MBALE – Former Inspector General of Police Gen Kale Kayihura has claimed that his “friends” abandoned him when he found himself on the wrong side of the law.
I don’t know if Kale Kayihura had any people in his life that he called real friends, all I remember were a bunch of accomplices that helped him execute very deadly and dubious missions.
Others were colleagues, workmates and subordinates. Am not so sure whether his relatives and family were his friends too.
Gen Kayihura made the statements at the requiem mass of his grandmother Ancila Bucyana at Rutare Catholic Church, Nyarusiza Sub-county in Kisoro District on last week.
Local media from Kisoro District quoted Gen Kayihura reaffirming his position that he has never been a traitor and that he had never betrayed his family, his people and had never been treacherous to Uganda. I think Kayihura is not talking about real innocence but the presumption of innocence envisaged under the constitution of Uganda.
By the time Kale Kayihura left his office, he was scared of everything; he was worried about mafias and even feared his own shadow in the dark. These are characteristics of a person who has wronged every one, a man who has stepped on every one toes and then starts imagining that they are after his life. He even told the media at one point that he did not feel safe in his own office and whenever he had a meeting outside office, he would also send an advance team.
How can a man who had very strong security details, surveillance systems, guns, armored vehicles and a helicopter assigned to him fear for his life. How can a man who had a police station in Muyenga just next to his home live in fear of the unknown?. He got to the point where he feared moving on the same road as other people the consequence of which he secured a helicopter at the cost of the tax payer. He would land right in the compound of the Police headquarters and would leave using the same means to his home or any other destination.
What had Kayihura done that got him so scared despite being a General who had fought more deadly wars? His friends and close associates include Jonathan Baroza, his former personal assistant; Herbert Muhangi, the former commander of police flying squad; Ndahura Amooti, former head of crime intelligence and Richard Ndabwoine, former cyber intelligence chief, Kitaka, the NRM Chairman Rubaga and chairman boda boda 2000 among other fugitives. To me these were never genuine friends, some were marriages of convenience.
When Kayihura was finally dropped from the IGP post and later arrested for several crimes, he cried foul, the people of Kisoro came all the way to petition the President to have mercy. No one is sure whether or not Kayihura was locked up in prison or he was enjoying himself at Kasagama. When he was finally bailed out, his so called friends with the exception of Kitaka are still languishing in prison and clearly he has done nothing to help them.
The rest of the people who stayed out felt some relief when Kayihura was incarcerated. Other than the aforementioned, I do not know any living person who would come out openly to say he was a friend of Kayihura. Kayihura cannot name a single person that he genuinely thought was his friend, life was always about, himself and himself.
The writer, Roger Wadada Musaalo is a Lawyer, human rights activist, researcher, and politician
