Prime
Kayihura, Sejusa to retire this July
Gen Kale Kayihura and Gen David Sejusa.
What you need to know:
- The duo decorated, but embattled, officers are among 76 senior commanders that the UPDF Commissions and Promotions Board approved to leave with honour and hefty package mid this year.
Former spymaster Gen David Sejusa, who first applied to leave the army in 1996, and ex-police chief Kale Kayihura, another four-star general battling charges in a military court, have reportedly been allowed to retire from the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) in July this year.
According to highly-placed security sources, more than half-a-dozen other generals, among them former Security minister Elly Tumwine and Internal Affairs ministry Permanent Secretary Joseph Musanyufu, are also expected to hang up their military boots.
Other top military and intelligence sources told this publication that these changes precede an expected major promotion of senior UPDF officers in coming weeks that will more markedly clarify the army leadership transition from the old guard to Young Turks.
Senior officers in UPDF
At present, the most senior officers in Uganda’s military are the crop that commanded or fought in the five-year guerrilla war that brought President Museveni, himself a retired general, to power 36 years ago or, like Gen Moses Ali, led their own rebel group --- if they did not serve in former armies.
For Gen Tumwine, a former commander of the National Resistance Army (NRA), the precursor to UPDF, his claim of fame has included firing the first bullet that started the five-year guerrilla war which, by accounts by peers, was a result of panicky response to a moving animal.
“Gen Sejusa, Gen Kayihura, Gen Elly Tumwine … Lt Gen Joseph Musanyufu … and Lt Col John Bizimana, the current registrar of the Army Court Martial, are on the tentative list,” one source said on Tuesday.
The list has as many as 76 senior officers, from the rank of Major and above, and it is currently reported to be with the army’s Chieftaincy of Legal Services for scrutiny and final decision on who remains and leaves, and why.
This newspaper understands that the UPDF Commissions and Promotions Board generally does not retire professionals such as lawyers and engineers when younger than 60 years, but allows its rank and file to leave on own volition, or on grounds of health and old age.
The issue of retirement from the army, and the applicable procedures, captured national imagination last month after First Son Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who commands the UPDF Land Forces, tweeted that he had retired from the army.
UPDF later clarified that it had not received, or considered, an application from Gen Muhoozi to retire, meaning he remained an active-duty officer.
In response to our inquiries yesterday, Defence and military spokeperson, Brig Felix Kulayigye, said: “…it’s true in July 2022, some officers will retire, but why do you want to unpack a list of July [now]?
He declined to discuss who was leaving or staying, even after this newspaper shared with him particulars of some of the officers, asking that “you wait” until the list is officially released.
Capt Edward Sibo, a military assistant, received our telephone call yesterday to former Inspector General of Police Kayihura, and said the general at present cannot speak to the media due to conditions of his bail.
The four-star general is battling charges in the army court which, among others, include failing to protect war material between 2010 and 2018 by issuing arms to unauthorised persons, including Boda Boda 2010 members led by convicted, and freed Abdallah Kitatta.
In yesterday’s telephone call about the planned retirement, Capt Sibo said: “…as far as I am concerned as his military assistant, I know there is a list of officers to be retired, but Gen Kayihura has not been informed”.
Our sources said the UPDF’s chieftaincies of Personnel and Administration and that of Legal Services were finalising arrangements to expedite payment of pension and other benefits to soon-to-be retirees based on their rank, deployment, age and qualifications, as well as service record.
Gen Museveni has reportedly directed UPDF leadership through the Ministry of Defence to work with Finance ministry bureaucrats and ensure retirement packages are available by exit date.
Background
Sejusa’s volatile hate-love affair with army
For an officer such as Gen Sejusa, formerly David Tinyefuza, news that he is among those proposed to be retired ends a 26-year wait of his love-and-hate relationship with the establishment.
His first bid to quit the army was in 1996, but it was rejected. He went to court and the then High Court Judge Jutsice Margaret Ouma Oguli ruled in his favour, ordering the government to pay him Shs1b in compensation.
The government, however, appealed and the higher court in February 2002 overturned then Tinyefuza’s victory.
At the wedding of his daughter Sharon Nankunda in Mbarara in December 2004, he humbled himself, sought public apology and promised to work with Gen Museveni, who as the President doubles as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
Tinyefuza, who changed his name to Sejusa on February 17, 2012, explained that his decision to resign from the army and the subsequent suit he filed against the institution, alongside his push for the restoration of Obugabeship in Ankole, was premised on a lapse in his judgment based on bad advice when he appeared under a spell.
Seemingly reformed and rehabilitated, now Gen Sejusa returned to senior deployment, the last being as Coordinator of Intelligence Services, but his critical tongue was hard to muffle.
In 2013, he authored a dossier in which he asked then domestic spymaster Brig Ronnie Balya to inquire into allegations that he, alongside other top government officials perceived to be opposed to the ‘Muhoozi Project’ --- euphemism for alleged plot by President Museveni to prepare his son as successor, had been marked for elimination.
Facing the risk of arrest and prosecution, Gen Sejusa fled to the United Kingdom, and left in his trail Daily Monitor and Red Pepper publications closed for publishing articles from his dossier.
During his two years in the cold, he enjoyed international headlines for his sabre-rattling against Mr Museveni’s government, including warming up to the idea of toppling him by force.
However, to the consternation of his backers in exile, particularly in London, Sejusa returned to Uganda quietly following a clandestine negotiation and was received by then domestic spymaster Balya and led moments afterwards for a meeting with President Museveni.
He has largely been lame duck, except for occasional social media diatribes.
Kayihura, US sanctions and trial at home
The four-star general is battling charges in the army court of failing to protect war material between 2010 and 2018 by issuing arms to unauthorised persons, including Boda Boda 2010 members led by convicted, and now freed Abdallah Kitatta.
He is also accused of aiding and abetting the abduction and illegal repatriation of Rwandan exiles, refugees and Ugandan citizens to Rwanda between 2012 and 2016.
Gen Kayihura, a lawyer who has since enrolled to practice as an advocate of the High Court, denies the charges.
President Museveni fired him as the police chief in March 2018 and he was three months later arrested and detained at Makindye Military Police Barracks until August 24 that year when he was formally charged.
In September 2019, the United States government sanctioned Gen Kayihura and his family members, after accusing him of superintending torture in Uganda and corruption.
While campaigning in Kisoro, Kayihura’s home district where Opposition candidates promised to free the ex-IGP if elected, President Museveni undertook to talk with army prosecutors to explore a pardon for the region’s luminary.
On February 2, 2021, two weeks after Ugandans cast the ballot for president, Gen Andrew Gutti, the chairman of the army Court Martial, wrote to the then Chief of Defence Forces, Gen David Muhoozi, seeking guidance on whether to pardon Gen Kayihura.
In the letter, Gen Gutti informed Gen Muhoozi that a group of youthful Kayihura enthusiasts from Kisoro had petitioned him about the progress of President Museveni’s proposal to pardon Gen Kayihura.
