Dear RadioKatwe and fellow Ugandans,

During and after Mayombo's memorial service, I met a number of senior UPDF and intelligence officials who are in the know of what may have led to the fallout between our "Great Visionary" Y. T. Museveni and his one time alleged blue eyed servant Noble.

First an important note. As Officers and men of the UPDF, our high regard and respect for our fallen colleague cannot be over stated. Our collective wish is to abide by Rev. Rabwoni's request to let Mayombo rest in peace. Under other circumstances, this would also be our wish as members of the Armed Forces. Nothing can bring him back.

However, silence may also have its heavy price. Our suffering in silence may encourage Museveni to continue eliminating honest Ugandans and Africans at large in his increasingly mad desire for raw power and greed. Because of the previously covert nature of his actions, a mistake often made by those unfamiliar with Museveni's mode of operation is to under-estimate the extent to which he will go to achieve his vile objectives.

There are at least two main conflicting issues driving us. One, is that a report claiming to contain the definitive account of how and why the late Mayombo died has been completed, though the public had better not hope to ever see it for themselves. The second fact is that for those of us who have access and have seen what happened, it is based on fake evidence. The report therefore is a classic case of answering the wrong question, correctly.

One of Museveni's strange habits is to make big announcements soon after a crime, which statements in retrospect have a misleading effect on investigations. He did it after the Garang crash, at Mayombo's funeral and more recently after the fire at Budo Junior school.

The talk of Noble being the victim of "a hit squad organised by a regional enemy" was pure fiction and he knows it. From what is known in our circles, all the official stories are absurd and designed to mislead, rather than establish facts and bring closure to this sad episode.

The choice before us is do we let what in our view amounts to propaganda stand as the record of reference? If we had a civilised government, interested parties would have had the choice of challenging the record and investigating the case to their satisfaction. But in a calculated concentration of power, all our government institutions like the courts and investigative bodies have been deliberately destroyed. What passes for justice in Uganda today are the whims of a few powerful individuals.

Much as we are not medical professionals who examined the patient, we are privy to information and events that expose the inconsistensies and lies in the official story. Mayombo's death did not happen on Mars, it occured in a specific environment where the actors are known, and have a track record which can help us trace the truth.

We are not holding our peace, not because we disrespect the wishes of the Rwaboni family, but because a great injustice has been done, it should not be left to stand. We feel very strongly about this. Not speaking out would be like leaving a fallen colleague on the battlefield.

So as the debate continues on who and what killed Mayombo, and what happened or did not happen, we owe it to the country to inform them about what we as officers know about his thoughts and the circumstances that might have been a factor in this crime. As time passes, more information has become available, more officers and men are coming out to counter the Museveni propaganda machine which can be good at muddying the waters when he chooses to use it.

Museveni is extremely adroit in the use of propaganda, and a shameless teller of naked lies. For instance, Ugandans can see that of late, he has taken to writing "angry" letters to his cabinet ministers warning them about corruption, theft of public funds and non delivery of public services. In the latest case, Ugandans are supposed to be favorably impressed that Yoweri Museveni, who has for well over 15 years now presided over, aided, abetted and personally benefitted from grand theft in the Ministry of Health, Yoweri the ring leader, the godfather of sophisticated fraud networks, has suddenly woken up to the cries of our people who have been dying in their thousands everyday all these years for lack of simple medicines?!

Is this the same Museveni who has placed eyes and ears on every street corner, from the parking attendant to the office cleaner, from the village chief to embassy staff busy spying on each other in our foreign missions, is this the same man who is now claiming to have just heard what Ugandans have been crying about in the media all these years? He now wants to play the part of the injured boss, hurt and betrayed by disloyal members of his team (cabinet), who have been deviously keeping vital information from him? Oh, how touching! The boldness with which he tells lies would be funny, were it not so offensive and insulting.

This is why we feel that even at the risk of offending the Rwabonis, the bigger mistake would be to keep quiet, instead of speaking up and exposing the dark deeds of this snake who takes on the likeness of a "white dove". The benefit both to the living - the international community and Ugandans in particular, and to the memory of the dead is far greater if we speak, than let things be.

So, for those who talk to the family of the Late Afande and our father Mzee Rev. Rwabowni, we beg for patience and understanding as we expose this devil among us. We know it is for the good of those who will outlive us to tell the story. We want to make Uganda a better place for all of us, and future generations, not just for one man and his family plus the few cronies hanging around him.

As mentioned above, from my discussions with fellow officers after the memorial service, contrary to what some UPDF officers and many Ugandans think or thought, Yoweri and Noble had fallen out much earlier, as far back as 2001. This was of course kept away from the public, but it had become apparent to many senior officers both in the UPDF and intelligence circles as we shall see below.

Incidentally, a comment on the earlier report "Open letter to the Rwaboni family" of May 2 by another officer, some other senior officers who read that article about the four people mentioned (who knew that Mayombo was to be eliminated), expressed the view that the number should be revised to six. Their thinking is that Salim Saleh and Amama Mbabazi may have also been informed and knew of the plot to eliminate Noble since according to them, there was a meeting at the Kisozi ranch of the four mentioned previously (Yoweri Museveni, General David Tinyefuza, Major Muhoozi Keinerugaba, Col. Leo Kyanda) plus these two, bringing the total to six. No one has yet come forward as being privy to the details of that meeting and reasons why it took place, but it came 3 days prior to Noble falling sick.

