As opposition groups continue warming up to welcome Assistant Supretendant of Police (ASP) Mohammed Kirumira to their ranks, Col Kizza Besigye has paid glowing tribute to the young police officer from Bulenga likening his courage to what he exhibited in 1999 when he authored his famous dossier that preceded his eventual departure from both government and military.
“Mr. Kirumira is absolutely right and what he is raising is exactly similar to the contradictions I was referring to in my document before I left the military. These are called regular forces but why? It’s because they must protect the country as opposed to serving individual interests. The practice today is different. People are irregularly recruited and are armed.
These are the questions I was raising in my document. He is raising the same points and they are threatening him the way they threatened me but he must be firm because fighting dictatorship has never been easy. We all know why fine officers like him can’t put up with this anymore. You have untouchable people everywhere in police, heavily facilitated and they wield a lot of power yet they have never had training. These aren’t things a fine officer like him can’t put up with. This will actually end the regime,” Besigye submitted.
He was speaking on NBS’ Frontline program immediately after Ofwono Opondo had both praised and scolded Kirumira. Opondo said much as Kirumira might be an indiscplined officer, the manner of his arrest is indicative of the extent to which panicky police leaders have nervously mismanaged the whole thing.
As the Kirumira fallout escalates, the mood in DP is already of euphoria with the party strategists very hopeful they will eventually recruit him into their party. Some believe that, since he comes from Mpigi, he can win for DP a seat in 2021 either the Mawokota MP Seat (against Amelia Kyambadde) or even Claver Mutuluuza’s LC5 Chair if not JB Lubyayi’s Mawokota South. Moses Bigirwa, one of the party publicists and is aspiring to become deputy spokesperson of DP, predicts that Kirumira will officially be joining DP in the coming days.
Already Masaka district chairman Jude Mbabali (aka the poor man’s lawyer), who is one of the active best legal brains DP currently has, is giving legal services to Kirumira and has assumed the role of his spokesman. Similar circumstances in early 2000s were exploited by the same DP to woo Betty Nambooze from NRM and recruited her in their ranks.
