By Spy Uganda
The European Community has activated sanctions that were issued by the United States government against former Inspector General of Police Gen. Kale Kayihura.
Spy Uganda has established that the Head of the European Union Delegation to Uganda, Ambassador Attilio Pacifici, has backed the US sanctions against the former Police Chief, Gen. Kale Kayihura, who has since been banned together with his family from ever setting foot on American soil again.
European Union boss Pacifici contends that there is logic and principle in the visa and economic sanctions imposed against Kayihura, adding that even the EU would have acted the same if they had the evidence that is at the disposal of the US.
Kayihura’s troubles started last Friday when the Trump administration set out two new rounds of sanctions against him for his alleged involvement in gross human rights violations, drugs smuggling and corruption.
This was through the U.S’ Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, whose boss Mike Pompeo designated Kayihura and his family as persona non grata in the USA.
The Department said that it has credible information that Kayihura was involved in torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, through command and responsibility of the Flying Squad, a specialized unit of the Uganda Police Force that reported directly to him.
The Flying Squad Unit members reportedly used sticks and rifle butts to abuse detainees at the now closed infamous Nalufenya Detention facility in Jinja and other detention centres where abductees were tortured during Kayihua’s reign.
Detainees also reported that after being subjected to abuse, they were offered significant sums of money if they confessed to their involvement in crime.
In addition, Kayihura allegedly engaged in numerous acts of corruption including using bribery to strengthen his political position within the Government of Uganda, on top of allegedly pocketing funds intended for official Ugandan government business, and using other government employees to shift illicit goods, including drugs, gold, and wildlife, out of Uganda.
Pacifici also revealed that even Uganda had slapped charges against Kayihura, which gives credence to the U.S sanctions against under him.
While the U.S designated Gen. Kale Kayihura and his immediate family members, Kayihura, says he has never owned any property in the United States, or anywhere else outside Uganda.
“I don’t have any bank accounts outside my country, Uganda. The insinuations in the statement that I could own any property outside Uganda are totally fabricated and malicious. The freezing of my so-called assets, therefore, is comical,” Kayihura indicated in a statement released on Saturday.
Kayihura accuses the US authorities of being hypocrites for their acclaim to uphold Human Rights yet in their letter and action, didn’t give him a fair hearing.
“How can they accuse, judge and condemn a person without the basic decency to respect the principles of natural justice, specifically, affording a person the opportunity and the right to be heard?” Gen. Kayihura wonders.
He contends that the said allegations and the ‘ridiculous action’ is an attack on the sovereignty of Uganda, since he and the Uganda Police Force are targeted in an official capacity.
“To sit in Washington and make the spurious and unproven baseless allegations, and take action on them without any effort to establish any truth, against a former IGP and a National Police Force is the highest form of disrespect of a foreign country,” Kayihura stated.
However, the government of Uganda has since told him to face the consequences of his actions.
