Dear fellow Ugandans and all Radiokatwe readers,

I had said to myself that I should not comment much on the on-going saga between NSSF and Amama Mbabazi, he being an old colleague from our FRONASA days and also a family friend.

However, as a Christian, and a strict upbringing in an upright Bahima family, my conscience compels me to act. In the face of grave, unspeakable dangers and suffering imposed on our country today, I owe it both to God and my fellow Ugandans to speak the truth as I know it.

First, whereas we were recruited into FRONASA in the early 70s by Yoweri (and others who have since past away - may God rest their souls in eternal peace) to fight for freedom and democracy in our land, "the struggle" has turned out to have been but a clever and ambitious cover for a few of our bosses to enrich themselves and their immediate families at the expense of our blood, sweat and lives, not to mention the comensurate pain, intolerable misery, loss and forced backwardness visited upon our fellow Ugandans whom we always claim to have liberated.

Some of us now sit back in regret and even shame as we mourn the life opportunities lost as we gave the best years of our lives to fighting the Amins (RIP) and Obotes (RIP) of this world, who are now increasingly turning out to have been better leaders and nationalists, if only for having never stolen a single cent from the public purse as we have come to find out.

If indeed past leaders like Obote and Amin were that bad, where are the material assets they amassed? How come to this day, their children still beg for handouts and money from the one and only Yoweri "Kaguta" Museveni?

A person like Obote was kicked out of power twice. How come he never stole money the second time round when he was president and Minister of Finance for 5 years (if we are to assume that once bitten, twice shy)? Remember this was after he had experienced almost a decade of very hard and humble times in exile in Tanzania; he was now president, had unfettered access to all the national wealth, the country was at war with the Museveni led insurgency and he knew that there were chances he could end up in exile again?

It is high time Ugandans started asking themselves serious, sober questions and engaged in critical reflection, as opposed to blindly following the common dictum these days that all that matters in life is becoming "rich" (whatever the means), or "studying hard" if you are a student.

So as we dispatch our pork ribs, enjoy our Bell beers and watch Man-U, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea in the pubs of Ntinda, my prayer is we may also start asking serious questions as to where our so called all time "Revolutionary" is taking this country. Any thinking, responsible citizen should have by now recognised that we are in extraordinary times, our young country sails perilous uncharted waters. It is not a joking matter anymore, better left to "politicians".

Without digressing too much, I just wanted to put you in context on the situation we as FRONASA and NRA/NRM find ourselves in today.

Going back to the main topic of my article today: many Ugandans, NRM members, UPDF and others are asking or wondering why Amama Mbabazi keeps claiming he is the next President, we hear titles like "Super Minister", smooth Operator, "Mr. Clean" etc.

Ugandans keep wondering why this man is commonly perceived as snobish, arrogant, appears untouchable, living above and beyond the laws and rules that bind mere mortals, and always exudes an attitude of superiority to others, even to the Vice President, the Saleh's of this world and sometimes even to Yoweri himself? Who is he?

As I read Katwe last night, one article that caught my eye was "Muhoozi sounds off on Amama's troubles" by one MB (is that you Moses B?) of State House.

This article came close to the truth, but fell short in certain aspects. It was as if the author, MB, pointed the torch in the right direction but didn't turn it on to reveal all the answers to many questions people have concerning the relationship between Amama and Museveni.

Well, for my case, I would first and foremost want to tell fellow Ugandans that Radiokatwe is your only remaining free voice and for us, the security operatives, we consider it the most accurate of what is currently happening in this country called Uganda, that we love and swore to defend, and we do encourage other Ugandans to read it and if possible also contribute, because by now, the rot is every where for all to see.

Having said that, I shall go ahead to pose a number of questions which Ugandans should ponder as they try to establish who Amama is and whether he will remain in his current status quo:

(1) Who is John Patrick Amama Mbabazi commonly called Amama Mbabazi the so-called "Super Minister"?

(2) Where does he come from?

(3) Who are his parents?

(4) Where did he study?

