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A week after Lt. Lt. Gen Henry Tumukunde launched himself on the frontlines of next year’s presidential election, Intelligence agencies have begun viewing suspiciously activities of at least 10 members of Parliament believed to be working closely with the former security minister.
A well placed security source told The Observer that President Museveni got wind of Tumukunde’s presidential ambition at the close of last year when the former head of the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) and Internal Security Organisation (ISO) met clandestinely with a former losing presidential candidate.
The former presidential candidate, according to insider sources, was approached by Tumukunde in his attempt to expand his political mobilization network across the country.
After meeting the retired general, the former presidential candidate alerted the president weeks later, insider sources say. In the process of verifying the information volunteered by the former presidential candidate, security officials picked information that the former spymaster was also in contact with some MPs from central Buganda and the eastern Bukedi regions.
Security officials are now interested in the November 2019 trip Tumukunde made to Mukujju in the eastern Uganda district of Tororo for the funeral of Ronald Asangai. The deceased was a brother to Tororo North MP Annet Nyakecho.
“We understand that she invited him to the funeral so he could get a platform to put across his message,” the source said.
At the funeral, Tumukunde urged Ugandans to take the future of their country seriously.
“You seem to be obsessed about today, not thinking about tomorrow. To me, that is absconding from responsibility. All the time think about tomorrow and address your persons and self to tomorrow,” Tumukunde told the mourners.
Besides Nyakecho, the source also said Kampala Central MP Muhammad Nsereko, an NRM leaning independent and Buikwe South’s Ronnie David Mutebi are on the intelligence watch list.
“It is true; I work with him as a volunteer mobiliser, and a volunteer national coordinator. Gen Tumukunde has been a long term colleague of mine, not just a colleague, but a friend-colleague with whom we have been doing a lot of work for NRM,” Nyakecho said.
She said their working relationship started in Parliament when Tumukunde, as Security minister sat as an ex-officio member. Interviewed for a comment, Mutebi roundly denied any dealings with Tumukunde. He said, “I am still the NRM flag bearer for Buikwe South and firmly an NRM supporter. I am therefore not involved with him on anything.”
Nsereko however, said that although Tumukunde hadn’t contacted him yet, he doesn’t mind working with him.
“If he has joined the opposition, the question would be, what would be wrong with him working with Bobi Wine [Robert Kyagulanyi], [Kizza] Besigye, [Mugisha] Muntu to achieve unity?” He has not yet contacted me but if he does so, I will discuss with him with a warm heart just like all the others. I know that is reverse psychology from [the security] but if it were the case, as shadow minister for Security, I welcome him. What we ask for is unity,” Nsereko said.
KIRASO, BABIHUGA
https://eagle.co.ug/2017/03/08/kiraso-edged-continental-job-pap-messy-elections.html
Photo credit: Gurtog Trust
Tumukunde is also understood to be working with former MPs; Beatrice Kiraso (Kabarole) and Winnie Babihuga (Rukungiri). Babihuga who currently works with the United Nation Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) is not new to opposition politics.
As a member of the sixth Parliament, Babihuga backed homeboy Dr Kizza Besigye after he authored the famous 1999 missive that called for an overhaul of the Movement ideology.
When Besigye chose to challenge Museveni in the 2001 presidential election, Babihuga joined the Reform Agenda campaign team.
Currently, she is a member of Tumukunde’s central committee chaired by Kiraso, a principal policy advisor for the Addis Ababa based UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and former deputy Secretary General of the East African Community.
“Some of us got shocked when Mzee appointed him as minister for Security. Knowing what he did during the [2016] campaigns, putting him in such a sensitive docket wasn’t a good idea,” the security source said.
Tumukunde allegedly, used to his benefit, the resources Museveni gave him to dismantle former Prime Minister and 2016 presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi’s mobilization networks.
“We had two teams in that campaign that would move ahead of [Museveni] to assess the mood on the ground and brief him on the issues that would inform his campaign message. But I can tell you that everywhere we went, talking to the clusters, Tumukunde’s presence would be felt,” the source said.
The source said Tumukunde had listening posts in all the clusters and surprisingly the reports he compiled were never submitted to the president.
Though at first the retired general was deployed largely to serve the interests of a member of Museveni’s household who harboured presidential ambitions, it still puzzles the intelligence community how he cleverly upstaged the supposed beneficiary of his political activities.
The other area of interest is Tumukunde’s new found love for Rwanda. During his appearance last Thursday on NBS TV’s Morning Breezeshow, Tumukunde said the best way to end the Uganda–Rwanda tensions was for Rwanda to support someone who wants to cause change in Uganda.
Tumukunde is known to have authored reports that exposed former Police Chief Gen Kale Kayihura’s close contact with Kigali. The reports resulted in the October 2017 arrest of Kayihura’s men in the police and their arraignment before the Makindye based General Court Martial.
Kayihura was sacked 16 months later before his arrest and trial before the same court.
WHO IS TUMUKUNDE?
Tumukunde is a retired high ranking military officer of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF). He is a former minister for security –appointed to the position on June 6 2016 and dropped on March 4 2018.
He is also a qualified lawyer. He has served as the UPDF’s chief of personnel and administration, chief of military intelligence as well as commanding officer of the UPDF Fourth Division, based in Gulu. He has also previously served as the director general of the Internal Security Organisation (ISO). Tumukunde was also a Member of Parliament representing the Army in the Parliament of Uganda between 1995 and 2005.
He was born on February 28 1959 in Rukungiri District. He attended Bishop Stuart College Demonstration School for his primary schooling. He studied at Kigezi College Butobere (Siniya) and Kibuli Secondary School for his O-Level and A-Level education, respectively.
Tumukunde graduated from Makerere University with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1981. He obtained a Diploma in Legal Practice awarded by the Law Development Centre in 2010. He also holds an Executive Masters in Oil and Gas Management, awarded by the Graduate Institute of Geneva in 2013.
On March 3 2020, Tumukunde declared that he will be challenging Yoweri Kaguta Museveni for the seat of presidency come 2021. This comes after a cabinet reshuffle left him without a position in the cabinet. In a press briefing, Tumukunde attributed his decision to the fact that NRM party and Yoweri Kaguta Museveni were not ready to discuss a peaceful transition of power.
During his time at Makerere, Tumukunde was involved in anti-government politics, which subsequently led him to join then rebels, the National Resistance Army, led by current Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.
GETTING SHOT
In 1985, during one of the bigger battles with the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA) in Luweero District, Tumukunde was shot multiple times in his legs.
The wounds were so major that it was thought he would not survive. He was, however, smuggled out of the country to Nairobi and eventually to London where he was operated on.
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