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SWEET MOMENT: Kiggundu (R), Mayi and son leave Luzira (Kennedy Oryema) |
By Charles Ariko, Edris Kisambira and Steven Candia
Former Greenland Bank chief Sulaiman Kiggundu was freed from Luzira civil prison yesterday after a six-month jail term for failure to pay sh600m belonging to the bank.
The former Bank of Uganda governor later said he would join politics if the Government �continuously pushes him against the wall.�
Kiggundu, who walked out of the prison gates at 9:23am, was speaking at his late father�s home in Ntolomwe, Butambala, Mpigi, where crowds hailed him at all major townships as he drove in an 11-car convoy.
�I fight for developmental causes. I am not a politician and I have never wished to join politics. But if they press me so hard, I will join politics,� Kiggundu said.
He regretted why he got involved in the struggle that swept President Yoweri Museveni into power.
Kiggundu said he supported Museveni, leaving a fellow Muganda Andrew Kayiira of the Uganda Freedom Movement.
�It shouldn�t have been Museveni to treat me like this. Museveni wouldn�t have reached where he is without the support I rendered him,� he said.
Kiggundu said before the closure of the bank, he met Museveni in Rwakitura over allegations that he was working with Hassan Turabi, a former Sudan parliament speaker.
�He asked me whether I was working with Turabi. I said no and thanked him for giving me the benefit of the doubt. But it seems my denial of whatever he was told did not calm him down,� Kiggundu said.
He said he was set up by the government when he was asked to buy the Uganda Grain Millers Company and the Uganda Commercial Bank.
�I thought we were working for Ugandans. I was being spied on and set up. I did this for the good of Muslims, Buganda and Uganda,� he added.
Earlier in Luzira, Kiggundu stepped out of the gates wearing a black suit, white shirt, a matching red-and-black tie and black shoes. He raised his hands to the skies, waved at the crowd and shouted, �Salaam aleikum. Great to !
be out o
f prison and a free man again.�
He then flew into the outstretched arms of his wife Mayi, who gave him a bouquet of flowers as their little son looked on.
Mayi, spotting gold tinted hair, a multi-coloured gomesi, a golden necklace, finger rings and wrist chain, arrived at the prisons main gate at 8:33am with five relatives.
The Police and warders manning a security checkpoint 30 metres from the main gate, barred the rest from entering. Erias Lukwago, Kiggundu�s lawyer, arrived at 8:45am.
Kiggundu�s other wife Remmy arrived in a Pajero UPZ 625 at 9:04am. She was denied entry.
On arrival at Murchison Bay section where Kiggundu was jailed, Mayi was not allowed to meet her husband. The bouquet of flowers was first taken to the officer in-charge for checking before it was returned to her.
An excited Kiggundu, who paced up and down as other prisoners boarded the prisons bus to court, waved at Mayi before joining the prisoners.
Despite serving the six-month sentence, Kiggundu has to pay back the money or his property will be attached.
Kiggundu said, �My appeal to the President is that this is enough punishment for crimes I do not believe I committed. I ask for freedom and space to once again work for my family and country.�
After disentangling himself from Mayi�s warm embrace in the rather chilly morning, Kiggundu sat in the back seat of his lawyer�s vehicle.
Former minister Abu Mayanja sat in front. Kiggundu was mobbed by journalists but promised to address the press at the Old Port Bell road junction.
A convoy escorting Kiggundu was brought to a halt near the Graphic Systems offices when it ran into some 70 ecstatic Makerere University Nkoba za Mbogo members.
�Tumulese aloga aloge (We have brought him, those who feel bad about it, go hang),� the students chanted before breaking into a Democratic Party song: �Twagala nyo mama, twagala kufa na kuwona.�
Kiggundu said he would not flee into exile. �I have confi!
dence in
the Government,� he said.
He said he had asked for security to stop other people �taking advantage of the situation.�
Published on: Tuesday, 17th December, 2002 |