(5) Where and when did one Amama Mbabazi meet and link up with one Yoweri Museveni?

(6) What is the bond between the two men, if one has a background of growing Irish potatoes and the other one claims to have been herding cattle? One can only assume that in those days, cattle loved Irish potatoes!

(7) Amama alleges that he did study law (which he however never practiced), and his "Revolutionary" friend, one Yoweri, claims he is a student of Economics cum-military/revolutionary "correct thinking". One can ask Amama, in the early 70s, did he legally register FRONASA as a political party?

(8) What happened to the rest of the original FRONASA fighters? Ugandans hear of only a few, Yoweri, Ruzindana, Amama, and maybe yours truly. Yoweri loves boasting about the original 27 NRA founders who attacked Kabamba (I hold no grudge but he has a tendency to omit me for his own reasons). Why do Ugandans not ask him about the original founders of FRONASA whom he should be proud of? We all at one time or another used to love the song "The First Cut Is the Deepest" or was it sweetest?

(9) Why has Amama a lawyer always been associated with security and intelligence related work yet he has never set one foot on a battleground, not even peeping there once during the time of FRONASA in the 70s and also Luwero in the 80s?

(10) Ugandans may wish to know in response to question 9 that Amama was the first External Security Organisation (ESO) spy boss, then he took over as Minister of State for Defence, then full Minister of Defence and now a newly created Ministry of Security. What is so special about Amama the lawyer with no military, security or battle experience to speak of that he is entrusted with defence and security related matters at the highest level when we have many capable, highly trained and honest officers who would do a better job?

(11) When Amama was ESO boss, what happened to many members of FRONASA who went to see him with the declared intent of registering in a program for support but now, most are not around to tell us of their contribution to the struggle that allegedly saved Ugandans from Amin and Obote?

(12) What explosive secets are Amama and Yoweri hiding as far as security issues are concerned?

(13) Both being active, leading members of an anti-Amin group FRONASA, why was Amama in Uganda during the 70s while Yoweri was in Tanzania? What is the link to this relationship of the fact that on one end was a former GSU member and the other a former SRB operative?

* The General Service Unit (GSU), was an intelligence agency created by the first Obote government, though in function it was a carry over from the colonial British administration. When Amin overthrew Obote he replaced it with the State Research Bureau (SRB) though in reality it was more of renaming and expanding the GSU. SRB headquarters in Nakasero became the scene of torture and executions over the next several years -- EDITOR.

(14) Why does Amama hold Yoweri at ransom as the First son Muhoozi has also come to notice and realize? (Imagine secrets so powerful that a man of supposedly unrivaled power and ruthlessness like Yoweri is held in check!).

The answers to these questions may be found in the story that appeared on Katwe recently by one MB that I mentioned earlier, but more so, may be linked to the death of two prominent Ugandans: the late Archbishop Janani Jakaliya Luwum murdered on 16 February 1977 and Benedicto Kagima Mugumba Kiwanuka, popularly known as Ben Kiwanuka, the first Prime Minister of Uganda in 1962, leader of the Democratic Party, appointed as the First Ugandan Chief Justice by Amin in 1971. In September of 1972, he was abducted from the Supreme Court building and murdered.
(As a by the way, for those of you who are still young, this is why the invasion and violation of the High Court on 1 March 2007 by Museveni's "Black Mamba" squad evoked such bitter memories).

I will be a bit delicate here, but these two men know a thing or two about these tragic events, and that may be the basis of the blackmail.

As Yoweri loves saying, we must always differentiate between the "author" of the crime and the one who executes the crime. And without allowing much room for error, we can surmise that the relationship between the two is an author-executioner relationship that can be traced back to the early 70s till the time when Amama Mbabazi was removed from ESO after doing away with the remaining core fighters, informers and members of FRONASA (most of whom had by then disbanded and settled in their home villages after we had captured power).

So Yoweri, for better or for worse, on this 15th day of September 2008, the first shoe has dropped.

 15 Aug 2008