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Gen. Abel Kandiho sacrificed to aid Museveni, Kagame reconciliation
The Feared Maj. Gen. Abel Kandiho
Rwandan strong man Gen. Paul Kagame had prior to Maj.Gen. Abel Kandiho’s removal from the helm of Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) been complaining about him ‘arresting’ and ‘torturing’ his countrymen and women ‘using’ fabricated charges such as espionage.
CMI’s arrest of Victoria university’s Vice Chancellor Dr. Lawrence Muganga at the beginning of September last year only served to negatively complicate those already complicated matters.
To make matters worse, CMI operatives stormed the varsity premises along Jinja road in Kampala in a war-like manner and went on to grab the top academic as if he was your typical chicken thief.
To add salt to injury, CMI went on to allege how Muganga was spying for Rwanda besides lying that he lacked Ugandan citizenship.
But they swallowed their words when documentary evidence proving he is actually Ugandan were found on him.
Kigali has exploited such gaffes by CMI to drum up the case that Kampala actually ostracizes it’s people using made-up charges.
And for that matter, Kigali has been closing its doors for two years now to Kampala to stop its nationals from coming to Uganda and potentially turn into torture victims inside ‘torture chambers’ manned by CMI on top of punishing Uganda for ‘facilitating’ dissidents fighting to topple Kagame
Kagame had even issued travel bans to his people coming to Kampala to work, do business, visit and also to study by claiming how they risk the wrath of the CMI operatives.
Such has been the toughness off those travel bans that security in Kigali has sometimes been shooting and killing those caught breaching them.
Kampala has been similarly blaming Rwanda for ‘propelling’ dissidents working to topple Museveni.
Proof
Circumstancial evidence suggests that President Kagame exploited the latest meeting he held with Land’s forces Commander, Lt. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba to bring up the issue and possibly asked the First Son to ask Museveni to act upon it for the sake of repairing their strained relations.
First of all, President Museveni, who is the Commander in Chief of all Armed Forces had not complained whatsoever publically about ‘incompetence’ related issued on part of Kandiho.
In fact, he had seemed to be at peace with him even when he was sanctioned by the Americans.
This certainly is at variance with the case of Gen Edward Kale Kayihura. The President before firing Kale as the police chief, had openly castigated him for giving miscreants such as Abdu Kitatta of the infamously and unexcusably forgotable Boda boda 2010 a free entry to the police force and for allowing them to staff the police with hundreds of their Ilk and for merely looking on as they were taking the center in the force as well as used the rare and dubious chance to wreck havoc.
Take also the example of Gen Kaka Bagyenda. Museveni sent the former ISO boss packing after accusing him of using torture to extract evidence from innocent people thereby painting his administration in mafioso colors.
Several people had also complained that about how ISO had converted into an extortionist unit and a blackmailer for arresting innocent Ugandans and granting them freedom only and only upon criminally milking them out of money.
One needs not to bother himself interrogating the firing of Grace Akullo as the CIID boss in police. She was living on borrowed time and dangeously so to add, as the top-tier police detective. She also knew quite well it was a matter of time, not if, before Museveni swung the axe.
It has been Museveni’s long held position that police work much more better when under the tutelage of the military. And so, Museveni substituted Akullo with a certain military guy of his.
No sooner had Muhoozi alighted from the Uganda Airlines plane on return to Uganda, than the President shuffled Gen. Kandiho, sending him to Juba. The timing of the changes suggests that the issue must have come up during the Kigali meeting and Museveni asked to do the needful.
But Museveni subsequently shuffled other security officers? Well, the pundits insist and offer the commander-in-chief did so because he is pretty too smart to easily allow any Tom, Dick and Harry to pick his mind regarding such big decisions.
What is undeniable above all is the fact that Museveni has been working hard to get Kagame accept to deal with him again.
The President has attempted every trick under the sun including direct talks with Kagame, using third parties to talk to Kagame on his behalf and maintaining silence amidst all manner of provocation from Kigali to lure Kagame back to the fold.
“The lives of Rwandans being tortured and threatened and the security of our country certainly take precedence over the opening of the boarders”, Kigali’s First Son has been stating things akin to those whenever he had occasion to speak about these matters.
Whilst Kagame on the surface showed signs of aloofness, he has been deep down in heart progressively and seriously mulling over the repercussions of his aloofness.
This, more so, after Museveni chose to progressively and evidently isolate Kagame by working more with Nairobi and Dar looking to increasingly exploit their advantageous passage to the seas and ports to facilitate trade through quicker, efficient and unreasonably encumbered movement of goods and people.
Museveni is as well teaming up with Kinsasha to build a network of roads that would be subsequently used to facilitate trade and commerce between the two neighbors and beyond as opposed to continuously dating an indifferent as well as estranged Kagame.
To this end, Kampala and Kinsasha are jointly using the military Shuja operation involving Russia-made military jets to comb the forests and mountains for ADF rebels purposely to kill, maim or have them surrender at long last on the way to engaging in lucrative business mutually beneficial to both countries.
Such has been the seriousness exhibited by Museveni in these matters that he has been using his favorable cloat as the most senior leader in the region to rally member states to allow Kinsasha and even Juba to the East African Community high table.
Museveni by this, is essentially laboring to create a bigger market for the member states, give a bigger cloat militarily to the region and also a bigger, weighty as well as deafening voice when it comes to negotiating with Europe and the rest of the world.
As Museveni continues to work with DRC and gets accepted as a caring and dependable neighbor, Kagame is on the other hand, quickly and dangerously turning into a big loser.
Rwanda is being looked at inside Kinsasha as an aggressor and one of the key sponsors of militants negatively operating there in the hopes of prolonging the long-standing and very costly insurgency in order to continue plundering the country’s exceedingly enormous natural wealth and also create a vessel state in Kinsasha answerable as well as obedient to it.
All the above combined are working positively and in Museveni’s favor whilst forcing Kagame to drop his belligerent posture and hence turn into a cooperative and reliable neighbor.
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