Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) presidential candidate Major General (rtd) Mugisha Muntu has suspended his campaigns in protest against police actions, which he describes as brutal.

According to Gen. Muntu, he will resume the campaigns after the police begin respecting Ugandans and protecting their lives.

Gen. Muntu’s resolve comes in the wake of a fracas in Rukungiri last Wednesday, when police disrupted his rival Patrick Amuriat Obol’s political rally and in the ensuing chaos one Edson Nasasira, died. At the time Obol was in the company of former FDC presidential flag bearer Dr. Kizza Besigye and the party Secretary for Mobilisation Ingrid Turinawe.

“There was no rational reason why police could act the way they did yet the rally was planned and communicated to police, they would have engaged Dr. Besigye or Amuriat in a professional and dignifying manner rather than unleashing terror upon innocent civilians that hat gathered in accordance with the law to exercise their freedom,” Gen. Muntu wrote in letter to his followers carried on his Twitter account.

He added: “The state has always wanted to divide opposition and destruct their focus of ending President Museveni’s unjust, selfish, ill-advised bid for life president.”

Further, according to Muntu, the actions of government will amount to naught.

“President Museveni and your enablers we are seeing what you are trying to do, you will not succeed in sowing seeds of division among the pro-change in the country. No amount of intimidation and coercive force will succeed in the face of people united by decades of incompetence, mismanagement, corruption and inequality,” Gen. Muntu added.

A bush war veteran and former Army Commander, Gen Muntu is one of the opposition leaders that has consistently criticized the National Resistance Movement (NRM) regime.

And today he was one of the opposition leaders who visited incarcerated Dr. Besigye and Ms. Turinawe at Naggalama police station, where the two have been jailed since Thursday last week, in connection with Mr. Edson Nasasira’s death.

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David Himbara, a former Principal Private Secretary (PPS) to Rwanda President Paul Kagame, has written an open letter to President Yoweri Museveni, warning the latter about a smear campaign aimed at tainting Uganda’s investment climate.

Himbara, a Professor of International Development now exiled in Toronto, Canada, fell out with Kagame some years back, and has since been a critic of the regime in Kigali. His brother, Colonel Tom Byabagamba, a former head of the Presidential Guard, is in prison serving a 21-year jail term alongside Brigadier General Frank Rusagara, a former Rwanda Military Attaché to the United Kingdom.

Below is Dr. Himbara’s letter to President Museveni

Dear President Yoweri Museveni. I am most certain you are aware that Paul Kagame’s government and a section of East African social media have been circulating a fake story aimed at causing havoc in your family and country. The bearers of the concocted story maliciously claim that your younger brother, General (Rtd) Caleb Akandwanaho, acquired 15% in Leaf Tobacco and Commodities (U) Ltd (LTCU).

Shamelessly armed with forged documents, the Rwanda government and some media outlets further allege that in exchange for 15% shares given to him, your brother Akandwanaho has undertaken to provide security for LTCU’s operations in Uganda. Mr President, that is not the worst part of the dubious stories. This is how the East African of October 16, 2017 described the Kagame government’s use of the bogus story that is clearly based on forged documents:

“There have been two closed door meetings over the past two months of government officials and the ruling party…General Kabarebe said at the meeting that Rwanda was concerned by Uganda’s continued offering of its space to Rwandan enemies…Among them is the decision to allow exiled Rwandan tycoon Tribert Rujugiro to operate in Uganda and work closely with government officials.”

These accusations and insinuations by the Kagame government are totally false. LTCU has never given shares to any Ugandan government official, let alone to a brother of the Ugandan head of state. Thankfully, Red Pepper, one of the online news outlets that initially spread the false story has disowned it. Mr Johnston Musinguzi, Director of Red Pepper, categorically asserts that a fake website that stole their logo and corporate image is to blame.

Be that as it may, this case shows how Kagame wants to have his cake and eat it, too. He routinely grabs other people’s businesses, including Rujugiro’s US$20 million Union Trade Centre (UTC). Only two weeks ago Kagame illegally auctioned UTC for a mere US$8 million. But when businesspeople such as Rujugiro take their resources to countries that believe in and welcome large scale investments, Kagame changes his tune. Kagame labels these investors “enemies of Rwanda.”

Such character assassination is easily disproved by readily available evidence. Industrialist Rujugiro’s manufacturing and associated operations are strategically placed throughout Africa and the United Arab Emirates. His entrepreneurial spirit was born in Burundi in the 1970s, gradually expanding throughout the 1980s to Eastern and Central Africa including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Uganda. Then, in the 1990s, he moved into South Africa and Angola, and later into Nigeria in West Africa, the United Arab Emirates and South Sudan.

Today, Rujugiro’s companies have a presence in more than half of Africa’s 54 states – nearly all of sub-Saharan Africa; his operations support hundreds of suppliers and employ thousands of people throughout the continent. Rujugiro’s latest substantive investment is Meridian Tobacco Company (MTC) based in Arua, Uganda. MTC’s combined workforce incorporating direct employees, seasonal workers, and contracted farmers, now totals 11,750.

Mr President, evidently your Rwandan counterpart wants to damage Uganda’s investment climate. The Rwandan president now wants to export his inexplicable heavy-handedness to Uganda. In other words, Kagame wants Uganda to forego employment opportunities, and to shrink its tax base just like he does in Rwanda by killing private enterprise.

I conclude, Sir, by seeking your indulgence in the event that I may be repeating what you already know – namely, that you live next door to a president who can’t resist interfering in the affairs of neighbouring states.

Most Sincerely

David Himbara

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Patrick Ayota has been appointed the new Deputy Managing Director of National Social Security Fund (NSSF), replacing controversial Geraldine Ssali Busuulwa.

In announcement to NSSF staff this afternoon indicated that the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Matia Kasaija, had made changes, with Managing Director Richard Byarugaba and Corporation Secretary Richard Wabwire Wejuli reappointed to their positions for a five-year contract effective October 30, 2017.

“I hereby inform you that the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development has made the following decisions on the employment contracts of the fund’s statutory appointees: The contract of Managing Director, Richard Byarugaba has been renewed for a period of five years effective December 1, 2017,” the statement that also contains details about Mr. Ayota’s appointment, reads in part.

‘The Minister has declined to renew the contract of Mrs Geraldine Ssali Busuulwa, the fund’s Deputy Managing Director. Her employment contract expires on October 29, 2017. Mr Patrick Ayota, the fund’s Chief Finance Officer has been appointed Deputy Managing Director effective October 30, 2017’, the release adds.

Mr Ayota has been the fund’s Chief Finance Officer and in 2011 emerged as the best candidate for the post of Deputy Managing Director in the recruitment exercise conducted by PriceWaterHouse Coopers (PWC), scoring 85 per cent.  During the interviews Ms Monica Rubombora came second with 82 per cent, while Ms Ssali, who was at the time outgoing Deputy MD, came third with 77 per cent.

However, Mr Ayota was never given the job as Ms Ssali was reappointed by Ms Maria Kiwanuka, the then Finance Minister who succeeded Ms. Syda Bbumba. Mr Ayota was however, retained by the fund as Chief Finance Officer to date.

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