By John V Sserwaniko
The military authorities in charge of the Makindye detention where ex-IGP Gen Kale Kayihura continues to be incarcerated, have issued restrictions to which all visitors coming to see him must be subjected. Firstly, a time table has been agreed upon whereby Tuesday and Friday have been designated as the days the General will be permitted visitors. “The exception is for the family, lawyers and his doctors. Those can visit anytime, any day should there be an emergency warranting so,” said a source close to the process. Should there be an emergency, Gen Kayihura needs to communicate to family, lawyers or his doctors, a UPDF Major (whose names our sources couldn’t readily recall) has been assigned to remain situated within vicinity. This Major, who the authorities designated after securing Kayihura’s concurrence at to his suitability, keeps custody of the well-secured phone which is exclusively available for Gen Kayihura to call anybody falling in the three permitted categories (family, lawyers & doctors). “Should he need to communicate to any other person, the Major gives him the phone and he rings his wife through whom that other person can be communicated to,” sources explained. We have established that, whereas he has had to struggle to cram as many people’s phones as possible, Gen Kayihura mostly calls his wife and children to get him phone numbers of those he may not be readily having. This too is done through the Major. Our sources explained that Kayihura is so far enthused with the courtesy, comradeship and respect the military authorities have so far accorded him. As was recently reported by Chimp Reports, Gen Kayihura lives in a generally relaxed environment whereby he is permitted access to TV facilities and can access newspapers whenever and however he chooses. “His colleagues in the army have made all the efforts to ensure he lives a VIP atmosphere and feels comfortable to levels befitting a General,” said a source adding that Gen Kayihura recently told him how sympathetic the army leadership feels towards his predicament. “But that’s the military. Its orders and every officer has to comply and do as instructed regardless of how emotionally you might be attached to that detainee’s plight.” The sources added this has enabled Kayihura to remain emotionally upbeat even when is clearly uncertain about what awaits him. “Since being airlifted in a chopper to Entebbe Airport from where he was driven to Makindye, he has only had an interaction with those the media says interrogated him only once and there hasn’t been any other update since. He surely doesn’t know what to expect next. Every day he wakes up and remains seated from morning to sunset. And this partly explains why his lawyers are stuck. They don’t know which defense to prepare in the absence of the charge sheet. Everybody can only guess what will be in the charge sheet and until they have an idea about what their client will be formally charged with, the lawyers can’t do much,” another Kayihura family source explained. This news website was further told that whereas he remains anxious, as can be expected of any other human being faced with a similar predicament, Kayihura has lately stopped being interested in reading media reports about his incarceration “because many of the things being reported are totally untrue.” The sources explained that: “For instance the media has reported how he was taken to Kololo and then Mbuya which never happened. It was from Kashagama, Entebbe and Makindye. The only truth there was the involvement of Gen Wilson Mbadi. He has only been at Makindye and not anywhere else since leaving Kashagama last Wednesday. Then reports about the search at his Muyenga residence have also been distorted. It took place and lasted for one hour and he is wondering where the aspect of $3m and the phone-bugging gadgets being discovered came from.
He says there was no such a thing and as far as he is concerned, there was nothing harmful that was discovered at his house during that search.” This narrative by the family source has since been corroborated by an influential member of Gen Kayihura’s legal team who has been to the detention facility and had prolonged discussions with him on four occasions since his initial confinement last Wednesday. A family source added that: “Even before losing his IGP job, he had given up on some of the media outlets in the hope that after sometime, they would run out of what to write. NBS TV is only TV channel he liked watching especially on its reporting of police but that too he recently switched off after seeing some inaccurate reports. He is just there most of the day meditating with his God and reading.” This news website also established that General Kayihura has managed much of this boredom by having more time with his wife and children who regularly visit him-if not his personal doctors. “The wife and children are the ones spending a lot of time with him catching up on this and that. The children have done a good job keeping him cheered up and the family is grateful to the military for granting them so much access to their husband and father,” said one of the Kayihura sources we spoke to for this article.
It has also been revealed that while visiting and interacting with Kayihura, no visitor will be allowed to carry along their mobile phones. This restriction will apply to all visitors including his wife, children, lawyers and doctors. And reliable sources have told this news website that this is something the family, lawyers and personal doctors have grumblingly accepted. We were unable to readily establish what the military hopes to achieve by imposing this restriction that by the way is consistent and similar to what happens at other detention facilities including Luzira. Watch out for more updates regarding some of the private conversations Gen Kayihura has been having with his visitors freely speaking his mind on how he fell out with CID Director Grace Akullo, the role of Nixon Agasirwe and his other assistants in the criminal repatriation of Rwandese refugees, his alleged role in the Andrew Kaweesi assassination and why he won’t be in position to adequately remunerate KAA lawyers for their legal services. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755.
