Tracing Gen David Sejusa’s exit and return

Gen David Sejusa has been in exile in the United Kingdom since last year. He returned to Uganda on Sunday morning. PHOTO BY FAISWAL KASIRYE

His return was as dramatic as his exit. One day, we awoke to a screaming headline in this newspaper in which Gen David Sejusa called for an inquest into reports of assassination of senior army officers.
Heads rolled in the Army with military officers such as the controversial presidential adviser on Security in Buganda region, Brig Kasirye Ggwanga coming out to publicly distance himself from Gen Sejusa. Around the same time, former Army commander and MP Elly Tumwine, had his own share of bad press after the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development insisted he pays arrears over Nomo Gallery or face eviction. Those who closely read Uganda’s political lines connected the move to his perceived sympathy for and with Gen Sejusa.
His surprise and well-choreographed return to the country, at 3am on Sunday morning, when the nation was deep asleep, Gen Sejusa has got tongues wagging, with ripples of discontent in the public. The return has, however, not been a one-day event.

May 2013
May 7: The letter that opened the lid
The general writes a letter in with instructions contained in an April 29, 2013 communication to the Director General Internal Security Organisation .
“Yes, I did author that letter sometime back and yes it is my letter,” he tells this newspaper. In that letter, the General directs that the inquiry establishes if the plans to eliminate top officers, including himself, have anything to do with their opposition to the so-called “Muhoozi Project”.

“… the reason I have written this letter, is in regard to the very serious allegations that have appeared in the press that Inspector General Police, Brig Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Gen Salim Saleh, one Kellen and others hatched an evil and extrajudicial plan of stage-managing the attack on Mbuya barracks [in March] so as to frame some senior members of this government especially I, [Prime Minister] Amama Mbabazi and CDF, Gen Aronda and those perceived to be anti-Brig Muhoozi project.”

A day later, then Army Commander Aronda Nyakairima and Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura issue a press statement condemning Gen Sejusa over the contents of his letter. Gen Nyakairima says the spy chief is “acting out of order” and is peddling falsehoods. Gen Kayihura describes the allegations as “crap, outrageous and annoying”. Police’s Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Directorate later delivers summons to Daily Monitor officers requiring reporters Richard Wananbwa and Risdel Kasasira, the authors of the story, and Don Wanyama, the managing editor to appear for interrogation at CIID headquarters at Kibuli.

