Museveni-regime attempts to deflect attention to Rwanda amidst fallout from Kabuleta abduction

The Museveni regime – caught in a public outcry following the arrest of Kampala pastor Joseph Kabuleta, whom CMI kidnappers abducted on Friday and took him to an unknown location – is now blaming Rwanda.

Some Museveni-regime misinformation organs like the “TrumpetNews” website have began spreading rumors that “Kabuleta is being paid by Rwanda.” As usual when Museveni is caught in his own malfeasance the easiest scapegoat is Kigali, knowledgeable people have observed.

Already the public blowback in the wake of Kabuleta’s high-handed treatment is coming thick and fast with a wide cross-section of Ugandans saying “enough is enough with this thuggery!” Kabuleta, a well-respected Ugandan journalist-turned pastor; a man widely admired for telling the truth about the criminality of the Museveni regime (he called Museveni a gambler, thief and liar in a recent Facebook post) was accosted in a restaurant at Forest Mall in the Lugogo neighborhood.

A few days before, in a lengthy posting on his social media accounts – first Facebook, the Twitter – the outspoken man denounced the creeping “Muhoozi project”.

For anyone that might not know, the “Muhoozi project” is a long-term plan by President Museveni and his wife Janet Museveni to turn Uganda into a monarchy. It has long been an open secret in Uganda that the devious ruler and his spouse have been grooming their son Muhoozi Kainerugaba to take over and become president when Museveni expires. The Muhoozi project infuriates Ugandans like few other things.

The signs are very obvious. The young Muhoozi joined UPDF in 2000, and has rocketed up the ranks since – he is a Lieutenant General now, at 45! Anyone that knows anything about military hierarchies will be aware a rank like that even during a time of warfare is not one to easily get. It is earned over years of diligent hard work, gradual promotion, proving oneself in the line of duty again and again, until perhaps around an age closer to 60 than 40, then one might get it.

No one knows what Muhoozi has ever done in the military to become a general, except turn up in a luxury, air conditioned SUV, put on a uniform and pretend to line up with others. He was made head of Special Forces Command. Museveni was desperately trying to fashion the son into a leader. But everyone knew others were doing the work in the name of Muhoozi. This is logical.

Joseph Kabuleta knows Muhoozi, and Museveni’s family very well. He was a member of the cohort of Muhoozi’s group. In short he was a trusted Munyankore that they wanted to join UPDF, in the “Muhoozi’s secret group” – an army within an army, whose loyalty would be to Muhoozi more than anyone else. They are the young Bahima in the Special Forces. They have privileges no one else in UPDF has.

But Kabuleta knew from the first day what was going on, and his conscience refused him to be part of a group, and part of a plan that would turn Uganda into a monarchy. Kabuleta has been detailing these things on his Facebook and Twitter accounts. In his most recent post – the one that got him arrested – he came out very hard against the Muhoozi Project.

Kabuleta decried it not only as wrong and a crime against Uganda, he also expressed horror that “a person as dull, as uninspiring, as lacking in leadership qualities as this fellow Muhoozi” could be in line to inherit the presidency. It came as no surprise a few says later when unidentified men in civilian attire entered the restaurant where Kabuleta was having a meal with friends, dragged him out as he protested and resisted, and sped off with him.

The pastor is detained in an unknown place. That is a trademark Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, CMI method. Brig. Gen. Abel Kandiho’s group have turned impunity into a high art. Extra-legal arrests, torture and harassment is what they are best at. That is how they have treated so many innocent Rwandans ever since Museveni adopted his policy of hostility towards Kigali.

A Rwandan that read about how CMI had treated Kabuleta said: “I hope now our Ugandan brothers and sisters; the common ordinary people will see the truth Rwanda has been saying about CMI, ISO and other agencies of Museveni. I hope they will see with their own eyes that the criminality, which has even caused Rwandan officials to strongly warn Rwandans against crossing to Uganda – is real. That it is now affecting prominent Ugandans too!”

The abductors must have imagined that if they abducted Kabuleta, nothing would happen, and life would just go on – which is the case when they victimize Rwandan citizens that have no one to speak for them in Uganda. The public is loudly demanding where they are holding Kabuleta, and why. MP Bobi Wine aka Robert Kyagulanyi is demanding answers. Influential attorneys like Andrew Karamagi said they were willing to stand up for Kabuleta.

“Basing on Janet Museveni’s biography in which she narrates an incident where Yoweri Museveni stole and drunk milk meant for condolences of a bereaved family – an act that satisfies all the legal ingredients of theft – I am ready to give evidence of Kabuleta!” Karamagi wrote on his Twitter account Saturday morning.

It was then that ‘TrumpetNews” stepped in with its tall-tale that “Rwanda is using Kabuleta”. The website wrote that the pastor, “has been receiving funds from Rwanda to facilitate his well-coordinated cyber attack on the First Family particularly Lt. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba”. It goes on with allegations that Kabuleta has a dollar account in one of the banks “whose name was withheld”.

The so-called news website provides no further evidence than that to back its assertions. It shows no details of any transaction from Rwanda. It states no dates at which the alleged monies were received. “It is the usual shameless lying from the Museveni regime, which has a history of always making Rwanda a scapegoat for Museveni’s crimes,” said a Kampala-based observer in a phone interview with this website.

He continued that however much lies TrumpetNews peddled, “every Ugandan knows Kabuleta is just another Ugandan that is completely fed up with the Rwakitura Mafia! Does this Mafia want to tell people that Stella Nyanzi too is ‘an agent of Rwanda’? Or all the other people they have locked up for speaking out against their crimes?”

They are just very scared when someone hits out against the Muhoozi project and come up with these absurd lies, said another Kampala analyst.