Military police has deployed around the home of General David Sejusa in Naguru, a Kampala suburb.
While the army says it is only providing “military protection” to the former spy master, government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo said Gen. Sujusa is under military confinement.
Opondo said in a tweet today that Gen Sejusa has been put under confinement by the UPDF and “he is safer that way.” He does not say why.
Free Uganda, a political pressure group started by Gen David Sejusa however said in a statement released this afternoon that the deployment is “naked intimidation and harassment.”
“Military police have invaded Gen David Sejusa’s home in Naguru and put him under house arrest,” Free Uganda said in a statement.
The party said its leader will not be intimidated or diverted by the deployed and vowed to continue agitating for a “change in the way Uganda is governed.”
Sejusa’s lawyer Ladilsaus Rwakafuzi said that he had received reports that his client had been surrounded by the army but no official reason had been given for the deployment.
Earlier, Army spokesperson Paddy Ankunda said that the army had responded to calls made by the General that his life was in danger.
He says there is no cause for alarm about the deployment and that the army was continuously assessing his situation in light of national security challenges.
Two pickup trucks docked at Sejusa’s home shortly after midday with over 15 military police personnel armed with guns and sticks.
The personnel have surrounded the general’s home.
Sejusa briefly walked out of his gate to talk to their commander but went back into the house with the commander whose name and rank were not easily verifiable.
The deployment comes just a day after he turned down a request to meet the Commander-in- Chief President Yoweri Museveni. Also just two days after the army received his retirement application.
Journalists have been chased away from the area.
Sejusa returned into the country in December after spending a year and half in seif-imposed exile in the UK. He fled the country after writing a letter in which he claimed there was a plan to assassinate senior army official opposed to the plan to have first son Brig. Muhoozi Kainierugaba become president.
Speaking at his home yesterday in a separate interview, Sejusa said he was not afraid of arrest from the army adding that any arrest that must happen should be done within the confines of the law.
Sejusa complained that while by law he is a member of the army, the fact is he has been divorced from the army for a long time.
Sejusa who spent over a year from his commanding unit has however not yet been declared a deserter officially by the army. He still remains a serving army officer who has a permanent seat on the military high command.
He says it is this fundamental contradiction that the government can choose to resolve either by brute force or through political methods.
