The Chief of Defence Forces Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has confirmed holding imprisoned veteran opposition politician Dr Kizza Besigye’s former aide, Sam Mugumya, who was abducted from Mbarara City by military personnel over a year ago.
“Yes, I have Sam Mugumya. He is fine. But I will execute him soon” he posted on his X account on Friday evening.
In a following post he added, “People are feeling sorry for Mugumya’s legs? I’m going to shoot him to death”.
Gen Muhoozi’s remarks follow leaked videos by Lt Herbert Matanda Mabonga, of an alleged torture centre in Abayita Ababiri, Katabi Town Council, in Wakiso district showing political prisoners under detention.
Gen Muhoozi has further threatened to arrest the Minister of Water and Environment Maj Gen (Rtd) Kahinda Otafiire, following his recent call for political tolerance and warning against the use of violence to resolve disagreements, during his maiden speech in the 12th Parliament on Wednesday.
“I hear my junior MG.Otafiire made some statements in parliament against me. I’m giving him exactly 1 week to apologise to me or else he will see” Gen Muhoozi said.
He further warned that he would send the retired General to an old people’s home, before threatening to arrest him tomorrow, if he didn’t apologise for the remarks in subsquent posts.
“When old men like Otafiire refuse to respect us they become nuisances. We will send them to an old people’s home. One week is too long, he has 3 days to apologise.
3 days is too long. We are arresting Otafiire tomorrow without fail” he said.
During his address in Parliament, Otafiire called for tolorance for the opposition in the country’s affairs.
Below is a brief excerpt from his opening address before Parliament.
“I want to take two, three minutes to talk to the honorable members of the House and say, whatever the shade of our political persuasion, we have one country and we must serve that country” he opened.
He added “..The whole mark of civilization is how people resolve contradiction without violence. When you see a general who prefers violence as the best means of solving problems, then there is a problem. The greatest generals I know of are those who resolve problems without shooting a bullet”.
He further called for diplomacy to resolve matters between opposing polotical ideologies, instead of violence.
“When that fails, you resort to diplomacy. It’s only when diplomacy has been exhausted and failed that you go to war and you don’t go to war as an end in itself. You go to war in order to achieve the end state, which is a resolution of each other, and we must learn to tolerate each other” he said.
“Anyway, we are winners. The whole mark of civilization is that those who win are magnanimous in victory, and those who don’t win also respect the winners, but they have a right to be heard. You know, you never see how beautiful your face is or ugly your face is until you look into the mirror. And colleagues on the NRM side, this opposition is our mirror reflection. I thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you” he ended.
By the time of this publication, Gen Otafiire was yet to issue an apology or statement to the arrest threats.