May 20
The paper’s offices, that house KFM and Dembe FM, the sister radio stations are closed, in what the State claims is a search for the letter that turned tables upside down. Wild and wide criticism from local and international civil society actors as well as diplomatic missions are stirred, with government being put on pressure to open Monitor and Red Pepper offices. They are opened after a series of close- door deliberations with the media houses’ top leadership and government.
June 2013
Cabinet directs Defence minister to respond to Sejusa claims
In an interview with the BBC, Gen Sejusa says he will use all available means to unseat President Museveni’s government, which he terms as “a life presidency transiting into a political monarchy”.
While in London, the four-star general keeps in touch with the media, venting his anger and frustration with the system. A Cabinet resolution comes on the same day the Coordinator of Intelligence Services alleges that a number of security personnel associated with his office have been detained by the police under unclear circumstances. Gen Sejusa demands that the individuals are either released or presented in court.
JUNE 22
Former FDC party president Kizza Besigye, speaks out for the first time on the matter.
Dr Besigye says: “More people in uniform will be coming out to speak about …social, economic and political injustice.”
JULY 2014
In a July 20, interview with this newspaper, more than a year later, Dr Besigye confirms he had been meeting Gen Sejusa and the two were seriously mulling ways of booting out Museveni’s 28-year old regime. A military option, he says, was not out of the question.
October 2014
In an interview at a press conference in State House, President Museveni, breaks his silence on Sejusa. He falls short of rubbishing his bush war comrade and only says, in a matter-of-fact tone, “We are not really concentrating on Tinyefuza now; he is not our priority”. If the general wants war, like he had threatened in several media interviews, Museveni says, “He knows my address. We have been waiting for him for a few months now.”
Col Samson Mande warns on Sejusa
Around the same time, exiled soldier Samson Mande, while appearing on KFM’s Hot Seat talk show expresses reservations about his then neighbour and comrade in exile. He warns that Sejusa could not be trusted before he officially resigned from the government he claimed to loathe and detached himself from the payroll.
He says: “As far as I am concerned, I still see him on the payroll. He has just taken leave … remember when I left [Uganda], I had to immediately write to President Museveni detaching myself from the system,” adding, “I don’t want to sit down with somebody on the payroll and discuss issues to do with struggling against the system he is serving.”
NOVEMBER 2013
Sejusa’s father appeals to Museveni
In a fatherly move, Mzee Peter Bwajoojo appeals to Museveni to forgive his son for the wrongs he might have committed and allow him return home from exile. He asks the two to reconcile but his message doesn’t appear to strike the right chords as they both take to silence. “My message to the government is that someone should help these two old friends to reconcile. There was even a time years back when Tinyefuza had disagreed with Museveni and for some time he was on katebe [without assigned duties], but they reconciled. So I am sure that even this time they can be friends again,” Mzee Bwajoojo – who still referred to his son by the old name Tinyefuza – tells our reporter.
November 20
Following two months of inquiry, MPs voted to kick out Gen Sejusa from Parliament after he was found guilty of being absent without permission. He was replaced with then Colonel Innocent Oula, now a Brigadier.
Sejusa’s initial absence from Parliament had expired on May 21 and his May 24 and August 16 applications for extensions were declined by the Speaker who had on April 30 granted him permission to be away from Parliament for three weeks.
December 2013
The decorated general renewed the trust and confidence of his followers when he closed the year by opening a political pressure group. The party, said to be in disarray now, was launched in London and called, ‘Freedom and Unity Front’.
“He’s had enough time,” Gen Sejusa said on the side-lines of a meeting to launch his party. “He can leave and go, and we start a new process of national healing. And we are organising ourselves, we are establishing a constitutional rule which he destroyed,” Sejusa told Reuters at the launch.
January 2014
Three soldiers of the elite Special Forces Command (SFC) testified during their trial over a plot to overthrow the government, that four people, who worked in the office of the embattled general recruited soldiers to over- throw the government. The four people are Frank Ninsiima, a former operative in Gen Sejusa’s office, James Karuhanga Nayebare, a soldier and businessman, Abel Twinamatsiko and Moses Nuwagaba Kakarugahi.
MAY 2014
Relatives of four Internal Security Organisation operatives who had been working in the office of the Coordinator of Intelligence Services, Gen Sejusa applied for a court order to force the government to produce them in court. The individuals were arrested on May 5 from their homes in a joint operation conducted by the police flying squad and the army.
The application for a writ of habeas corpus [an order to produce someone in court] to have Nayebare, Nuwagaba, Ninsiima and Twinamatsiko in court was issued to the Attorney General, Inspector General of Police and the commandant of Special Investigations Unit.
October 5, 2014
Mzee Simon Peter Bwajoojo, the father of exiled former Coordinator of Intelligence Organs passes on. He is laid to rest at Bweyale village in Lugusuulu Sub-county, Ssembabule District. Sejusa doesn’t attend the burial and neither does the President.
November 2014
The rumour mill starts to spin, creating impressions that top government officials are in talks with Gen Sejusa, cajoling him to let go of his bitterness and return home. Despite this talk, the general continues to issue hard hitting statements, pointing accusatory games at the regime for among others, rigging elections, keeping Dr Besigye’s aide Sam Mugumya, holed up in Democratic Republic of Congo in a safe house in Kampala. Such sweeping allegations lend no credence to this rumour mill.
December 13, 2014
Sejusa lands at Entebbe International Airport at 3:13am aboard a British Airways flight that was delayed. He is received by his sister, lawyer Ladislaus Rwakafuzi, and ISO Director General Ronnie Balya.

The world, whose breath Sejusa had held for more than a year, will still stick its eyes to the space that so far portends a cordial Sejusa-Museveni relation, at least from the look of things. From whatever angle you look at it, Sejusa’s dramatic exit, return is one of a man unpredictable, whose intentions can only be adjudged by time.