IN SUMMARY

Last week, President Museveni sacked premier Amama Mbabazi, ending an alliance of nearly 50 years. The ex-premier joins a list of either friends or comrades of the 1981-‘86 Bush War that have turned foes with Mr Museveni in the 28 years he has occupied the presidency. Daily Monitor’s Solomon Arinaitwe looks at some of Mr Museveni’s notable friends-turned-foes.

In 1999, Dr Kizza Besigye brought to the public fore long simmering tensions within the Movement hierarchy when he authored a paper An Insider’s View of How NRM Lost the Broad-base.

The paper chronicled how Mr Museveni was steadily betraying the ideals that inspired the 1981-86 bush war, accusing him of nurturing undemocratic and intolerant tendencies.
Mr Museveni reacted by warning that the now retired Colonel risked being court-martialled for engaging in partisan debate while still a serving military man. Dr Besigye out-manoeuvered the regime’s legal snare by retiring from the army in 2001, setting the stage for an acrimonious onslaught against Mr Museveni’s hold onto power that runs to date.

He challenged Mr Museveni during the 2001 polls, garnering 27 per cent of the vote in an election that attracted notoriety for the violence meted out by regime functionaries on his supporters. Dr Besigye’s 2001 challenge attracted the wrath of his bush war peers, who insisted Mr Museveni should be given a chance to complete his two terms, a promise the President inscribed in his 2001 manifesto but would later make a u-turn on, triggering a mass exodus from his NRM party.

Dr Besigye challenged Mr Museveni’s victory, with the Supreme Court agreeing that the election was marred by anomalies, though the rigging was ‘not substantial enough to alter the final vote’.

Mr Museveni seems not to be afraid of making enemies with confidantes that he has been with since the Bush War days.
For President Museveni to hold onto power for 28 years, he has appreciated that he cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs.

Mr Museveni has not been afraid of making enemies with close confidantes but has always found a way of outwitting them.
Outmaneuvered and left in the dark, some of Mr Museveni’s comrades-turned-enemies have fallen on hard times, buried the hatchet with him and got re-admitted in the ruling NRM fold. Riding on the euphoria of the relative socio-political stability that his NRA government restored in large parts of the country in 1986, Mr Museveni enjoyed a near blissful, albeit occasionally tense relationship, with most of his comrades in his nascent stages in power.

Internal voices of discontent about intrigue, corruption, the democratisation process, the handling of the LRA war in northern Uganda, surfaced but were often muted. The NRA government, a collection of untested, exuberant rebels-turned –government was steadily mutating into a cesspool of machinations as the bush war victory euphoria drizzled away and Ugandans started demanding more. These schisms were laid bare when Dr Kizza Besigye authored a highly critical paper on the path the government was taking, denigrating the President for betraying the values of the 81-86 Bush War. Dr Besigye claimed his sentiments were shared by a critical mass within NRM who developed cold feet and did not come out to publicly support his paper.

When Dr Besigye’s proposals were shot down by his boss, he challenged him in the 2001 polls, marking the beginning of fallouts between Museveni and his Bush War compatriots. Those who had given Mr Museveni the benefit of the doubt begun voicing discontent as a proposal to lift term limits started gaining momentum in 2003.

When Mr Museveni forced through the amendment in Parliament, it triggered a mass exodus of senior officials from Mr Museveni’s side including; Amanya Mushega, Mugisha Muntu, Miria Matembe, Sarah Kiyingi, John Kazoora and Augustine Ruzindana. But Mr Museveni still managed to survive the exodus of a nexus of compatriots that had helped him navigate the Bush War and Dr Besigye’s 2001 onslaught, begging the question of how he manages to survive such bitter walkouts.
Prof Mwambusya Ndebesa, a political analyst and history lecturer at Makerere University, says Mr Museveni’s grip onto power is down to him appreciating that the military is the source of his power and doing little to upset the working of top Generals.

And Mr Museveni has always been alive to the critical role the military has played in securing his 28-year stint. When Parliament ratcheted up pressure on him over alleged fraud in the oil sector and the mysterious death of Butaleja Woman MP Cerinah Nebanda, Mr Museveni responded by warning that the military would take over government if the “confusion” in Parliament persisted.

Security agencies are always at hand to respond to attempts to threaten Mr Museveni’s power base, often coming in to violently crack down on protests and election rallies by regime opponents. As pressure mounted on the regime at the peak of the Walk-to-Work protests in 2012, Gen Muntu warned his former colleagues to be “wise” and avoid ending up like the proverbial fly which followed a corpse into the grave.
When Dr Besigye broke ranks with Mr Museveni in 2001, he claimed he had the support of the military in an effort to win over an electorate wary of picking a President who would not keep the men in uniform.

Dr Aggrey Awori, who challenged Mr Museveni in the 2001 polls, agrees that support from the military has allowed him legroom to handle civilian friends-turned-opponents sure that the men in uniform are watching his back. “When you put together all these people [that have fellen out with Museveni], none of them has the military support which Museveni has and has used [the military] to build a grassroots support which all his opponents do not have,” Mr Awori argues. Mr Godber Tumushabe, a researcher, argues that the President has the crucial instruments of the “military, police and Intelligence services” which he uses to whip the Opposition into line. Mr Godber argues that it is difficult for the Opposition against Mr Museveni to survive the “money and security agencies” that the regime deploys against them.

Jaberi Bidandi Ssali
The Uganda Patriotic Movement secretary general in the 1980 elections, Mr Bidandi Ssali was arrested in 1981 after Mr Museveni launched a Bush War without alerting him . After the Bush War, he had a stint as Labour minister before being appointed Local Government minister where he served for 15 years.