Given what those of us with far reaching experience with the man know about him, any of the long running conflicts over various issues between Noble and Museveni was a perfect ground for murder. This silent war took place well beyond the purview of the general public and even the majority of UPDF officers, who continued to believe the myth of a special bond between the two.

Therefore, below, I bring you summaries of the most common informed opinions put forth by senior officers during our casual talks. We hope they give you a sense of the atmosphere in which Noble worked, and which eventually took his life.

Escape of Kizza Besigye and his second arrest:

According to the our colleagues who were very close to Mayombo, Museveni never forgave both Brig. Mayombo (RIP) and Brig. Henry Tumukunde for he thought one or both of them my have alerted Besigye of the plot to have him arrested in 2000. It is believed Museveni to this day remains convinced that one of them was involved in Besigye's subsequent escape to his brief exile in South Africa.

Most people always suspected Henry may have been the one who alerted him but Museveni did suspect that Mayombo was also highly involved and may have been the one who informed Besigye of his pending arrest.

According to these officers, Museveni had informed Mayombo of his desire to see Besigye "dead" and expressed his worries to the young man, saying Besigye may prove to be a bigger problem come the 2006 elections. So it would be better to deal with him early, than wait and be overtaken by circumstances later. According to his friends, Mayombo objected to that and Museveni was not happy with him.

The Congo War:

Ugandans may also wish to remember the Congo War (so called "African World War") because of the number of countries that were involved.

After the death of Kabila (senior), efforts were made to broker a peace deal between the various warring parties i.e. Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi on one side, Congo, Angola, Chad, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Namibia on the other. Mayombo was heavily involved in the discussions with the respective Generals in the region.

During these discussions, it is reported that most of the Generals came to admire the intelligent young Brigadier and always chose him to chair meetings despite the fact that senior Generals were in attendance at these peace talks.

One time, these generals from the various countries visited Uganda to meet with our own "Lion of Rwakitura", the one and only General Yoweri T. "Kaguta" Museveni. They were accomodated at the Nile hotel, now Serena hotel.

During the discussions with the allegedly "fearless" General Yoweri, many of these general were taken aback by the shallowness their host brought to the negotiating table. Later on, word leaked to Museveni that some of them had been heard wondering how an intelligent young man like Noble could bear to work with what a Namibia General described as a man who approached the problem at hand with the attitude of an "armed robber"!

At dinner time and later while having a drink at the hotel, some of these Generals were heard openly asking Mayombo if Museveni was a real General or just another "paper General" like Amin, considering that he did not seem to know what he was talking about much of the time.

According to Mayombo, one of the Generals from Zimbabwe pinned him asking why with all his intelligence, he was on the same side with the likes of evil selfish men like Jonas Savimbi (RIP), yet he claimed that he (Mayombo) was a Pan Africanist?

As they departed for their rooms after perhaps having one bottle too many, the Namibian General joked that one day, he hoped to meet a "President Mayombo" since Uganda deserved a better leader.

General Elections of 2001:

You will all remember the fiasco caused by Mayombo in 2001 when he tried to arrest his brother Okwir Rabwoni at the Airport with Besigye.

This incident irked not only the Rwaboni family but the Batoro at large. Mayombo received a lot of curses from his own people and this particular incident haunted him till his death.

Close family friends approached the young Mayombo and told him he was being used by a power hungry dictator.

Many of his own people mentioned that because of that one day during his career, it would always be remembered that he had sold his brother for money, and brought disrespect to the Rwaboni family in favour of a "Rwandese".

It should be said in retrospect that Mayombo had learnt his lesson though.

General Elections of 2006:

During these elections of 2006, Mayombo took a markedly low key and did not come out openly in support of Museveni, or get involved in the arrest of Kizza Besigye.

In private, he would mention that all Museveni knew was to kill and steal and he was not willing to continue carrying his cross.

According to one senior officer, during a certain heated radio talk show in which Kizza Besigye was participating, Museveni forced Mayombo to go and respond to Besigye, and make all types of allegations on his relationship with PRA.

Mayombo as ADC:

Over the course of our casual discussions, I must say whereas I have been in intelligence for over twenty years and have no illusions about the first family, I was surprised by the depth and extent of the hatred officers have for the so called "Kaguta" family. Even officers in the PGB, UPDF, ISO, ESO etc one would never suspect, have very few kind words for this family. But on a little reflection, this is not so surprising. Because it is hard to imagine how someone who has even a small glimpse into what these people are really like, can retain any respect for them. With few exceptions, people around them just put on their best loyal face to keep body and soul together.

But we can for the moment, regard these as "outsiders" who do not really know what is going on. Let us therefore hear it from one who has been as close to Museveni and his family as you can get without actually being a family member.

Often, Museveni was a most unreasonable boss, demanding his ADC Mayombo to perform tasks which are so menial and demeaning that I shall not mention them here.

