Detained former Coordinator of Intelligence Services General David Sejusa knew he would be arrested but refused to flee the country for the second time, in a space of only two years.
Speaking exclusively to the EagleOnline in late December, Sejusa said he expected to be arrested (anytime) but hastened to add he would not go into exile again; he would instead ‘stay here and battle it from here’.
Gen Sejusa was arrested by military police yesterday in an operation led by the Deputy Chief of Defence Forces of the UPDF Lieutenant General Charles Angina. He is currently being held at Makindye barracks and it is said he will be produced before the court martial to answer to charges tomorrow.
Sources attribute Gen Sejusa’s arrest yesterday to remarks made to local media last week, alluding to the ‘dismantling of a dictatorship’, in apparent reference to Mr Museveni’s NRM government that has been in power for 30 years.
Sejusa’s woes with the Yoweri Museveni National Resistance Movement (NRM) government date back to the 1990s, when the controversial General sought to leave the army, a demand he was denied.
Then in 2013 the General penned a controversial letter to the Director General of Internal Security Organisation (ISO) Brigadier Ronnie Balya, saying there was a plan by Mr Museveni to groom his son Brigadier Muhozi Kainerugaba, as successor to the presidency.
This landed him in deep trouble, resulting in his fleeing the country for the UK, where he formed an opposition group, the Freedom and Unity Front (FUF).
However, after a series of ‘peace overtures’ the General returned to the country in December 2014, albeit with his recalcitrant traits; he once again demanded to be allowed to leave the army. And up to the time of his arrest yesterday, his wish had not been granted.
Who is General Sejusa?
A lawyer by training, 62 year old General David Sejusa aka Tinyefuza graduated from Makerere University in 1980 and joined the police as a Cadet and later became an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) in 1981. In the same year Sejusa joined the National Resistance Army, after a dramatic escape from pursuers in the Obote II regime who had linked him to the subversive activities of the rebel outfit, the NRA commanded by Yoweri Museveni.
Sejusa rose through the NRA ranks and on awarding ranks in 1987 he was made Brigadier, one of only three, the others being Brigadiers Matayo Kyaligonza aka Black Bomber and Tadeo Kanyankole.
Since then he served the NRA/UPDF in various command capacities, the most recent being the Coordinator of Intelligence Services, a post he held until he fell out with government in April 2013 and eventually fled to exile in the UK, where he formed an opposition group, the Freedom and Unity Front (FUF).
He returned from exile in December 2014 but has since been intermittently participating in politics, a position that is in contravention with the UPDF Act.
