{UAH} TRACING MUSEVENI FROM DAR ES SALAAM UNIVERSITY

Tracing the seed from Dar es Salaam University

A mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds, but when it grows it becomes the largest plant which in turn becomes big enough for the wild birds to come on and build nests on its branches.

In order to uproot such a seed, it’s wise that one deeply understands its origin, breed and its allies. In cases where its allies have fallen out with it, then it becomes too easy to uproot it from your soil. For that matter therefore Museveni’s Mustard seed is like a decayed and a shaky tooth which doesn’t require energy but rather the determination and zeal to deal with the little bleeding and that little pain as you pluck it out.

At Dar es Salaam University between 1967 and 1970 he studied law for his first year but owing to his insignificant performance, he was transferred to the Political Science department for the remaining two years at the university. On the first day of the law class, the lecturer asked each of the students to stand up and introduce themselves. They did so in turns. Museveni was seated right at the back of the class. When it came to his turn, he stood up and said, “I am Yoweri Museveni of Rwanda.” Some Ugandan students in the class were surprised, as most of them had always assumed that he was a Ugandan from Ankole. Knowing his stubborn ways, they dismissed this statement as one of his pranks and attempt at humour. He soon became involved in radical nationalist and leftist politics. During his second year at Dar es Salaam University in Sept. 1968, Museveni visited the military camps of the Mozambican independence group, Frente de Liberatacao de Mocambique (FRELIMO), and acquainted himself with their goals.

There are some people who doubt his claim to have seen combat action in Mozambique, but anyway let us give him the benefit of doubt. At Dar es Salaam University, Museveni was one of the leaders of a radical student association, the University African Students’ Front (UASF), a discussion group that advocated for Pan-African unity and advanced the struggle for Africa‘s independence. The university published a Marxist magazine called Che Che, whose main theme was revolutionary causes and African liberation. In one of its issues, Museveni wrote an article in which he compared President Nyerere to the 19th century German leader Otto von Bismarck. An aide to Nyerere read and was impressed by the article and sought out this Museveni who had understood Nyerere in such visionary terms. A mentor-protégé friendship between Nyerere and Museveni soon grew.

In 1969, Museveni visited Makerere University from Dar es Salaam University where he was a student. He went to speak at a seminar on African liberation.

He had recently returned from Mozambique where he watched the FRELIMO guerrillas train and was impressed by their level of organization and in particular, their interpretation of the role of a soldier in Africa‘s independence struggles. In a speech to the students at Makerere, Museveni passionately argued that the war was the highest form of political struggle and could only be conducted by political fighters not by politically neutral soldiers.

This speech at Makerere spelt out Museveni’s beliefs and because he emphasised them so forcefully, we can summarize that he had now come to the conviction that war was to be, henceforth, his principal vehicle for the pursuit of his ambitions and the application of his political ideas. One day late in 1970 while at Dar es Salaam University, it is believed that Mr. Museveni suffered another breakdown. Like the breakdown in 1967, it was not a breakdown caused by fatigue, stress, or any result of a work overload. It was a breakdown that was definitely triggered off by what OBs suspected to be mind travel illness. This time he was flown to a psychiatric hospital in Oman in the Middle East. After undergoing treatment, he returned to Dar es Salaam. After completing university in Tanzania in March 1970, Museveni applied for and got a job in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. President Obote met Museveni again in Aug. 1970 and was impressed enough by the young man that he had him transferred to the Office of the President at the parliamentary buildings in Kampala.

There, Museveni joined a branch of the Ugandan intelligence service, the General Service Unit. Prior to its founding in April 1964, the General Service Unit was an off shoot of the Protocol Department in the Office of the President. This branch was called the State Research Bureau and was headed at that time by Picho Ali. His brother, Albert Picho Owiny, was also a youth activist with the ruling UPC party.

Museveni also worked with the head of the research department in the President’s Office, Wilson Okwenje (who later became the minister of public service and cabinet affairs in Obote II regime in 1980.) Museveni’s official title was Assistant Secretary for Research.

Among the other young men in the research department of the President’s Office were Jaberi Bidandi Ssali, Zubairi Bakari, Kintu Musoke, Yuda Katundu, Michael Micombero-Mpambara, Kasendwa- Ddumba, Erifazi Laki, Edward Rugumayo, Moses Musonge, John Ateker Ejalu, Abbasi Kibazo and many others.

The overall director of the country’s intelligence services was Obote’s own cousin, Naphtali Akena Adoko. Museveni’s colleagues in the General Service Unit found him to be too impatient and quarrelsome in dealing with people. He was always secretive in the office and appeared to find it difficult to trust people. He never opened up to his colleagues and they felt sure he was holding back much of himself from them. It was Picho Ali who knew best how to deal with Museveni.

Ali was an extremely intelligent young man with good command of English. He would dismiss Museveni’s petty bickering with one single word which would leave Museveni boiling like a volcano and the rest of the office cheering. Like it or not, Museveni was not popular. Explaining in the Daily Monitor newspaper of 16 Oct., 2005, Wilson Okwenje said:

“It was in my capacity as head of research in the President’s Office that I met Yoweri Museveni for the first time in 1970. He had come to us after graduating from Dar es Salaam University. We worked together till the military coup of 25 Jan., 1971.”

At that time, as an assistant secretary, he was just another face in the crowd, as a matter of speech, although I came to know that he harboured political ambitions and I suspected that he was using his work at the President’s Office as a stepping stone.”

The question is, how was Museveni “using his work” as a stepping stone to his real ambitions? It goes without saying that someone in that position would have enjoyed a certain amount of access to secret government files and information.

He had security clearance and made sure that his position benefitted him in a far-reaching way than just gaining an office desk for administrative experience. In 1970 unknown to most people, Museveni had begun to collect weapons for reasons known to him. How he got the arms in the first place without being questioned or arrested, is equally unknown but he used his security clearance to get them in without causing suspicion. Museveni kept the rifles and pistols hidden in a location in Salaama near Kibuye along the road to Entebbe. He also tried to recruit some of his friends into what was a future armed struggle. Many of them did not take him seriously that a junior intelligence officer actually meant what he said when he claimed to privately own guns and was planning an armed struggle.

EM         -> {   Gap   at   46  } – {Allan Barigye is a Rwandan predator}

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"