Rwandans and many others in this region are now used to the Uganda government familiar ruse that has sought to portray Rwanda as the bogeyman every time the Kampala regime has found itself in a mess of its own making. And, during presidential elections in that country, the regime has always upped the ante. Preparations for elections slated for early 2021 come at a time when President Yoweri Museveni is under intense pressure to the end support his government is providing to terrorist organisations working to destabilize Rwanda, mainly the Rwanda National Congress (RNC) and the Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR). Museveni was tasked by the February 21, 2020, Summit in Gatuna to end the dangerous relationship with these terrorist organizations for the three-year standoff between Rwanda and Uganda to be resolved. The Summit took place in the presence of President Paul Kagame and the mediators of the September 2019 Luanda Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), Angola President João Lourenço and Félix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Over the last 20 years, a pattern has emerged, clearly showing how when Museveni is faced with an election, the regime always seeks to associate Rwanda with whoever he believes poses a serious threat to his chances of re-election. It is a cynical strategy that serves to present Rwanda as the enemy even when all available evidence shows the regime in Kampala is culpable. In the 2001 Presidential campaigns, after a former personal physician to President Museveni, who had also served as a cabinet minister, Dr. Kizza Besigye, declared his candidacy for President, Museveni made his move. On March 6, 2001, the then State Minister for Security, Muruuli Mukasa was instructed to write to the Speaker of Parliament, Francis Ayume, designating Rwanda as a “Hostile Nation”, with the insinuation that Rwanda may fund one of Museveni’s rivals. The letter, according to The New Vision of March 9, 2001, was copied to the Chairman of the Electoral Commission at the time, Aziz Kasujja and the Minister in charge of the Presidency, Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda. Muruuli Mukasa justified Uganda’s hostile move with the claim that the fighting between Rwandan troops and the Uganda Army in Kisangani 1999-2000, had not been “explained”: “the unfortunate RPA-UPDF clashes raised serious drawback in the relationship. The Kisangani clashes have not been explained”, he said. As his security minister made the false statement, Museveni was sitting on a report signed by his own Army Commander, General Jeje Odongo indicting the UPDF Commander in the DRC at the time, General James Kazini, as the only individual solely responsible for the fighting in Kisangani. Then on March 10, 2001, the British Broadcasting Co-operation (BBC) reported that the Uganda government statement was released at a time when “the incumbent, Mr. Museveni was facing a stiff challenge from his former ally, Dr. Kizza Besigye”. Twenty years down the road, another ex-minister and former ally, Lt. Gen. Henry Tumukunde, has blindsided Museveni with a similar declaration and the reaction is eerily familiar. The regime in Kampala has moved to arrest Tumukunde and quickly charged him with treason. It is upon this charge that the Uganda government is trying to draw Rwanda into their electoral mess. Leading the smear campaign, Uganda’s Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI)’s outlet Chimpreports of March 13, 2020, went to work with: “Tumukunde Request to Rwanda to Topple Museveni Landed him in Trouble”. As Museveni’s government package their new enemy, Tumukunde, as a fifth columnist and a man who has all along been close to Rwanda, the plot thickens, with Chimpreports falsely reporting that: “After taking power in Rwanda, Kagame would be chauffeured by Tumukunde around Kampala”. Tumukunde’s anti-Rwanda predisposition is legendary. His arrest, mistreatment and torture of innocent Rwandans, over the last twenty years is well documented in various Ugandan publications. No matter what office he occupied, Rwandans were his primary targets. Tumukunde’s harassment and mistreatment of Rwandans gained unprecedented levels of notoriety in 2017 and 2018. In his capacity as Museveni’s security minister, Tumukunde not only ordered the rounding up and torture of Rwandan nationals, many of them in transit to other destinations outside Uganda, he also personally participated in their physical assault and torture in safe houses. Rwandans who were released after pressure from Kigali intensified, confirmed Tumukunde’s personal role and presence during many of the torture sessions they were subjected to. Today, the regime in Kampala wants to convince whoever cares to listen that Tumukunde solicited Rwanda’s support to “topple Museveni”. Yet, when the system he helped build and served to hunt down innocent Rwandans turned on him, the news media and political pundits in Kampala were quick to remind him that during his tenure as security minister he happily filed and submitted bogus and falsified reports to Museveni, seeking to frame Rwanda in a non-existent project to remove him from power. Tumukunde has publicly bragged that he had his own higher ambitions, when in 2016 he agreed to work for Museveni to neutralize yet another formidable politician, Amama Mbabazi, who had just declared his intentions to go after Museveni’s job. Indeed, Museveni knew Tumukunde’s ruthless credentials and wanted him in his corner. Tumukunde had a plan and it worked, or so he thought. Museveni allowed him to retire from military service, a request he has consistently denied other similarly aged and equally controversial generals, including General David Sejusa. Clearly, he got more than he bargained for, with a sendoff promotion that saw him skip a rank. However, after he declared that he was running as a candidate for president, it was a matter of time before the regime moved to take Tumukunde down. He was not only boasting about tricking Museveni into granting him his wishes and then some, but was also beginning to open up on a subject he is probably more conversant with than anyone in Uganda, save for President Museveni. He was publicly criticizing the CMI’s hand-in-glove operations with RNC targeting Rwanda, as the New Vision’s March 13, 2020 lead story reads in part: “Tumukunde further disclosed how Uganda’s intelligence system was getting weakened and causing troubles with the neighbours.” Tumukunde knows where the bodies are buried and as Museveni’s longtime enforcer, he should have remembered that loose lips sink ships. Clearly, Henry Tumukunde thought he had it all figured out. But as the great Mike Tyson once said, everyone has a plan until they are punched in the face.