A right-hand man of the President for nearly two decades, Mr Bidandi was the vice chairman of Mr Museveni’s campaign team in 1996 and 2001 elections, crafting the famous slogan in the 2011 polls asking voters: Oyina kewekoledde?’, loosely translated as ‘have you done something in Museveni’s regime and if yes, do anything possible to protect his vote. He cut links with Mr Museveni in 2003 over the third term project after which he formed PPP and stood for the presidency in 2011.

Maj (rtd) John Kazoora
Having participated in the Bush War as an intelligence officer, Maj (rtd) Kazoora served as Special District Administrator for Kampala, director at Internal Security Organisation and Kashari MP in the 6th Parliament.

He jumped the Movement ship after the President insisted on deleting a clause in the Constitution to allow himself unlimited shots at the presidential ballot.
In a stinging critique of the Museveni regime titled: Betrayed By My Leader, Maj Kazoora revealed how the President once referred to him and General Muntu as “puppies”. Maj Kazoora participated in the formation of the FDC where he currently serves as secretary for defence.

Prof Gilbert Bukenya
Prof Bukenya immortalised the term “mafia” into the Uganda political lingua when he claimed in a 2005 interview with Daily Monitor that there was a “mafia” in government scheming for his downfall. He later retracted the claims. Prof Bukenya ventured into politics in 1996 when he scooped the Busiro North seat. He chaired the NRM Parliamentary Caucus in the late 90s at a time acrimony was building between Museveni and some historicals, who thought government was veering off the bush war ideals.

He later become State minister for Trade and Industry, before being appointed minister for Presidency and later Vice President. In his book In the Corridors to Power, Prof Bukenya traces his run-ins with Mr Museveni to 2009 when he declared his intentions to vie for the post of NRM secretary general. He wrote that Museveni warned him to stop ‘scrambling’ for the post – promising to retain him as VP, if he pulled out, an offer he rejected. In 2011, he was sacked and charged with corruption.

Miria Matembe
Catching the public eye due to her advocacy work in the early 90s, she earned plaudits for speaking up for gender equality- a virtue that earned her an appointment as minister of Ethics and Integrity between 1998 and 2003.
She fell out with the regime over the removal of term limits in 2005.

Gen David Sejusa
Known as David Tinyefuza until 2012 when he changed his name to Sejusa, the 60-year-old General has fallen out-and mended fences – with Mr Museveni twice. As NRA rebels were on the back foot in the face of a UNLA offensive in 1984, Mr Museveni, as chairman of the High Command, ordered female non-combatants to vacate the operation zones. Gen Sejusa rejected the directive, prompting Mr Museveni to detain him, in a trench (endaaki) for more than eight months, according to an account in John Kazoora’s book, Betrayed By My Leader, but was later pardoned.

In 1996, as the LRA insurgency raged in northern Uganda, Gen Sejusa appeared before a parliamentary committee and poked holes in the operational conduct of the UPDF. When the army hierarchy called him to order, he reacted by penning a resignation from the army. His attempts to force his way out culminated in a bitter legal contest, which the army won in 1998. After enduring hard times on katebe (non-deployment), he offered a public apology to the President in 2004, who absolved him and appointed him coordinator of intelligence agencies.

Eriya Kategaya (RIP)
Widely regarded as the “de facto number two” in the NRM hierarchy, Kategaya fell out with Mr Museveni, after the President insisted on amending the Constitution to remove term limits. At a retreat in Kyankwanzi, Kategaya led a group of NRM historicals that spoke out against the idea. In his Sowing the Mustard Seed account, Mr Museveni heaped praises on Kategaya as “nationalist-minded” but when rattled by his opposition to the Third Term project, he reportedly asked him: “Who are you? You are just a spoke in the wheel. You can go”.

He was subsequently dropped as First Deputy Premier in May 2003 in a reshuffle that purged Cabinet ministers opposed to the Third Term. In an interview with New Vision, he revealed that he had for long trusted Mr Museveni but that: “the kisanja [Third Term] project has shaken my faith and trust in leaders…It seems the survival instinct overrides everything else”.

A lawyer by profession, he retreated to private practice following his fall out with the regime but reportedly failed to make financial ends meet, forcing him to return to the fold.
After reportedly falling on hard times, Mr Kategaya ate his words, was re-admitted into the NRM fold and appointed First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African Community Affairs- a post he held until his death in 2013.

Wasswa Ziritwawula
When the NRA shot their way to Kampala in 1986, they initiated the Legal Notice Number One, a resolution that stipulated that their un-elected leadership would subject itself to a ballot in four years’ time – 1990. However, the National Resistance Council (NRC), the then Parliament – voted to extend the unelected rule for another four years, a move Wasswa Ziritwawula disagreed with. Ziritwawula resigned from the NRC in protest. He later served as Kampala Central chairperson, before launching a failed bid for the Kampala Mayorship as a Movement-leaning candidate.

Former ally
Maj Gen (rtd) Gregory Mugisha Muntu. Gen Muntu stunned his UPC father when he joined the Museveni-led NRA rebels against Obote’s UPC government in 1981. Muntu rose through the NRA ranks to become army commander from 1989 until 1998. Following his dropping in 1998, Muntu rejected a ministerial nomination but remained serving as army MP until 2001. He broke ranks with his bush war compatriot in 2004 over the removal of term limits, participating in the formation of the Parliamentary Advocacy Forum – a pressure group that later merged with Reform Agenda and the National Democratic Forum to form FDC.