General David Sejusa told Ugandans to resist life presidency in an interview with BBC. Photo/Morgan Mbabazi
What you need to know:
Museveni is now facing a double-barrelled onslaught from his old comrades, both at home and abroad.
Uganda Army General David Sejusa accuses Museveni of being a “dictator” and if he joins forces with Besigye, the two could stir up the sort of civil unrest that has been Besigye’s modus operandi, turning the public against the regime.
With Uganda Army General David Sejusa’s interview last week with the BBC, in which he told Ugandans to resist life presidency and accused President Yoweri Museveni of orchestrating a “political monarchy,” the gloves have come off in the succession struggle in the country.
The country’s co-ordinator of intelligence services fled to the United Kingdom last month, a few days before a memo he had written, calling for investigations into rumours of an assassination plot, was published in the press.
In the memo, he asks the Director of Internal Security Organisation Ronnie Balya to investigate rumours of a plan to assassinate those opposed to an alleged scheme by the president to have his son, Brigadier Muhoozi Kainerugaba, succeed him.
A security source in Kampala says President Museveni was willing to find a compromise settlement for Sejusa, but that the big man fears that Sejusa could use the foreign media, donors and also work with some opposition forces in Uganda, to devastating effect.
Since Sejusa made his remarks in his BBC Focus on Africa interview on June 18, Uganda’s security services are said to have been on high alert to stop his comments from triggering a rebellion.
Last week, opposition politician Dr Kizza Besigye took to the streets of Kampala upon returning from a trip in the US to foment civil revolt.
In effect, Museveni is now facing a double-barrelled onslaught from his old comrades, both at home and abroad.
While the president has refused to comment publicly on the Sejusa issue, the fallout has drawn criticism from various quarters, including donors. They argue that the affair could affect the country’s stability and governance, and cite last month’s closure of two media houses that published Gen Sejusa’s memo.
Recently, European Union ambassador to Uganda Roberto Ridolfi criticised the president for failing to clear the air on this issue.
Other commentators say the president is still coming to grips with yet another revolt from one of his own in his “home base,” the army.
Putting on a brave face
“He will put on a brave face but this Sejusa situation is taking its toll. He still has the security machinery firmly behind him, but as more officers of that same security apparatus desert and become hostile, President Museveni could soon have too many battles to fight,” said a political analyst in Kampala.
New Chief of Defence Forces Gen Edward Katumba Wamala, promoted and appointed to this position in a recent reshuffle at the top of the army leadership, has already described Sejusa’s current status as that of a “deserter” from the Uganda People’s Defence Forces.
Yet Gen Wamala cannot say what will become of the other roles Sejusa handles in the army, giving the sense that only the commander in chief knows how he juggles his army officers and their fate.
Besides being co-ordinator of intelligence services as well as senior presidential advisor, Gen Sejusa is also a legislator, representing the UPDF in parliament, a position that the Speaker Rebecca Kadaga is yet to declare vacant.
If it comes to pass, and Sejusa loses both his roles in UPDF and seat in parliament, the four-star general will be the most high profile army officer to have fallen out with the system that President Museveni presides over, which Sejusa describes as decadent and corrupt.
It is unlikely, but not impossible that Sejusa could go the same way Besigye went in 1999 when he too authored a paper and had it published in The Monitor newspaper, criticising President Museveni, the National Resistance Movement and the army as having lost sight of their original objectives set during the five-year bush war that brought Museveni to power in 1986.
Besigye would go on to become a strong critic of President Museveni and his style of governance, to the point of challenging his former boss three times in the presidential race in 2001, 2006 and 2011.
Sejusa also accuses Museveni of being a “dictator” and if he joins forces with Besigye, the two could stir up the sort of civil unrest that has been Besigye’s modus operandi, turning the public against the regime.
Between now and Uganda’s next election in 2016, the two “renegades” could mount pressure and force security forces to use violent means to quell the uprisings, resulting in deaths, as was witnessed last week when Besigye and his supporters clashed with security.
“The solution is simple. What do you do with dictators? That’s the unfortunate bit…
"There’s a fear of taking Uganda back to what people went through years ago. No, no, no, no, no… our Constitution Article 3 first of all… Article 1 says Uganda belongs to all of us… to all the people.
"That’s very, very fundamental. Now anyone who subverts that, must be removed. But Article 3 says, anyone who abrogates, subverts or in any ways threatens this Constitution should be resisted using all means… all means necessary,” Gen Sejusa told the BBC.
