By John V Sserwaniko
In 2014, President Museveni got an intelligence report from ISO. The authors purported to discuss what they called the new threat posed by ADF which they claimed was regrouping and planning an attack on Uganda. Renowned to be one that never take things lightly, Museveni took steps making use of the intelligence information contained therein.
THE CONTENTS;
The dossier alleged many things including linking some of the JEEMA leaders to renewed efforts by ADF to rejuvenate. It also claimed that the top management of IUIU (Islamic University in Uganda), where Asuman Basalirwa worked, was peripherally involved. Specifically three JEEMA leaders were named and these were Hajji Hussein Kyanjo (then Makindye West MP), radical cleric Imam Kasozi (also a lecturer at IUIU) and Asuman Basalirwa who was University Secretary at IUIU. The Vice Chancellor (they call him Rector) Prof Ahmed Kawesa Sengendo (Muganda from Isingiro) was faulted in the report for being too weak to prevent the JEEMA trio from using the University infrastructure, programs and resources to recruit for ADF. The report dramatically indicated that the trio had taken advantage of Sengendo’s ineptness to sneak into the University (especially Kibuli campus) ADF ideologues who would wake up selected male students at 3am and infuse them with the ADF militant ideology under the guise of saying pre-dawn prayers. The ADF ideologues had clandestinely been admitted as students, the ISO report claimed naturally making Museveni very frightened. It was claimed that as a result a number of students, upon completion of this pre-dawn ideological training, had gone missing and it was most likely were being smuggled to ADF camps for military training. The ISO report emphasized that the JEEMA trio was fully aware and were the ones overseeing this sophisticated recruitment program. As University Secretary, Basalirwa had a lot of powers because, as provided in the Act governing Universities, he was the one with the last word on recruitment and procurement decisions. The US also oversees the University finances and is actually, by law, the accounting officer for the University. He is more powerful than even the VC on finance matters. It’s him who determines the agenda, calls and facilitates the governing council meetings. The ISO dossier exploited this reality to deceptively report to Museveni that the three JEEMA bosses were actually the ones running IUIU and that Sengendo was just a figure head. That the trio had incorporated companies that supplied a number of items to the University including the stationary needs. The report further claimed that Basalirwa was using his office as US to annually pay out billions to proxy companies belonging to the JEEMA trio. Sengendo was reported to have acquiesced to all this even when he was directly not involved. The report claimed he was sympathetic to the cause but was too cowardly to get involved in any way.
M7 SWINGS;
After reading the report, Museveni became nervous and immediately summoned Ministers Kirunda Kivejinja and Asuman Kiyingi. For starters, KK is heavily involved in IUIU and he is mandated to always have the last word on how the governing council (which supervises Sengendo) is constituted. Asuman Kiyingi was relevant because as Foreign Affairs Minister (regional cooperation), he had been designated by Sam Kutesa and Museveni to be the contact person with OIC (Organization of Islamic Conference) which has been IUIU’s major funder since inception in 1988. Actually operationally, despite being an academic institution, much of IUIU issues are handled by Foreign Affairs ministry more closely than that of Education. And this is so because Museveni has always been cautious to avoid any regulatory disputes that might complicate his diplomatic relationship with OIC which is a league of wealthy Muslim countries. He values these partnerships because Arab countries, just like the Chinese, are never very inquisitive on governance matters.
DISCUSSING ISO REPORT;
In the meeting, Museveni told the two ministers about the ISO report and rebuked them for not doing adequate supervision. At some point, he told them he was feeling betrayed given the personal support he has always extended to IUIU through KK. He told them he didn’t want confrontation with OIC and that his plan was to crack the whip on Sengendo as an individual. At his disposal were many options including throwing Sengendo out of the Rector job. The two ministers pleaded and promised to speak to Sengendo first and report back within two weeks. As expected, Sengendo denied everything prompting Museveni to tell the reporting duo that “okay he is my son from Isingiro but let him demonstrate good faith by getting rid of those JEEMA people.” JEEMA had frightened Musevenists in the intelligence community in 2011 when its leaders overlooked threats and offers of financial inducements to abandon IPC which was perceived as an effort by Besigye to galvanize the opposition vote and upstage Museveni-building on the momentum he had gathered in 2006. Parties like Mao’s DP and Otunnu’s UPC had inadvertently comforted Museveni when they acrimoniously abandoned IPC leaving alliance-seeking Kizza Besigye almost alone and frightened. In the end he had to count on Mulwanyamuli’s Ssuubi Group which was supplemented by JEEMA in sticking to the thick-skinned politician from Rwakabengo during the 2011 general elections. JEEMA leaders were always considered naïve but the firmness with which they stuck with Besigye that year caused ISO and other intelligence agencies to rethink.They had thought that being a small party, JEEMA leaders would be easier to manipulate which turned out false. So when he got this report, Museveni was fully aware of JEEMA’s seriousness in resisting his governance excesses. This explains the anger and firmness with which he spoke as he directed Asuman Kiyingi and KK to use this report to blackmail Sengendo to throw out especially Asuman Basalirwa. In their feed back to Museveni after two weeks, the two informed him that Sengendo had said it was hard to expel a qualified and high-performing person like Basalirwa without attracting litigation for wrongful dismissal. “He is just joking. Go tell him he has to decide between his own job or those JEEMA people,” Museveni reportedly told his two ministers.
