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Etu Brutus..and ceaser was dead! VP worried, under probe | ||||||
| By Monitor Reporter | ||||||
| KAMPALA - Vice President Gilbert Bukenya has said he is the subject of a covert investigation into his wealth by the Inspector General of Government (IGG). Bukenya is very upset about �being continuously investigated behind my back� and believes he is the target of a scheme to bring him down, orchestrated by senior government colleagues. In an interview with The Monitor�s Managing Director, Mr Conrad Nkutu, whom he asked to meet last Saturday at his Kakiri constituency office, Prof. Bukenya said, �While I believe in fairplay, I am getting very frustrated by a continuous investigation aimed at knocking Bukenya, by friendly forces.� �I don�t know their names (the investigators) but it must be the IGG�s office. They went to my house in Kakiri, photographing my cows and pigs! I hope they are photographing animals of other leaders. Otherwise it is not fair. Let them go for every leader who has cows,� said a visibly pained Vice President, who said the investigation had been going on since around February-March this year. �I don�t mind being investigated, but not behind my back! Someone went to my land near Garuga (Entebbe Road), taking pictures. They had no permission. It was trespass. I am very frustrated! My cows are only 10 but others have got thousands. Let us all answer how we acquired it. I have only bibanja (leased land) but others are evicting people from (large) landholdings!� Other sources close to the Vice President said all his assets have been visited and photographed by unknown people.
When asked yesterday about whether and why Bukenya was being investigated, the Inspector General of Government, Ms Faith Mwondha, disclaimed knowledge of such an investigation. But when she was told about the extensive photographing of the Vice President�s property, Ms Mwondha said, �Oh, those photographs? But these MPs! They are the ones who make the laws. It is provided for in the Leadership Code Act that we verify their wealth declarations. We have done so for over 50 ministers in respect of their 2002 declarations.� She added: �But we go there with their consent. For example when our people went to inspect (Security Minister) Betty Akech�s property, she quarrelled with them and declined to cooperate saying �I am not a thief. There are many thieves in government, go and look at those ones!� I think the VP is being unfair. The investigators must have got permission from somebody.� Asked why the VP�s property was photographed without his knowledge, she answered, �But why didn�t the VP call me before contacting the press? He has access to me. There is no ill-intention. It is them (MPs) who made the law. Even the donors are on us saying we are not complying. I am not happy with the VP. It is unfair!� Bukenya told Nkutu that he had intended to meet the IGG on Monday this week to discuss the matter. But Mwondha said she only returned from abroad on Monday evening. The Vice President was unequivocal in his conclusion that the IGG�s investigation is part of a secret scheme by senior colleagues to undermine his standing with the public and the President, which he said he would not take it lying down. �If there is no fairplay, I will expose all those (with wealth amassed and invested) in Kololo, Nakasero and Bugolobi (posh suburbs of Kampala),� he said. �Unless their houses and cows are also being photographed . My father bequeathed me his kibanja. They are saying �where is the receipt?� Photographing my oranges, pawpaws and mangoes!� Bukenya went on to cite a series of events that he said amounted to a clear conspiracy against him. �There is a pattern of undermining me, but an intelligent one,� he said. �When I was appointed Vice President, the President asked me to look after mobilisation and poverty eradication. When I started the upland rice scheme, they thought it was stupid. When it boomed, they said I was destroying wetlands. They didn�t know this rice grows on hills. Now, the rice is on demand everywhere, with MPs lining up at my door for the seeds.� He added: �They engineered phone calls to radio stations and letters to newspaper editors against me. This is internal decampaigning by people amongst us!� Bukenya declined to name those scheming against him but reliable sources told The Monitor that a senior government minister who is very close to th e President has been paying money to NRM political operatives to phone into radio talkshows with negative comments about the Vice President. �When I was abroad recently, they went to my bankers, DFCU, asking for my accounts. �I have a loan account there. Why do they do this investigation without telling me?� exclaimed the VP. �Let them investigate everybody, starting with my boss, then me, ministers and all (military) commanders.� The Vice President�s concerns about a plot to undermine him from within government go far beyond matters concerning his wealth and raise serious questions about the political relationship between him and President Museveni. �They forged stories to the President that thrice a week, I meet the Cardinal at 2am (Bukenya is a Catholic), yet I have never sought audience with the Cardinal,� he said. �Then they said that when I hold public meetings, I only meet Catholics. Yet when I once did a roll-call, there were more Protestants th an Catholics. This too, was reported to the President!� The VP said Museveni had asked him about his relationship with the Cardinal �at length, face-to-face. He (Museveni) was �exploring� but dismissed it and went to other issues.� The Monitor learnt that reports to Museveni also alleged a suspiciously close relationship between the VP and the Kabaka of Buganda. �Museveni has never been a bad person to me but there are people who want to see me weakened and maybe removed,� Bukenya said. Asked who was scheming against him, the VP declined to name them. However reliable sources said that every time Bukenya is reported adversely to the President, the names of two senior cabinet ministers and one female minister of state come up consistently. The lady minister of state enjoys a very close personal relationship with the Cabinet ministers named. The Monitor was subsequently told by reliable sources that the President�s Private Secretary for Political Affairs, Mr Moses Byaruhanga, wrote a confidential report to Museveni alleging that the VP was building a personal political powerbase amongst Catholics and Baganda, which report raised questions about Bukenya�s loyalty. Museveni later discussed the report with Bukenya who affirmed his loyalty. The VP said, �The President was told �the rice is nothing. That Bukenya is drumming up support for his own power base.� What helped me is that in most places, the rice beneficiaries have been the President�s own people in the liberation war areas. He later told me to take the rice to Semuto and other areas. But people around him have been telling him all manner of allegations against Bukenya.� Asked about the Byaruhanga report, Bukenya said �Museveni must have found it to be hot air.� But reports to the President about the VP apparently continued to flow. �They told him I was favouring my ADC (Aide de Camp), a Muganda officer because of his tribe. But he had been given to me by PGB (the Presidential Guard Brigade). I do not select security for myself. And really what is the problem if he is a Muganda? An ADC must be a confidant!� said Bukenya. The Monitor later learnt that subsequently, a team of police guards turned up at the VP�s home and announced to him that they had been sent to take over his security from the Presidential Guard Brigade. Bukenya declined to accept them because he had not been notified by PGB and asked them to leave. They were never heard of again. The President also reportedly received a report saying his deputy was engaging in covert contacts with senior Baganda military officers. �We went to Kaberamaido for rice tours. When we returned to Soroti, I was told that [the Late] Col. Sula Semakula (a former Commander of the eastern-based 3rd Division) wants to see me. It was at night. I said no. I don�t want to see people at night. I refused,� Bukenya said. �The next day, as I was having breakfast, I said �let him come.� We talked for less than 10 minutes. He was paying a courtesy call and asked for help with a job for a child who had just finished university. He had another child he wanted taken to South Africa by the government for medical treatment. This was around November 2004.
n Negative reports about me have been sent to Museveni by a senior State House aide n Three senior ministers are undermining me before Museveni n Suspicion over alleged links with Baganda army officers n Why is the IGG investigating me behind my back? n Why are they photographing my pawpaws and mangoes? n Let them investigate every other leader and photograph their cows n I can spill beans over their questionable wealth n Why? Why? Why? I want fairplay |
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