{UAH} OF GEN. KATUMBA'S NONSENCE AND GEN. KALEKYEZI'S EXCELLENCE

OF GEN. KATUMBA'S NONSENCE AND GEN. KALEKYEZI'S EXCELLENCE

   Gen. Katumba Wamala is Museveni's figurehead Chief of his army, the NRA.  He did not participate in Museveni's Bush War though he claims to have helped Museveni's brother, Gen. Saleh to escape from the remote Karamoja region before he joined the NRA.  However, Col. Jacob Loum who was the Commanding Officer of the UNLA's Moroto based unit recently gave a more credible version where he claims to have been the one who helped Gen. Saleh (then 2nd Lt.) to escape via Kenya and Tanzania before he connected with the NRA bases in central Uganda.

Then Lt. Katumba Wamala joined the NRA after it had taken over government in 1986.  Since then he raised through the ranks and came to prominence in the late 1990s when he ably oversaw the ending of the rebel groups affiliated to the West Nile region.  He was then deployed to the Congo expedition as the overall commander of Operation Safe Heaven (OSH), as it was code-named and he excelled in diffusing the tension that had erupted between the armies of Museveni and Kagame.   The then Army chief, Gen. Kaziini has messed up the army and it was evident that he was to be replaced.  Gen. Katumba Wamala was seen as the likely replacement.

However, like had been the case with Gen. Ivan Koreta when he was poised to replace Gen. Jeje Odong but was instead posted to Internal Security Organisation (ISO) in order to create room for Gen. Kaziini, Gen. Katumba was posted to police in order to create room for Gen. Aronda to replace Gen. Kaziini.  At the time the army had not been purified to create the elite SFC under the command of Museveni's son, Gen. Muhoozi thus the Army Commander had to be a "home boy".  In this regard, in 2001 Museveni promoted Brig. Katumba Wamala to the rank of Maj. Gen. and appointed him the Inspector General of Police (IGP).  At the time, Museveni had been accusing the police of undermining his government and had deliberately starved it of financial and logistical facilitation in its work.

Gen. Katumba Wamala initiated a fund-rising drive for police facilitation and many individuals and companies overwhelmingly responded with financial contributions that enabled the purchase of new vehicles that were used for night patrols.  This private sector led community policing initiative helped the grossly underfunded police force to procure vehicles that made it become mobile thus revitalizing the morale of its personnel.  In May 2002, Museveni, through the then Minister of Finance, Gerald Ssendaula, told the parliamentary committee that Gen. Katumba Wamala the IGP did not have a license to fund-rise and that his actions violated the financial regulations.   During the same month, Gen. Katumba responded to the Minister of Finance's statements by vowing to continue with the initiative.  He stated thus "Whenever and wherever I will be called to receive a donation in response to the funding drive to purchase a police vehicle, I will go and nothing will deter me."

A few weeks later, during a public function in Lwangulwa, Kyanamukaka Sub County, Masaka District, then Speaker of Parliament, Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi told residents that parliament would support the IGP in efforts to fund-rise for the purchase of police patrol vehicles to fight crime.  Shortly after, during a radio talk show at Super FM, Museveni asserted that begging for money is not the work of the IGP but that of the Minister of Finance before describing IGP Gen. Katumba Wamala's fund-rising efforts as "nonsense'. However, the following day his handlers came out to deny the same reports and they asserted that Museveni has been quoted out of context when he meant extension of fund-rising outside the country.  Gen. Katumba Wamala's fund-rising initiative was brought to a halt and he continued to preside over a poorly facilitated police force.

In the meantime, the then army chief, Gen. Aronda was busy privatizing the army by among other measures creating the elite SFG and when the exercise was over, in 2005 Gen. Katumba Wamala was moved from the police and made the figure-head of the army at a time when all the vital units had been fused under the SFG under the command of Museveni's son, Gen. muhoozi.  The privatization of the security forces focus was now shifted to the former Uganda Police Whereby Gen. Kalekyezi was made the IGP and Gen. Aronda the Minister of Internal Affairs. Being a home boy, Gen.  Kalekyezi started from where Gen. Katumba had stopped in mobilizing resources from the private sector for the police.  He has not only mobilized from local sources but even foreign states and China has been the biggest contributor of resources.  Locally, Ugandans have offered free land to the police for establishment of police posts, among other resources.

In June 2013, Irish Aid donated 400 mountain bikes to the police force for community policing.  In 2014, China donated 96 machines worth US$800,000m for the kick-starting the Police's cloth making factory. In 2014, China built a day care centre at Naguru for children of police officers who work within Kampala. In September 2015, UNHCR donated to the Uganda Police motor vehicles worth more than US$1.8m through the office of the Prime Minister for coordinating safety responses for refugees.  In August 2016, the Chinese Embassy in Kampala donate to the Uganda Police 200 smart phones, 50 mattresses, 10 motorcycles, 5 laptops, 10 footballs, that were handed to the IGP by the Chinese Ambassador.  While receiving the equipment, IGP Kalekyezi said:  "You have supported African countries, we want you to continue supporting us, we can do it in form of a partnership, that is to say commercial partnership."

Gen. Katumba's nonsense was halted in favor of Gen. Kalekyezi's excellence.  Gen. Katumba's major crime was to tactfully dodge the trap that had been set for him by distancing the police from the notorious Operation Wembly.  That way, Museveni had thought that by jumping on the Operation Wembly bandwagon, Gen. Katumba would soil his reputation the same way Brig. Mayombo wholly rolled himself into the muddy waters of the notorious JATT.   Brig. Elly Kayanja who took up the offer, will carry the Operation Wembly bloody cross for the rest of his life.  Ever since, Gen. Kayihura took over command of the police, the institution is credited for being the most brutal anti-people force. That is Museveni - the "expert in fixing" the security of Uganda.

INFORMATION IS POWER AND DEFIANCE IS THE WAY TO GO.

Posted by Uganda - A Change of Guards!

Viele GruBe

Robukui

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