Veteran Journalist, Andrew Mwenda has described embattled former police boss Kale Kayihura as a victim of his ethnicity noting that his latest quagmire is less of his possible criminality and more of his relationship with his native country – Rwanda.
According to Mwenda, Kayihura – who was arrested last week – has spent most of his time at the helm of the police trying to prove his loyalty to President Museveni and Uganda so has to silence other voices that have always accused him of being a Rwandese agent, planted in the Ugandan security.
“Kayihura is an ethnic Munyarwanda. In the struggle for favour inside Museveni’s security apparatus, his ethnicity always made him vulnerable to accusations of disloyalty. He once told me that whenever Uganda and Rwanda quarrel, he becomes a victim: Kampala accuses him of being a mole, Kigali of being a traitor,” Mwenda noted.
The outspoken journalist who enjoys cordial relations in both Rwanda and Uganda’s top circles also argued that if Museveni thought Kayihura had done a bad job in the police, he would fire him outright and deny him a new term of office. Instead, Kayihura has been the long-serving Inspector General of Police (IGP) – a signal that the president was happy with how he did his job.
“Whenever Museveni wants to get rid of a failing security chief, he just fires them. For Kayihura, the process was protracted, lasting almost six months. He must have done a great job otherwise he would not have lasted in that position as long as he did.
“Although Museveni fired Kayihura amidst allegations of increasing criminality in the country, this seems far-fetched to be the reason. Popular sentiments about criminality have never been sufficient for Museveni to fire a loyal aide and even accuse him of murder. In any case, criminals were operating inside the Uganda Police long before Kayihura came,” he further noted.
Mwenda, who described Museveni as a power mastermind, says Kayihura’s dismissal and eventual arrest may be politically motivated given the General’s military acumen that saw him create defacto military outfits that could be interpreted as an intention to grab political power or possible collusion with a foreign power and his ethnic background did not help matters.
Although Kayihura went overboard in his efforts to prove his loyalty to Museveni, Mwenda notes that he forgot that the president’s power shuffling genius is what has kept in power for 32 years – he does not operate on trust or loyalty – but power.
“Therefore, whatever his misdeeds (which were many) it his ethnicity not his actions, that became his undoing.”