Kiyingi admits links with Kamoga’s co-accused

Kampala.

Dr Aggrey Kiyingi has identified one of the individuals accused of murder, terrorism and crimes against humanity along with Tabliq leader Sheikh Muhamad Yunus Kamoga as his key mobiliser, who has been marketing his 2016 presidential bid.

Ms Aisha Nakasibante, is the only woman among the 10 of mostly Muslim religious leaders who were recently charged following the killing of a number of sheikhs.

Citing security reasons, Dr Kiyingi declined to name the rest of his mobilisers, saying he will disclose their identities during the official launch of his campaign. He did not say whether any of the other indicted individuals under detention, including Sheikh Kamoga, was part of his mobilisation team.

“A full list of my mobilisers who have lost their lives will in due course be made public at the appropriate time. For now, it is very risky for their families and contacts, who might be terrorised by state agents since they are potential witnesses at a later date when all is made public. After appropriate safety mechanisms and guarantees of the safety of the bereaved families and their contacts have been put in place, a detailed dossier will be made public,” Kiyingi said.

Allegations denied
The state contends that Dr Kiyingi founded a rebel group called Federal Alliance, which has since linked up with the eastern DR Congo-based Allied Democratic Forces rebels, whose operational methods are classified as terrorist.

The state further holds that Dr Kiyingi has been financing the activities of the organisation and says it carried out the recent killing of sheikhs to make the government unpopular and set the stage to launch his presidential bid.

Dr Kiyingi, while declaring his presidential bid as Daily Monitor reported on Friday, denied the allegations and insisted he instead had “a proposed political platform” called Uganda Federal Democratic Organisation and that he had already dispatched a team to do a nationwide premarketing campaign ahead of the official launch.

Delayed return, the issues
Dr Kiyingi said following the allegations made against him, “the situation is still very fluid” and that he will be watching how things progress before deciding his next move. For that reason, he said, his return from Australia, which he said was originally planned for later this month or next month, has been “sabotaged”.

“Realistically, it will take at least three months to re-organise the schedule [of his return],” he said, “So we shall be looking at June if everything goes well.”

Responding to a question on whether he has been in touch with other opposition politicians and whether they have reached any understanding, Dr Kiyingi said: “Yes I have, but this is not the time and place to state whom I have contacted and what understanding we have come to, if any.”

Asked for his preliminary reaction to Dr Kiyingi’s declaration that he will challenge for the presidency, former Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Prof Ogenga Latigo said: “The story of Dr Kiyingi’s wife’s death has to first be clearly understood before we can discuss Dr Kiyingi’s possible presidential bid.”

When we put the question to him, Dr Kiyingi said: “As you can imagine, this is a sad, painful and sensitive matter which affects a number of people. It is not an appropriate topic for this communication.”

Dr Kiyingi was and arrested and prosecuted for the murder of his wife in 2005, but court later acquitted him of the charges. On returning to Australia after the trial, Dr Kiyingi said he had been framed and that he hoped that at one time the killers of his former wife would be exposed and brought to justice.

Possible road blocks
Dr Kiyingi, who is a dual citizen of Uganda and Australia, is currently debarred from running for the presidency under the Uganda Constitution unless he renounces the Australian citizenship. When we put the question to him whether he is ready to drop the Australian passport and come down to challenge President Museveni, he gave no definite answer.
“We shall cross that bridge when we come to it,” is all he said.

Another possible glitch Dr Kiyingi may encounter in launching his presidential bid for 2016 is being registered as a voter. Registering for IDs is officially over, yet the government says the voters register will be compiled from the data gathered during the ID registration exercise.

It remains unclear whether individuals who are already on the old voters register but failed to register for the national ID will be allowed to vote, or whether there will be exceptions in terms of registration for individuals such as Dr Kiyingi who were out of the country by the time the official registration ended last month.

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