Former FDC President, Dr Kizza Besigye has attributed the sacking of immediate former Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura to his loyalty to President Paul Kagame’s government in Rwanda which was likely to further jeopardize already tense relations between the two countries.
While some have viewed the reshuffle in the light of the recent spike in criminal activity, Besigye told journalists on Tuesday that the decision by President Museveni to axe Gen Kayihura had little to do with the inefficiencies that the Police has been grappling with, but rather his purported serving of foreign interests.
This, Besigye said came at a time when Uganda and Rwanda have sustained disagreements stemming from President Kagame’s defiance to be made a puppet to Museveni as well as the hostility that arose from the Kisangani conflict.
“Don’t suppose that it is the failures in the Police that led to these recent changes. Kayihura was reappointed last year. He went through Parliament and MPs reapproved him. So if they reappointed him, you mean that Mr Museveni didn’t know about the problems in the Police?” Besigye said at a news conference at his office at Katonga Road in Kampala.
“The Rwanda – Uganda relations will continue to be tricky for many people for a long time especially given that the two countries are completely intertwined in terms of the people managing both countries,” Besigye said.
“I think Museveni and Kagame have had strained relations on and off which go back to President Kagame’s defiance of Museveni. When Kagame became President, Museveni expected him to keep as a subordinate which didn’t happen,” Besigye said.
It is at the backdrop of this tension that Besigye suspects President Museveni became suspicious of Gen Kayihura’s links to Rwanda and decided to cut it off.
“What role Kayihura has played in that, am not sure but there have been accusations of Gen Kayihura seemingly supporting Rwanda or not vigorously doing anything to about them that have led to the latest tensions between the two,” Besigye said.
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It should be recalled that President Yoweri Museveni recently issued a stern warning to officers working in the security apparatus against serving their individual interests or those of foreign countries.
Without naming specific individuals, Museveni said that rogue officers in the security would be court martialed like some have already been.
“You have already seen some being court martialed. This is a big issue because some of these security organizations had been infiltrated and hijacked the way AIDS hijacks body cells,” Museveni said, vowing to deal with what he termed as “political AIDS” where security agencies serve the interests of foreigners and criminals.
There have been consistent reports pointing to Rwanda’s deep infiltration of Uganda Police Force and using it to systemically conduct illegal repatriations of Rwandan nationals seeking asylum in Uganda. Numerous refugees of Rwandan origin have disappeared and others killed with the collaboration of the Uganda Police chief, Gen Kale Kayihura.
On Tuesday, Besigye commented; “I don’t consider that it is the goons of Kitatta that brought down Kayihura. It seems a lot has to do with the Rwanda rivalry and Mr Museveni seeing Kayihura in the prisms of not being loyal to him as he is to the other side. That’s where the latest show down may have taken place”.