SENGENDO CAJOLED;
KK and Kiyingi resolved to speak to Sengendo separately but IUIU insiders say, KK was the hardest. He rang and threatened council members that the President was very bitter and IUIU risked closure if something wasn’t done-and very quickly. He didn’t stop there; he summoned Sengendo several times and implored the governing council members to intensify pressure by talking to the Professor each of them separately about the same. “My boss the President will be very happy and I will even take you to him to discuss how he can help us more,” KK reportedly told the council members. In the end, Sengendo who KK had already threatened witharrest and treason prosecution accepted to fire Basalirwa. “Okay give me two months to resolve this matter once and for all. Ask the President to be patient with us for another two months,” Sengendo said in separate meetings with KK and Asuman Kiyingi. “I know all these are fabrications but for purposes of amicably co-existing with government, something is going to be done.” Being the more liberal-minded one of the two, Kiyingi suggested and even Museveni accepted that “Basalirwa is talked to and be given two options.”
SENGENDO, BASALIRWA TALK;
The two options were to either abandon opposition politics totally (meaning abandoning/denouncing Besigye and stopping regular talk shows) or to immediately quit the job. “My brother we have come a long way and I no doubt appreciate your hard work and contribution to this University. I have come under pressure from the two ministers and Kivejinja wants me even prosecuted for alleged concealment of treason. Of course all these are fabrications but we have to act practically,” Sengendo was quoted as delivering the sad news to Basalirwa one of whose IUIU offices was based at King Fahd Building on Kampala Road. “They are giving me two options and I don’t have a lot of time to deliver on this. I either get you out of the job or I ask you to denounce opposition politics and continue working.” A tearful Sengendo told Basalirwa “my brother the other option is that I refuse to fire you and I get fired instead and subsequently be prosecuted.” He repeated to him all the ADF allegations and Basalirwa told him “Dr Sengendo you are my elder and since I can’t choose between you and my country, I will resign so as not to hurt IUIU’s operations.” Sengendo considered this reality (losing Basalirwa) too painful to accept. He requested Basalirwa to accept the deepening of consultations which the ex-Makerere guild president accepted. In the days that followed, Basalirwa was called to many high profile meetings comprising mostly of Muslim opinion leaders. They unanimously urged him “you are still young with a family to look after and in any case you have sacrificed a lot for your country since University; nobody will blame you for quitting opposition politics because you have done enough.” They insisted that he denounces opposition politics and continue serving IUIU as an apolitical US. Some council members even went as far as promising to double his pay but Basalirwa refused. “I told them you are all my elders and mentors. I have nothing for you all but respect yet here is my dilemma. Politics is what made me. You all got to know about my capabilities after seeing me articulating political issues. There is no way I can abandon my colleagues in the struggle we have been in for all these years. I have led and participated in demonstrations during which people have lost life fighting. Those colleagues would have died in vain if I abandon the struggle for personal comfort,” Basalirwa told this news website in an interview earlier this year. “It’s very true Mr. Museveni has been out to cripple many of us financially in order to secure our political submission. I opted to leave IUIU and continue with the struggle in whatever way I can. It’s not only me being targeted because even my law firm is struggling. He wants to humiliate and see all of us poverty-stricken. Those ISO guys are on assignment to make sure even at my law firm where I retreated after losing the IUIU job, would-be rich clients are intimidated to withdraw and I have indeed lost many clients but that’s is life. We shall not surrender to Museveni even in poverty. This is not unique to me. They are doing even worse things to my brother Erias Lukwago whose law firm would by now be one of the best in Uganda. They threaten clients to shun us. It’s not easy my brother.” In that conversation Asuman Basalirwa confirmed our information that Museveni had used KK and Kiyingi to compel the IUIU Rector, Council and management to terminate his employment. Kiyingi too confirmed the state being uncomfortable with the way Sengendo was increasingly employing Museveni critics at IUIU and paying them juicy salaries. Whereas he declined discussing any details on grounds that government secrets must remain confidential, Kiyingi said “I can’t totally dismiss some of the facts you are raising.”
SAUL B’MES PAUL; Ironically Kiyingi, now understood to be a liberal-minded political figure, was among the first eminent sons of Busoga to publicly endorse Basalirwa. He says bygones should be bygones and that time has come for Busoga to send its best to Parliament regardless of political differences.
BASALIRWA MERIT; But all this sacrifice aside, Basalirwa was for all intents and purposes the best thing for Bugiri because of his profile, experience and maturity. He has operated a very clean campaign whereby he always restrained his JEEMA boys like the notorious Kyamundu from unleashing verbal artillery on old comrades like Besigye, Wafula Ogutu, Salaam Musumba and others accusing them of betrayal. He recently addressed reporters at JEEMA offices in Mengo and said he still considered Besigye and the entire FDC party allies in the bigger struggle against dictatorship (as he called it). Saying they hadn’t committed any crime supporting Eunice Namatende, Basalirwa said “there are many other things we can do and accomplish with these comrades beyond the Bugiri campaigns.” It must also not have been easy for him as a candidate to restrain those DP diehards from using his campaign platform to lobby verbal missiles at Besigye and his FDC party which they have never forgiven for becoming 2nd most potent political formation in Uganda, a position they considered theirs forever. Basalirwa, just like his campaign bulldozer Bobi Wine, engaged in politics of restraint and never returned fire back to Namatende who appeared emotionally unprepared, scared, belligerent and nervous throughout the campaign period. She and elderly Wafula Ogutu (of all people) accused Basalirwa of many things but the JEEMA big man remained civil and kept focused on the ultimate goal which was to prevent NRM from grabbing the Bugiri Municipality Seat. Personally, Basalirwa is highly qualified because he has an LLB from Makerere, LDC Diploma in Legal Practice and Masters (LLM) from Makerere. Many expect he will use the Parliamentary platform to overwhelm adversaries with his political intellect. The resultant resources coming to him, it’s hoped, will enable him to intensify anti-NRM mobilization and get the opposition more political seats in Bugiri. The momentum he has started in Bugiri could see many more Busoga Municipalities and peri-urban constituencies liberated from the NRM. For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755.
