By Benson Tumusiime
President Yoweri Museveni, who is also commander in-chief (CiC) of the armed forces, has ordered the chairman of the military court martial of people’s defence forces (UPDF) to silently drop all charges against Gen.Kale Edward Kayihura, Spy Uganda has learnt.
Sources who spoke to Spy Uganda on condition of anonymity said the chairman court martial Lt. Gen. Andrew Gutti got instructions from the president while attending the recent high command meeting that took place at state house Entebbe.
Sources added that, after thanking the Chairman court martial for a good job done so far, Mr. Museveni told him (Gutti) that he was not convinced that Gen. Kayihura had participated in the killing of the former police spokesperson AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi as some security intelligence wanted him to believe.
“So u can drastically drop those charges against him,” source quoted.
Why charges were dropped
Tensions between President Museveni and Gen Kale Kayihura have cooled off following what top sources in security agencies say is an apparent collapse of allegations linking the former police boss to the killing of former police spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi.
Background
Gen Kayihura was arrested on June 13 and held at Makindye Military Barracks for more than two months and was later charged in the General Court Martial on August 24, with two counts of failing to protect war materials and one count of abetting the abduction and illegal repatriation of Rwandan refugees.
But top sources in security agencies say these seemed to have been just holding charges, with the real cause of the arrest being the suspicion that Gen Kayihura could have participated in the killing of Kaweesi on March 17, 2017. Investigators led by the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) had assembled what they called evidence of Gen Kayihura’s participation in the killing that shook the country.
Gen Kayihura was arrested hardly a week after the shooting to death of then Arua Municipality MP Ibrahim Abiriga on June 8. Under his leadership of the police, about a dozen Muslim clerics were shot dead, most of them in public places and in the full view of the public. The assailants travelled on motorcycles, had assault rifles and carried out their assignments with scary confidence.
Also killed during the same period was Joan Kagezi, a top prosecutor.
TheSpy Uganda learnt that over the recent months, the evidence assembled by ISO to incriminate Gen Kayihura has crumbled into pieces, shifting the spotlight to ISO and in the process, softening President Museveni’s stance towards Gen Kayihura.
Mr Museveni, as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, instructed the army to assign to Gen Kayihura two new vehicles for his use, which has also been interpreted as a relaxing of the President’s stance towards his hitherto trusted lieutenant.
At some point after the firing of Gen Kayihura, President Museveni said the police under the General had been infested with weevils.
Towards the end of Gen Kayihura’s reign as police chief, the President publicly castigated his once most trusted blue eyed boy over the spiralling crime in the country and urged him to deal with what he called ‘criminals’ in the police force.
