Gen Sejusa arrest: Story behind the story

KAMPALA- “So what is wrong with arresting Sejusa? I was arrested by Idi Amin three times, I have scars. I commanded battles with wounds through my stomach, a bullet missed my heart by a millimetre.

My leg dropped off, Dr Kizza Besigye just reconnected it,” is how Gen David Sejusa dismissed threats by the army to arrest him in an interview with this newspaper in June last year.

In that three-hour interview, the golden thread in Sejusa’s submissions was a tone laden with defiance and readiness for the state cracking its whip.

Today, he shall stand in the dock. But who is playing what cards? Government yesterday hinted on the charges Gen Sejusa faces, in essence breaking down reasons behind his arrest and detention at Makindye Military Barracks.
At the heart of this is Gen Sejua whose views on use of force to dislodge his erstwhile commander in chief are in black and white with consistency and resolve that knows no bounds.

In a June 2015 interview with Saturday Monitor, he said, “The population shall revolt like it did in 1981. Our job is to guide and empower them in that endeavour. We are building capacity for a popular revolt on different prongs.”

Sejusa’s lawyer Mr Ladislaus Rwakafuuzi discarded government’s claims that link the renegade general to political statements, arguing the allegations are acts of guilt conscience arising from the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) refusal to retire the former coordinator of intelligence services beyond the statutory requirement to respond to an applicant’s retirement request in 90 days that expired in March last year.

Mr Rwakafuuzi said, “They are not true. They know that they are morally wrong to have denied him retirement.

They are churning out retirement like a piece of cake. It is the guilt in them making them to make those wild and baseless allegations.”

Appearing on NTV’s political talk show, Fourth Estate, army spokesman Paddy Ankunda said security agencies had gathered intelligence linking Opposition groups to post-election violence. Ostensibly the government claims, Sejusa was galvanising forces to use Amama Mbabazi and Besigye’s crowds in Kampala, Wakiso and Mukono as a launch pad for civic unrest.

“Under the guise of mobilizing their supporters for vote protection on polling day, the same Opposition elements have sinister plans to eventually turn into acts of civil disobedience,” Mr Opondo said yesterday.
Since he returned from exile in London, Gen Sejusa has been unequivocal in his campaign for regime change, suggesting elections were not sufficient for the purpose.

Speaking to this newspaper in a previous interview at his home in Naguru, he said, “These so-called reforms, even if they were electoral, how can you reform an oppressive system? Even if Mr Museveni was to appoint the entire Electoral Commission to be managed by the Opposition, they would not win the election,” adding, “We cannot go into an election where those who want to take part can win but cannot have it just like Dr Besigye won but did not get it. That is the dilemma they must confront and resolve.”

If the election went on, he said, “the people will fight just like they did in 1980.” In 1980 Museveni, then standing under the Uganda Patriotic Movement took up arms on the premise of an election rigged by President Milton Obote.

There has, however, been a build up to Sejusa’s arrest and it was not lost on him, in different interactions with this writer, it was clear his day in the dock was a question of time.
In a separate interview with this reporter in September last year, Gen Sejusa claimed security had arrested a group of young people and linked them to him and Dr Besigye.

Their offence, he said, was a scheme to burn major buildings in the city, a claim he laughed off.

From start of campaigns, Sejusa’s ears and eyes have been on the receiving end of reports to have him arrested, his mobilisers framed up and held in safe houses in Kampala in relation to the politics of the day.

“The information we received is that they want to accuse them of terrorism, that Besigye and I gave them money to burn buildings in the city. Can you imagine?” he said.

At the height of The Democratic Alliance botched process to arrive at a single opposition candidate, Sejusa publicly shared support for Besigye, culminating into a headline appearance at his mammoth rally in Nakivubo stadium hours after the FDC candidate’s nomination.

Even when Opposition groups had reservations with his involvement in their activities, he insisted he would not relent, challenging those demanding his army discharge certificate to, “ask Mr Museveni and Katumba Wamala why they are breaking the law by keeping me in the army illegally.”

Sejusa’s run-ins with the army date as far back as 1996 when he sought a High Court declaration for the same, which he was granted, prompting an appeal by the Attorney General that he won at the court of appeal, only to lose to the State at the Supreme Court.

He, however, argues he has not received salary since he fled into exile, his military aides were withdrawn and is not deployed, rendering him a de facto retiree. His lawyer David Mushabe argues government’s actions amount to “constructive discharge from the army” but the UPDF Act does not envisage the common law doctrine and only provides for retirement within the letter of the law.

Discomforting silence?
As the campaign season built up, Sejusa seemed to have withdrawn to base but his political tentacles remained active; often time taking few calls from journalists but when he picked up, he would say he was busy.

He was a man on the move every hour of every day, every day of every week and every week of every month; holding meeting after meeting at his Naguru home and upcountry residences. This silence, former Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Prof Ogenga Latigo opines, could have sent chills down the spine of security.

“When he talks they can discern his thought process from the utterances in the media but I think his silence made them jittery. They could no longer read him,” Prof. Latigo says.

Desperate timing?
Latigo, a senior member of FDC adds, “The timing is deliberate and it is to send a message that Museveni will deal firmly with any dissent. This reinforces the messages by Kasule Lumumba (NRM secretary general), Kale Kayihura (police chief) who said they will not hand over power to Opposition and that they will shoot anyone who causes chaos. Intimidation has become a critical element of the Museveni campaign.”

The Uganda Police Force has since issued a statement denying their boss made the statements attributed to him in one of the newspapers.

Gen Sejusa’s arrest hardly a fortnight into election day, Latigo says, is akin to the incarceration of Dr Besigye in 2005 ahead of the NRM delegates conference, “in essence playing on the psyche of potential dissidents but also warming the Opposition for trouble.”

Potential ring leader?
For all their points of departure with him, whether on ideology or workstyle, one meeting point between Sejusa and peers in the army is his organisational and strategic abilities.
In fact, sources say, months after being stripped of the chief intelligence gatherer role, Sejusa still commands respect in the echelons of the military.

Leader of Opposition in Parliament Wafula Ogutu said: “They think he will be a soldier on the other side if fighting ensues and he can mobilise veterans. The regime anticipates violence. No one is recruiting anyone to fight but Museveni is now spreading fear that if Besigye wins there will be violence.” adding, “Museveni knows he cannot win this election and plans to take power forcefully so people like Sejusa are a threat because they will command the people to stop this.”

The army promises a comprehensive charge sheet which could stretch from spreading harmful propaganda, tendencies injurious to the cohesion of the army, conduct prejudicial to good order and absence without leave.

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