How Kayihura, Tumukunde egos led to their downfall

On Sunday evening, president Museveni dropped Gen.Kale Kayihura as the Inspector General of Police and Lt.Gen. Henry Tumukunde as the security minister.

It is reported that the bad blood between the two started in 2005 while Kayihura who was then a brigadier, led a 50-man force to arrest Brig . Tumukunde over his remarks while appearing on a local radio before being detained at Kololo officers’ mess.

In 2016, Tumukunde was appointed the security minister and this meant he was the boss to Kayihura and to many the two were sworn enemies who could not work together and this has come to pass.

During the wave of women murders in Nansana and Entebbe areas of Wakiso, the bad blood between the two UPDF generals became visible.

In one incident where Tumukunde announced he was going to visit Entebbe for a fact finding mission on the murders, his nemesis would summon boda boda riders and sex workers to Kigo marine base from where he pledged support to them.

All police officers were also withdrawn from the area before Tumukunde arrived. This to many was seen as a slap in the face of the security minister by Kayihura.

For Tumukunde hoped to atleast get some useful intelligence information from some of these groups because they on many occasions operate at night and the women in the area were always murdered at night.

Police, army fight

The fist fight between the army and the police was another platform for both generals to show their might towards each other.

Last year, the police and ISO clashed at the home of Mbabazi Muhoza, a lady believed to be a girlfriend to the slain police spokesperson AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi in Lungujja, Rubaga division in Kampala district in a show of might between the two security agencies.

This was arguably the first public fight between the two generals, Kayihura and Tumukunde.

The fights would later escalate and led to the arrest of members of Kayihura’s inner circle including; the former commander of Special Operations Unit Nixon Agasiirwe and PSU commander Joel Aguma and other junior police officers by CMI and later charged with kidnap of lt.Joel Mutabazi, the former bodyguard to Rwanda president Paul Kagame.

There was another incident in which Paddy Sserunjogi aka Sobi a robber was arrested by police for appearing on NBS television and confessed to have worked with some police officers to engage in criminal activities.

Police swung into action and arrested Sobi from Kyengera before detaining him at Nalufenya detention centre in Jinja district.

Before coming to confess about his past relationship with some police officers , there had been a cold war between police and ISO(directly under control of the security minister) on who uses Sobbi.

Sobbi had dumped police for ISO whom he was working with to crack down on criminals.

His later arrest was a public manifestation of the fight between the two on who wielded more power over him. Later, Sserunjoji was later released from Nalufenya and given army guards.

Kitatta and boda boda 2010

Boda boda 2010 and its patron, Abdalla Kitatta became the new frontline for the police boss and the security minister.

Kitatta and his group were loyal to Kayihura and had showed this by causing chaos at the Makindye chief magistrate’s court where they blocked his trial over brutality.

The Inspector General of Police also openly defended Kitatta and his group for helping police in fighting crime in the city especially thwarting opposition protests.

“He is a leader of boda boda riders that is how I know him, his group helps us curtail crime among boda boda riders. You remember during the 2011 walk to work protests? He is the one who helped us neutralise many of those boys that Opposition had recruited,”Kayihura told MPS.

Meanwhile, the security minister had earlier tried to organize and register boda boda riders but his efforts met resistance from Kitatta’s men who blasted him (Tumukunde) as not having business in registering boda bodas.

Speaking during the NBS Morning Breeze, Tumukunde vowed to crack the whip on boda boda 2010 which he said had become menace disguising as doing security work whereas not.

“We are going to attach more serious charges to some of these people. We cannot afford to allow lawlessness and this is a warning to them,”Tumukunde said.

The arrest of Kitatta and 12 other members of his group by the army was seen by many as being part of Tumukunde’s efforts to crack the whip on Kayihura’s loyals.

Speaking at the Police Senior Staff and Command College in Bwebajja, Wakiso district, Kayihua indirectly attacked his nemesis, Tumukunde as not being clean either.

He said those witch-hunting police are not clean either.

The fight between Gen.Kayihura and Lt.Gen.Tumukunde also drew the attention of president Museveni who warned them against the bickering.

“They (security agencies) are not the ones fighting but their heads and we shall not allow it. This should end because they are meant to fight the enemy and not themselves,”Museveni said in Luganda while responding to a question from journalists at the Kawumu Presidential demonstration farm in Luweero district