This could have been President Museveni’s last seen photo had his bodyguard’s shot found its mark. The shot was fired shortly after this photo was taken. Here he chats with (L-R) Deputy Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah, Speaker Rebecca Kadaga and EALA Speaker Margaret Zziwa at Parliament yesterday. (Photo by Geoffrey Seruyange – Daily Monitor)
Ugandan President Yoweri
Museveni yesterday narrowly escaped death when one of his bodyguards
“accidentally” lost possession of his automatic weapon which fell to the
ground and fired as the Ugandan leader was about to get into his car.
Unconfirmed reports say the bodyguard
suffered gunshot wounds after one of his colleagues shot at him
believing he was trying to assassinate Museveni who has been in power
for the last 27 years. The bodyguard was part of an elite
specially-trained military unit of commandos that is commanded by Brig
Kainerugaba Muhoozi, the president’s only known son.
Gen Museveni, whose tenure has moved
from one time being the darling of the West to uneasy relationships not
only with Western leaders but also with those that he started a
protracted guerrilla war against the then Milton Obote government with
in 1982 that culminated in his seizing power in January 1986, had just
addressed the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) at parliament in
Kampala last evening and after posing for photographs outside
parliament, he was heading for his waiting car at the parliamentary park
yard when a shot was heard clearly emanating from within his security
guards.
The security guard was dressed in a
black suit and was travelling in the third pick-up escort truck that is
part of a long presidential motorcade that follow the president wherever
he goes while inside the country. At first it was not quite clear what
had happened. There was pandemonium as the legislators who had come to
see off the president took to their heels as the president was being
quickly bundled into his bullet-proof car that then sped off at high
speed. The bodyguard was bundled into another truck that also took off
at high speed followed by scores of other vehicles that form the at
times -20-vehicle presidential motorcade. These include an ambulance, a
truck that serves as the president’s mobile bathroom and several cars in
which scores of heavily armed and specially trained marine commandos
that form part of the brigade that Brig Muhoozi commands travel.
It is not yet known if the shot was an
assassination attempt or an accident, but inner circles in the security
say it is quite unusual for such a close guard to have a gun with the
safety catch off and ready to be fired. The London Evening Post was at the scene as we had been covering the President’s speech to the EALA. The last thing we saw as everybody took flight was Gen Museveni seating calmly in his car at it sped out of sight.
Last month, a letter written by Gen
David ‘Tinye’ Sejusa asked the chief of military intelligence to
investigate claims that there was a plan to assassinate senior army
officers opposed to what has since become known as ‘the Muhoozi
Project’, a plan allegedly hatched by Museveni to have his son succeed
him when he finally steps down from the country’s leadership. Reproduced
in the country’s largest broadsheet, the Daily Monitor and the
country’s biggest-selling tabloid, the Red Pepper, the letter caused Gen
Museveni to have both media houses that included two radio stations to
be closed for nearly two weeks by police who claimed they were there to
search for the letter. They did not say whether they had finally got it
when the media houses were allowed to return to the streets before last
weekend. Gen Sejusa has since fled to the United Kingdom and unconfirmed
reports say he has sought political asylum in London. But the now
renegade general has since denied he has sought asylum in the UK and has
dismissed those reports as being ‘trash’.
The Presidential Guard Brigade is an
elite, well trained brigade and believed to be far better equipped than
any other brigade in the country. The Commander, Brig Muhoozi, graduated
in 2000 from the elite British Royal Military College at Sandhurst and
has also attended the US Army Command and General Staff College at Fort
Leavenworth in Texas where he graduated from in 2008. He joined the
Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) in 1999 and his rapid promotion by
his father who is the Supreme Commander of the UPDF has raised eyebrows
and caused tensions within the army hierarchy.
Speaking to The London Evening Post immediately
after the shot had been fired and on condition he was not named, one of
the country’s legislators said: “It was unfortunate for the young man
who was just boarding a military pick up when his pistol fell from his
waist and let off a shot.” An attempt to get a word from the
Sergeant-at-Arms at Parliament House who saw what had happened, proved
fruitless when he simply walked off without a comment.
In London, several Ugandan exiles
expressed “disappointment” that the shot missed “its target”. “What a
pity! I wish he had got him. It won’t be long before they do,” one
Ugandan told us after being reassured she would not be named. Another
one told us: “I don’t want him dead but I want him out of power.”
Another Ugandan speaking to us from North America said: “They are
probably going to implicate Gen Tinye and will arrest many people
tonight. This could be the beginning of absolute chaos and that much
will depend on what tribe the bodyguard comes from. Hopefully he is not a
Muganda or Acholi.” Another Ugandan speaking to us from South Africa
soon after the incident said: “We have missed a chance. Who had helped
us to remove him? Now we will never get rid of that ka-man.”
Most people contacted in Kampala had no
idea anything had happened and many were shocked when we told them. Many
expressed sadness that the bullet had not found its target. While the
incident happened in broad day-light and in the presence of reports from
all the main Ugandan and Kenyan newspapers, none of them has dared come
out with the story. Since the closure of the above-named media houses,
newspapers have sought to hide behind self-regulation for fear of
suffering the same fate. The Nairobi-based Nation Group of Companies
owns the Daily Monitor in addition to the leading Nairobi daily, the
Daily Nation.
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