ugnet_: Captured LRA man was Museveni escort

[Owor Kipenji]

Captured LRA man was Museveni escort
By Alex B. Atuhaire & Grace Matsiko
July 15, 2004

HOW IS THE SITUATION? Gen Charles Wald from the US with Kolker (top left) and Army Commander Lt Gen Aronda Nyakairima (top right) in Gulu yesterday. Wald led a delegation to assess the security situation in the North. Below is Brig Kenneth Banya (Photo by James Akena) KAMPALA � The captured LRA Commander, Brig. Kenneth Banya, was an escort to Yoweri Museveni in the early 1980s. Brig. Banya captured on Tuesday by the UPDF at Atiak, 60km North of Gulu, escorted Museveni when he was Defence Minister in the Military Commission government chaired by late Paul Muwanga. �Museveni is a very nice man. He is frank. He does not hide his feelings,� Banya said of his former boss (Museveni) in an interview with The Monitor in Gulu yesterday. Banya, 70, was a member of the LRA High Command and military advisor to LRA�s chief Joseph Kony. A US delegation led by the country�s ambassador, Jimmy Kolker, met Banya. The captive is a former Uganda National liberation Army (UNLA) soldier trained in Russia and Israel. In 1977 he fled the country for Tanzania where he trained at Munduli, returning to Uganda as an officer cadet. He was sent to Museveni as one of the guards. Banya who has been on the list of wanted top LRA Commanders said he expected Museveni to pardon him.

� 2004 The Monitor Publications

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