Former spokesperson of the Reform Agenda Beti Kamya (left) and President Yoweri Museveni. Photo/File
Twenty three years ago on Wednesday, the spokesperson of the Reform Agenda, Ms Beti Olive Kamya, told legislators that violence and intimidation in all recent elections held in Uganda had started in State House.
According Daily Monitor’s edition of April 17, 2002, Ms Kamya made the remarks on April 16, 2002, while appearing before a select committee of Parliament that had been formed on February 20, 2002, to investigate the causes of election violence; the mismanagement of electoral processes; the misconduct of public officials during elections; staffing and structuring of the Electoral Commission (EC) and; the role of the armed forces and other security organs in the conduct of elections.
The committee was also charged with investigating the suitability and adequacy of the laws governing elections; allegations of financial impropriety in the EC; inadequacy of civic and voter education processes; the role of the Executive, Members of Parliament and the Movement Secretariat in the conduct of elections and any other related matters.
The 15-man committee was chaired by Augustine Nshimye, with James Mwandha as vice chairperson. Other members of the committee were Ms Mbabazi Kabushenga Hamlet, Mr Charles Bakkabulindi, Mr Avitus Tibarimbasa, Mr Martin Orech, Mr Issa Kikungwe, Ms Dora Byamukama, Mr Patrick Apuun, Lt Mulindwa Birimumaaso, Ms Winnie Byanyima, Ms Oliver Wonekha, Mr Tomson Anang-Odur, Jacob Oulanyah, Anim Angupale and Dr Johnson Nkuuhe.
According to the publication, Ms Kamya told the committee that the government had to first admit that it had not done enough to avoid or prevent violence in previous elections if the country was to avoid a repeat of violence in future elections. Failure by the government to make such an admission, she said, would result in a culture of violence taking root in Uganda.
Museveni’s anger
Ms Kamya is further quoted to have told the committee that President Museveni got so angry and exhibited his anger in public after Col Dr Kizza Besigye declared his candidature, that he wrote a letter in the media castigating him. It should be remembered that Dr Besigye declared his intention to challenge Mr Museveni on October 28, 2000, at a hastily arranged press conference in Kampala.
The press conference was convened as Mr Museveni and Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame were playing a game of football as one of the activities organised to celebrate a school reunion at Ntare School in Mbarara.
Mr Museveni left the venue prematurely. On November 1, Mr Museveni issued a statement in which he lashed out at him for unilaterally declaring himself a candidate. "Besigye has gone about his intentions in an indisciplined and disruptive way.
He has, without consulting any organ of the Movement, launched himself as a Movement candidate although it is well-known that he is in close collaboration with multipartists. Let us, however, assume that Col Besigye is not in cahoots with multipartists," Mr Museveni wrote.
He accused Dr Besigye of having had a hand in the purchase of junk military helicopters from Belarus, before promising to write bi-weekly missives to "detoxicate the toxins being administered” by people like Dr Besigye.
Dr Besigye hit back, inviting the President to challenge him on, among other things, the existence of a military tender board and whether he often did not misdirect himself into thinking that he was the tender board. Mr Museveni did not respond. He also never fulfilled the promise to pen bi-weekly missives.
Intimidation of officers
Ms Kamya told the committee that some people, especially top military officers, were intimidated into showing support for the incumbent. President Museveni’s anger, she said, resulted in mass violence in the country.
“Top government officials would call us secretly, urge us to go on, give us information, show their frustrations, but in the day (they) would not show support for Besigye. They needed to show loyalty to the President," Ms Kamya said.
She said Museveni's media adverts, panga story and alleged training in Mukono contributed to intimidation and violence. It should be remembered that the minister for Local Government at the time, Mr Jaberi Bidandi Ssali, recorded some radio adverts.
Recorded in Luganda, Bidandi asked, “Olina kewekoledde?” (Do you have any investments?) That would be followed by the answer, “Kale londa Museveni abikukumire” (Vote Museveni to secure them for you) The other advert would go like, “Olina abaana?” (Do you have children?)
