom and Unity party. Were they duped?

By Henry D Gombya

Ugandans in London are waking up this morning to hear news that Gen David Sejusa has at long last returned to Kampala as many of them have suspected all along. News of his return has caught many by surprise, especially those that have been working closely with him in his Free Uganda movement that he founded soon after arriving here nearly two years ago.

I first heard about his return while I was doing my Sunday newspaper reviews at Arise TV news studios in Piccadilly, London. The message I got was that Gen Sejusa had arrived at Entebbe Airport aboard a British Airways flight that landed around 3am Uganda time (midnight here in London). First reaction from Ugandans who have spoken to The London Evening Post so far is that of utter shock. Many said: “We told you so.” Others say they knew all the time that he would not stay long here and would return to what they called ‘his master’.

Gen Sejusa was coordinator of military intelligence at the time he fled the country on April 30, last year after he published an article in the Daily Monitor claiming there were attempts to arrest and murder army officers opposed to alleged plans by President Yoweri Museveni to have his son Brig Muhoozi Kainerugaba take over as the country’s leader when he finally steps down. There have been numerous rumours that the general has been in touch with the Ugandan leadership all the time he has been in exile. Follow

Sejusa supporters force protester who called him a murderer out of the London conference

A month after he had fled Uganda, the Nairobi-based The East African newspaper reported thus: “The East African has been reliably informed that there have been ongoing discussions between the top army leadership and Gen Sejusa — to which President Museveni has given his blessing — to delay his return until a harmonised position or response has been reached.” Whether that ‘harmonised position’ has now been reached is anybody’s guess. But his secret departure from London has left a bitter taste in the mouths of many here who genuinely believed he would help them, as an NRM (National Resistance Movement) insider, dislodge Museveni from his 28-year presidency.

In the past, the general has told anyone who wanted to hear why he had not returned to Uganda that the Museveni government had made contingent plans to have him murdered if he stepped in Uganda. In an interview with Voice of America concerning his attempts to return to Uganda in May last year, Gen Sejusa said: “The plan had been to arrest me at the tarmac, put me on a helicopter, fly me to a place called Nakasongola, the next day make a mock attack that I was going to be rescued by my rebels, then I’m killed in crossfire.  There was an elaborate plan to eliminate me in the process and cover up these serious issues which I had raised.”

The question now is, have those threats against his life been removed? Given the unconfirmed reports coming from Kampala this morning that he had been met at the airport by the Director of General of the Internal Security Organisation who took him to his home, it would be very strange that someone who has repeatedly called the Ugandan leader a murderer and called for his violent overthrow could suddenly find it safe to return to the murderer’s den. What is not debatable here though is the fact that Gen Sejusa could not have returned to Uganda without the approval of President Museveni. Follow

Gen Sejusa (L)eyes the man he helped appoint as Chairman of the Freedom and Unity Party Prof Amii Omara Otunnu. He (Sejusa) soon left the new party to form the Free Uganda movement.

The London Evening Post understands that Gen Sejusa has recently discussed his return to Uganda with some of his close associates. His Free Uganda movement has been holding secret talks to discuss the manner in which the FU would return home and establish the FU there. The general, more than anybody else, had insisted that it was important that the leadership of the FU are seen to be fighting Museveni in Uganda and not from outside. What his FU associates disagreed with however, was ‘the timing, the level of the leadership to go to Kampala, the mode of operation and the sustenance’.

Information reaching our news desk from those that have been close to him here in London say his return was discussed and he told them why he believed it was time he returned home. In a note to his followers, a copy of  which we have here at The London Evening Post, Gen Sejusa told his followers that the struggle to remove Museveni from power was entering ‘a critical phase’. He asked them: “If we don’t go now, how do we intend to enter the political process?” He then asked them: “Supposing Museveni drops dead, are we going to wait to be invited back? And will you be invited back by the new force in charge?”

This fear of being left out were something to happen to Museveni, looks like having become the deciding factor in the general’s decision to return home. He told them he believes by returning home he would establish an organisational structure in the country to rival that built by the NRM during the early 1980s to enlist mass support that eventually took them to power. He also believes that by returning to Uganda, he is the only person in the FU leadership that could galvanize the support of the youth and the army. On the question of his life being in danger were he to return to Kampala, the general posed this question to his inner circle: “Am I free of danger now?”

Milton Allimadi (front row, right) publisher of the New York-based Black Star News was among the invited delegates at the Freedom and Unity launch in London last year.

“The concept of danger is ideologically dangerous,” Gen Sejusa said. He said this promotes ‘the idea of false security’ and what he referred to as ‘briefcase straggliest’ that must be rejected. “I spent five years in the bushes of Luwero, was injured twice, and escaped from Obote’s prison and Museveni’s airport last year. These are the dangers liberation leaders must face if they are to lead others to freedom.”

Gen Sejusa had been reminded about what happened to Dr Kizza Besigye when he fled to South Africa first but returned only to be arrested and charged with treason. He replied: “I advised the comrade (who raised this issue) that he is raising a non-issue because in a dictatorship they don’t follow the law…In a dictatorship civilians are taken to army courts like those comrades who are in jail accused of treason with me. So what’s the point of advancing such reasons?” he asked.

He went on to inform his committee that there were a group of people who appeared more worried about his safety on returning to Uganda than he himself. He told them: “No one is safe in that country and therefore the danger which I will face is the same like the one faced by everyone like those comrades languishing in cells because of me.” He emphasized that the FU had now positioned itself ideologically as a light. “Our absence [from the country] is undermining our credibility and creating an ideological vacuum which is very dangerous in a struggle,” he stressed.

Gen Sejusa explains his plans for freeing Ugandans from the Museveni rulership at the London School of Economics

Stressing further the need for the FU to be positioned in Uganda, Gen Sejusa said those funding it had insisted on the FU’s relocation from the United Kingdom. He said as the FU leader fighting for freedom, he is of no use staying on the streets of London using emails to communicate his leadership. He said while he was aware of the importance of relying on other means to cause change, it required one to have a home base, local support and organisation. “Personally, I did not come to stay in exile until some Good Samaritan defeats Museveni for me. I came to fight for liberation for myself. No one will fight for us.”

Gen Sejusa denied that by returning home abruptly he would compromise with the regime. “This exile is full of people working for the regime quietly or openly. So a traitor need not be home to do his thing.” He ended by saying it was an unavoidable requirement that the FU went home. FU spokesperson Dr Vincent Magombe hurriedly issued a statement surprising via Facebook that FU had ‘come home to continue the struggle with all other opposition forces’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

EM

On the 49^th Parallel          

                 Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy"
                    Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika machafuko"