But one of the people least expected not to like the "Great Revolutionary" and "Fount of Honor" told us of a conversation he had held over a drink with Mayombo, in which he revealed that as ADC, having quite literally lived with the Museveni's, he had come face to face with a person who had sunk so low, losing any sense of ordinary humanity, and whose love for raw power was so extreme that it was hard to describe. People, rulers love power but the "son" of Amos Kaguta is something else. You had to see for yourself to believe. And worse, he has the personality of what Mayombo termed a "mukopi".

Mayombo is reported to have expressed his disgust at the entire family, including the wife and children. In his anger, using very harsh words like "first and foremost the stupidest and most greed people one can ever think of", and remarked that if this - stealing, grabbing and killing people is all it takes to be president, then he would be a better president.

He came to privately despise the family so much that when weddings started happening, he used to wonder why anyone would want to marry into that family.

It is said by one of the officers that he may have advised one Sabitti against marrying one of the daughters for this sake of his children.

Mayombo as PS for Defence:

When Mayombo was appointed Permanent Secretary Ministry of Defence, just after one year, he mentioned to one of the officers narrating the story that he found Museveni to be "a thief of the lowest form".

According to Mayombo, Museveni and his family were not only the sole suppliers of military hardware - we all knew that, but were into supplying beans and posho at very inflated price and always demanded to be paid in advance yet delivery was sporadic and always partial.

He once mentioned according to this officer, that during Christmas or any other day when soldiers are served meat, all the cattle had to be purchased from the farms of the great leader at almost 3 times the cost of the highest supplier. Furthermore, in all cases, the cattle supplied were either sick or old. In other words, Museveni used these ocassions to get rid of "dead stock" at incredible personal profit.

Even with all his previous experiences with the first family, Mayombo just could not cope with the scale and depravity of the corruption he was witnessing as PS, more so from a man who in public, proudly claims from the tallest podium he can find, that the army belongs to him, that he is the one who has managed to bring discipline and professionalism to the armed forces.

Each time purchase requests were taken to the PS for approval, he always used to joke that "one day, Ugandans will have to buy the air they breathe".

One time after returning from a trip to inspect the Lockheed C-130 aircraft which was being repaired in South Africa, Mayombo mentioned that Yoweri was working overtime devising all tricks in the book to steal this asset considered one of its kind in Uganda. He discovered Museveni had at some point contacted a shadowy "mafia" group reportedly based in Brazil to come and buy the plane as "scrap"!

The Death of John Garanga:

A senior ESO officer who was part of the discussion brought in a very interesting angle when he said that Mayombo's death should not be viewed in isolation from the earlier death of the SPLA/M leader, Dr. John Garanga (RIP).

According to the officer, Mayombo told him that the SPLA was using Ugandan End User Certificates to procure arms on the international market.

Together with the Sudanese Government, the SPLA was at one time covered by a blanket arms sanctions. Mayombo reportedly said part of the money which the SPLA got from sharing oil revenues would be channelled to a special account in Uganda, which would then be used to procure arms, uniforms, and other necessary logistics for SPLA using our (Ugandan) end user certificate.

During his time as PS, Mayombo was privy to this special account and mentioned that over US$30 million per month was being channelled by SPLA to this account, to help them procure military materiel.

However as always, the "Great Leader" had secretly hatched a scheme to siphon off these funds by inflating invoices to a very alarming rate whenever purchases were done.

At one time, the SPLA wanted to buy equipment including 20 pieces of overhauled T-62 tanks and guns from Ukraine at a cost of US$35 million including amunition, but Museveni using his contacts inflated the cost to US$ 105 million (thats a 300% increase). The incredible prices caused suspicion and later angered Garang when he found out what was happening. Remember this is a man who up to now goes around singing that he is liberating black Africans from the Arabs in Khartoum yet in reality is liberating them from their pockets.

The dirty scams later came to light and the late Garanga could take it no more, and decided to confront the armchair general.

According to Mayombo, Museveni later summoned him and angrily accused him of "gossiping" with the SPLA Chief of Staff one Lt-General Deng Ajak.

The rest as the say is history.

Deaths in the PGB:

Prior to his death, Mayombo hinted to some army officers close to him and family that many of his friends in PGB had been killed and he feared for his own life.

Major Muhoozi:

Contrary to what many people thought, these two were friends on the outside but actually Mayombo deeply despised Muhoozi and in unguarded moments, was often heard to comment that "this fool" can only command his father's cows.

He always wondered how he had managed to graduate from the various prestigious military and academic institutions he had been pushed into by his father.

According to another officer, one evening he was at Mayombo's house watching a video of Muhoozi's graduation ceremony from Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, which was attended by Museveni himself. During the entire programme, Mayombo was sneering and pitying Ugandans should they have the misfortune of having what he kept referring to as "the fool" become president one day.

Fellow Ugandans, we thought we knew the reasons why our colleague was killed but talking to other senior officers gives you other versions of the story. In addition to what I have written before, it could have been combination of any these factors, or something else that will come out ater. So, please you can take up what you like and discuss, while keeping an open mind.