That would be followed by the response, “Kale londa Museveni abakukumire” (Vote Museveni to help you take care of them) The panga story that Ms Kamya was referring to was the impounding early in February 2001 by the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) of 112,800 pangas from a private importer.
Brig Noble Mayombo, who was the acting chief of Military Intelligence, appeared on Radio One’s Spectrum talk show a few days later and said the pangas had been impounded for security reasons. He said the government was concerned about a possible outbreak of violence and was, for that matter, putting the importation of pangas into the country on hold.
Brig Mayombo died on May 1, 2007, aged 42. Ms Kamya said perpetrators of violence from both camps should have been prosecuted, adding that Mr Museveni should have made a strong statement condemning it.
During the same interface, Ms Kamya described Dr Besigye as the “truest Movementists” who believed in individual merit and freedom of speech. Ironically, a few years later, after the fallout with the leadership of the Opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), she gave an interview in which she described Dr Besigye as “worse than Museveni”.
She argued that Besigye was “intolerant of dissenting views”. Ms Kamya later joined Mr Museveni’s government and served as minister of Kampala Affairs and Lands and Urban Development before being appointed Inspector General of Government (IGG).
Brig Noble Mayombo, who was the acting chief of Military Intelligence, appeared on Radio One’s Spectrum talk show a few days later and said the pangas had been impounded for security reasons. He said the government was concerned about a possible outbreak of violence and was, for that matter, putting the importation of pangas into the country on hold. Brig Mayombo died on May 1, 2007, aged 42.
Ms Kamya said perpetrators of violence from both camps should have been prosecuted, adding that Mr Museveni should have made a strong statement condemning it. During the same interface, Ms Kamya described Dr Besigye as the “truest Movementists” who believed in individual merit and freedom of speech.
Ironically, a few years later, after the fallout with the leadership of the Opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), she gave an interview in which she described Dr Besigye as “worse than Museveni”. She argued that Besigye was “intolerant of dissenting views”. Ms Kamya later joined Mr Museveni’s government and served as minister of Kampala Affairs and Lands and Urban Development before being appointed Inspector General of Government (IGG).
Minister quizzed
The same day, members of the committee quizzed Ms Janat Mukwaya, the minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, on why the State had not charged Mr Richard Nduhura, the State minister for Industry, for voting twice. Jacob Oulanya (Omoro) said Mr Nduhura should have been charged within one month after the court found that he had voted twice during the Igara East parliamentary elections.
Such a strong statement would have served to restore public confidence in the electoral system. Ms Mukwaya was also put on the spot about allegations that the minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Ms Zoe Bakoko Bakoru, was found with ballot boxes. The legislators demanded to know why the two cases had not been dealt with to their conclusive ends.
Mutale’s day
A day after Ms Kamya’s appearance before the committee, Maj Roland Kakooza Mutale, who was Mr Museveni’s senior advisor on political affairs, appeared before the same committee and defended the activities of his Kalangala Action Plan (KAP) during the campaign period.
He insisted that violence would remain part of the electoral process because of the tension caused by competition, adding that politics was the country’s highest employer. He said institutions liked the police and EC had to be empowered to manage the violence. "Conflict is part of democracy.
One must expect conflict [and] violence is part of this. We cannot keep away violence, but [see] how to manage it," Mutale told the MPs.
He said that KAP was neither a paramilitary organisation nor a formal intelligence organisation acting parallel to the Movement, but one that was working with the system to advance the M
ovement ideology and avoid what he referred to as "revisionism and diversionary" tendencies. Mutale, who equated Col Besigye to Judas Iscariot, said KAP works against people who try to reform the Movement, adding that the organisation had also campaigned for several people, including the chairman of the committee, Mr Augustine Nshimye, who had contested in Mityana South.
The maverick soldier appeared before the committee with more than 10 men, some in military fatigues. They were equipped with books on violence in man and monkeys. Mutale often referred to the books as he lectured the MPs.
