Sejusa in court against the army: Will he be lucky again?

One year and one month after President Yoweri Museveni promised to deal with Gen David Sejusa, the maverick former co-ordinator of intelligence services found himself in the dock of the General Court Martial, to answer charges of absenting himself from the army without leave and engaging in partisan political activities.

Now, as the decorated army officer — formerly known as Tinyefuza — returns to the army court on February 9 to hear its response to his bail application as well as his preliminary objections against the said charges, he will restart a journey he embarked on 20 years ago, when his quest to leave the army he helped to found was rebuffed by the Supreme Court.

Yet now, as in 1996, whether he succeeds or fails will depend more on the politics of the day and less, if at all, on the legal merits of the present charges, according to some analysts.

What is more, if — or when — he succeeds, the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) will have to face up to its fears that have appeared to inform its insistence on holding onto one of the permanent members of its High Command; that agreeing to his demand to leave the army would send the wrong signal to many more reportedly disgruntled officers who wish to be free to embark on other life pursuits, added the analysts.

The army leadership, however, insists nobody can leave the UPDF unless their time to retire has been determined by the Commission’s board.

“Nobody can force his way out of the army. Gen Sejusa will be retired but he is being overzealous. He is not the only one whose application is on the table. In the coming financial year, we intend to retire 2,000 plus officers,” said Lt-Col Paddy Ankunda, the army spokesperson.

“I can’t say Gen Sejusa will be one of them because that is not my job. It is the Commission’s board to do that but what I know is he will be retired when his appropriate time comes. Yes, he applied and his application was received and it is being considered, so he has to be patient,” he said.

In December 2014, Gen Sejusa applied to retire from the army. His attempt to resign then followed stinging remarks to the Parliamentary Sessional Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs against the army’s conduct generally and particularly its handling of the insurgency in northern Uganda. His criticism rattled the army leadership, which sought to reprimand him.

Mugisha Muntu, the army commander at the time, told the committee Sejusa should have first resigned from the army if he wanted to express his own views. Amama Mbabazi, the Minister of State for Defence at the time, indirectly accused him of encouraging those who aimed to tarnish the image of the army and called his resignation “null and void” because it had not followed the right procedures while President Museveni told reporters on December 17, 1996 that Sejusa would have to sort out his “problems” with the army, which he did not specify, before he was allowed to resign.

Although Sejusa petitioned the Constitutional Court and won, the State appealed to the Supreme Court and he lost on the grounds that any officer seeking to resign or leave the armed forces needed to comply with the formalities and procedures as prescribed by law.

Great danger to national security

“It certainly would be a matter of great danger to the national security, if it were ever to be held by anyone or authority that members and officers of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces could resign or be removed at will and anyhow outside the law,” said Justice George Kanyeihamba, who wrote the lead judgement.

It is not clear what axes Gen Sejusa had to grind with the army at the time but some analysts have pointed to his opposition — along with Dr Kizza Besigye and the late Col Sserwanga Lwanga — in the Constituent Assembly to legalising the “Movement” system at the expense of unfreezing political parties, which was one of the core promises the government had made not long after it had fought its way to power in 1986.

Gen Sejusa, 61, was arrested on January 31, and charged two days later with six offences: Absenting himself from the army without leave (AWOL), insubordinate behaviour, participating in political activities, and conduct prejudicial to the good order and discipline expected of an army officer.

READ: Uganda's General Sejusa charged with insubordination

The charges largely arise from his extension of a three-week leave from parliament where he was one of 10 army representatives without informing, let alone seeking clearance, from the army administration. He is also accused of participating in a number of political meetings where he made pronouncements critical of the government and appeared to give advice on how to defeat President Museveni.

That the charges are politically motivated, as Gen Sejusa’s lawyers have claimed, was alleged by the general himself when he intimated to the army court how all of them had been raised in a January 3 meeting with Mr Museveni three weeks after Gen Sejusa had returned from London.

Even if he was not explicit, Sejusa seemed to suggest the two had formed some tacit agreement against which he had come back. Otherwise, until his insinuation, it had remained unclear under what terms and conditions President Museveni had facilitated his return.

Strangely, though, on the day the said meeting was held, Museveni had warned Gen Sejusa on a popular radio talk show that the political statements he was making were illegal and that he will stop them. “Gen. Sejusa would be dealt with. Not everything has to be said in the media. But you will see him handled,” President Museveni reportedly said on The Capital Gang.

Why it has taken President Museveni 13 months to act on his warning has fuelled speculation that he was biding his time waiting for the international focus to move away from Gen Sejusa or that is now undercutting strategic support Sejusa supposedly has been lending to the presidential campaigns of his political arch-rival Dr Kizza Besigye, an association his camp has dismissed.

Around April 30, 2013, Sejusa departed to the UK after authoring a letter alleging a plot to assassinate some top government officials who, apparently, were opposed to President Museveni succeeding himself with his son, Brig Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who commands the Special Forces that guard his father.

Gen Sejusa lashed out at Museveni as a consummate dictator who could only be removed from power through a popular uprising. He formed a political group to take him on and authored a dossier to the International Criminal Court asking it to investigate him and his army for crimes against humanity.

READ: Sejusa return puts spin on NRM power struggle

When Gen Sejusa returns to court, he is expected to object to the charges against him on the basis that given the actions of his superiors, he was constructively discharged or dismissed from the army so they do not apply.