Harassing mobile phone users with
unsolicited messages is immoral and several people have repeatedly
complained to the regulator, Uganda Communications Commission.
Mobile phone users tend to be very angry
when receiving of such messages results into loss of talking time
(money). The YK Museveni messages, although unsolicited, are free.
“Owing to NRM achievements especially
bringing peace, the Historical League and party structures seconded me
to pick nomination forms for NRM for NRM Chairman and Presidential flag
bearer 2016 …” reads one of the messages from 71-year-old Museveni.
And indeed the historicals accompanied
Museveni when he went to pick NRM nomination forms at the party offices
on Kadondo road. It is in trying to understand why Museveni hunted down
NRM historicals to accompany him, and why it is the only league he is
mentioning in his SMS, that one will get to know why Maj Gen Matayo
Kyaligonza is a bitter man.
Bitter because Odrek Rwabwogo, married
to Museveni’s second daughter Patience Kokundeka, has picked forms to
contest against him for the post of NRM vice chairman for western
Uganda. Kyaligonza has held this position, I think, since NRM was
registered as a political party, around 2003.
The Rwabwogo candidature has certainly
caused excitement, the reason all major newspapers and broadcasting
stations have given it extensive coverage. Without saying much, Maj Gen
Kyaligonza, RO 0034, angrily remarked in front of cameras that this
candidature needed to be discussed. Mind you, Maj Gen Saverino Kahinda
Otafiire, RO 0014, is one of the contestants.
Kyaligonza is not angry with Otafiire,
but with Rwabwogo. And Rwabwogo has made matters worse by claiming he
has come to put things right. In a way, he is describing Kyaligonza as a
failure. In fact, when he appeared on Capital radio’s Capital Gang talk
show, he accused the Ssemujjus of dominating the airwaves and declared
that in him, we will find our match.
To understand why this will be a bitter
contest, one has to revisit the history and the building of the Museveni
dynasty. When Museveni seized power in 1986, like any other person, he
needed to consolidate it. The first move was to purge the military since
it is the one that he shared power with.
Many of the most fearless commanders of
the battalions that brought him to power were all dropped, arrested and
humiliated. They included Col Julius Chihandae, Col Ahmed Kashilingi and
Col Samson Mande. Kashilingi and Chihandae were particularly
dehumanized and humiliated.
The officer who helped Museveni do this
was Gen David Tinyefuza, whose operation boy was late Maj Gen James
Kazini Bunanukye. Brig Tadeo Kanyankore, one of the eight members of the
Historical High Command, followed and died a bitter death, and was
buried in Buhweju.
Kanyankore, Kyaligonza, Kategaya and
Tinyefuza are the only members of the Historical High Command that were
awarded the rank of brigadier when formal ranks were introduced around
1987. Museveni, his brother Saleh, Elly Tumwine and Fred Rwigyema Gisa
were all given the rank of Major Generals.
Both Tinyefuza and Kyaligonza were
furious with not only the ranks but military numbers. For example,
Otafiire, who commanded no unit and is not a member of the Historical
High Command, was given RO 0014. Kyaligonza is reported to have
suggested in one of those early-days meetings “that blood is thicker
than water.”
This was a reference to the treatment of
Saleh by his brother when he was in the wrong. While harsh punishments
would be handed out to others, Saleh would escape with or even without a
caution.
Subsequently, Kyaligonza landed into
trouble and Museveni sent his brother to arrest him. Mind you, it is
Kyaligonza who helped Saleh escape an assassination plot by some NRA
senior commanders during the bush war. When Kyaligonza reminded Saleh of
this story, Saleh broke down and pleaded with his brother to pardon the
man.
I think the Rwabwogo candidature evokes
this memory and that is what is driving Kyaligonza crazy. Nobody,
including a person of average understanding, will not interpret that
Rwabwogo is a proxy. I honestly believe Museveni detests sitting with
Kyaligonza in the NRM Central Executive Committee. Probably it is
because of that that his son-in-law’s project will not displease him.
But most importantly, being a father of
one son, Museveni must look beyond his first line of defence for a
possible successor. He has progressively sorted out the military by
promoting and making his son, Brig Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the de facto
army boss.
His wife Janet Kataha will grow old at
almost the same time as he, which makes her an unsuitable successor.
Muhoozi may not be in a position to hold the military and politics at
the same time. He, therefore, needs a deputy and the aggressive campaign
of Rwabwogo points to that.
This is no conspiracy theory; it is real stuff
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