News | March 9, 2006
Kimera helped me escape in 2001 - Besigye HUSSEIN BOGERE & MICHEAL SSALI MASAKA THE number of people who know how Dr Kizza Besigye beat the 24-hour intelligence surveillance and fled the country in 2001 has reduced with the deat h of Prince Vincent Kimera.
Besigye told mourners yesterday at the burial of Kimera, that the former vice chairperson of the Forum for Democratic Change for Buganda, helped him to escape.
This is the second time Besigye is dropping hints about his escape since he returned from exile in South Africa on November 14, 2005.
Besigye has since promised to write about his escape.
People are still wondering how I managed to beat the 24-hour intelligence surveillance. People said I was in America; Kimera was in America and his wife. Kimera is one of those who helped me to escape, Besigye told mourners yesterday in Buwunga, Masaka, where the prince was laid to rest.
Besigye described the prince as a very intelligent man, and a man of many talents.
It is really very painful for me to stand here and talk while Vincent is lying there, Besigye said as he pointed to Kimeras casket that lay in the middle of the compound where he was born 62 years ago.
The statement moved Kimeras widow, seated with her children on the opposite side, and she reached out for her handkerchief to wipe away tears.
The FDC leader escaped first to America and then to South Africa where he stayed till his return last year. He claimed he was running away from persecution from the State.
Kimera was an intelligence officer of the Uganda Freedom Movement, which was led by the late Andrew Lutakome Kayiira. He was based in Kenya.
Besigye narrated how he got to know Kimera, who passed away in a South African hospital last week, where he had gone for an operation on his cancer-infested colon.
We have been friends for a long time, but got to know each other better during the Constituent Assembly, Besigye said. Kimera was the CA delegate for Bukoto East, and area MP in the 5th Parliament.
He used to sit on my right hand side. We used to have discussions in the assembly where I realised that we shared the same goal of fighting for de mocracy. By the end of the assembly, we were not only friends but brothers, Besigye said. He described the deceased as a man of humility, trust and sociable.
We have lost as a country. In politics, people only tell you what pleases you yet you are wrong, Besigye who spoke in relatively fluent Luganda continued.
That is the reason we have so many problems. It is because of his uprightness and trust that he disagreed with President Yoweri Museveni. Once you tell him the truth, thats the end of you.
He said if Kimera had remained a Movement sycophant, he would be powerful like many others. But he chose democracy over that, Besigye said. Kimera came from a prominently DP area, it is there fore no wonder that he was the go-between with first Reform Agenda in 2001 and then FDC.Election hindrance
However, because of the sickness, his participation in the presidential race was lukewarm, and it in a way affected FDC, at least according to its leader. It is because of his sickness that we failed to co-operate with DP.
Besigye, however, assured the mourners that Kimeras struggle would not be in vain. We shall support what he has been advancing. We cannot let his cause die, Besigye said.
He also thanked the people of Masaka for the support they have accorded him.
On his part, the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Ssekandi, described Kimera as a man who loved his country and religion. We have really lost a pillar, Ssekandi said.
The mourners were also addressed by the former Katikkiro of Buganda, Mr Joseph Mulwanyamuli Ssemwogerere, who also described Kimera as an upright man.
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