Mr
Kintu Nyago, the deputy Principal Private Secretary to President
Museveni, said intelligence agencies have information that Dr Besigye
obtained “quite some money” for realising “unconstitutional regime
change”.
“What Besigye wants is to mimic what happened at Tahrir Square; he wants to come and sit at the City Square and, using a rented crowd and hoodlums, cause fracas,” Mr Nyago said.
Tahrir, which in Arabic means ‘Liberation’, is a public open
space in Cairo where unrelenting demonstrators displeased with President
Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule, early this year, rallied until the
Egyptian ruler abdicated power.
Events at the Square
have turned to inspire ordinary men and women elsewhere – but feeling
oppressed - to demand for good governance, and through peaceful
assemblies, paralyse repressive governments.
Authorities now fear Uganda could catch the Egyptian political fever.
Mr Nyago’s comments were in answer to a question from this newspaper why the State manhandled Dr Besigye, and had him jailed last Thursday, for participating in the Walk-to-Work demonstration whereas police on the same day just escorted UPC leader, Olara Otunnu, in a similar trek from Nakawa Market to Uganda House, the party headquaters.
Mr Nyago’s comments were in answer to a question from this newspaper why the State manhandled Dr Besigye, and had him jailed last Thursday, for participating in the Walk-to-Work demonstration whereas police on the same day just escorted UPC leader, Olara Otunnu, in a similar trek from Nakawa Market to Uganda House, the party headquaters.
“The
man (Besigye) wants an unconstitutional regime change and that is why
he is acting outside the law - becoming a law unto himself,” Mr Nyago
said, angry that four diplomats have since visited the FDC president and
his Democratic Party counterpart, Norbert Mao, both incarcerated in
Nakasongala District.
Dr Besigye, a former personal
physician to President Museveni, has stood against and lost three
presidential elections to him, although he remains the greatest threat
to the incumbent’s 25-year rule.
Yesterday, Mr Nyago accused the unnamed diplomats of “acting outside the law” to buoy individuals “undermining the state and government of Uganda”; saying Sunday Monitor’s lead story highlighting their visit to Nakasongola Prisons confirmed the ominous nexus.
Yesterday, Mr Nyago accused the unnamed diplomats of “acting outside the law” to buoy individuals “undermining the state and government of Uganda”; saying Sunday Monitor’s lead story highlighting their visit to Nakasongola Prisons confirmed the ominous nexus.
“Is that proper?” he asked. “What message are they (diplomats) sending to Ugandans and the international community?”
“Some of these diplomats are recognising that position of illegality - of acting outside the law. Let them go and encourage it in their own countries.”
“Some of these diplomats are recognising that position of illegality - of acting outside the law. Let them go and encourage it in their own countries.”
This revelation mirrors the nervousness in a
government that has just won a disputed ballot with 68 per cent, and
also reinforces separate predictions by top intelligence analysts who
have since advised the National Security Council that the Walk-to-Work
demonstrators must not be allowed to penetrate the inner-city. No
official of the Forum for Democratic Party (FDC) that Dr Besigye heads
was available to comment by press time.
The peaceful
Walk-to-Walk demonstration, during which security forces have allegedly
shot dead five civilians within the past fortnight, was called by a
hitherto unknown non-partisan platform, Activists for Change, to show
public displeasure with government’s inaction as spiraling food and fuel
prices weigh down citizens.
Museveni hints
However, state actors believe it is a ploy by opposition parties that lost the February 18 presidential vote to force out President Museveni through popular marches.
However, state actors believe it is a ploy by opposition parties that lost the February 18 presidential vote to force out President Museveni through popular marches.
Mr Museveni, while addressing
journalists at his Rwakitura country home in Kiruhura District, on April
16, hinted on a similar plot but downplayed the threat he described as
opposition “idiocy”.
“We had elections (that) the opposition lost. You think you can change that by anything else? There is no other plan. If they had other plan, it is an idiotic plan,” he said then.
“We had elections (that) the opposition lost. You think you can change that by anything else? There is no other plan. If they had other plan, it is an idiotic plan,” he said then.
“I
always read this rubbish in the intelligence reports – that Besigye is
planning this, Besigye is planning that. He is planning nothing,
nothing, bure, bure bure (Kiswahili word for nothing). It is not
possible, there is idiocy.”
Other security sources say
they have received nearly Shs100 million turned in by people who allege
Dr Besigye bankrolled them to organise Walk-to-Work demonstrations,
particularly in the populous Buganda region.
Contact the author by email: tbutgira@ug.nationmedia.com
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