Kitatta’s arrest puts spotlight on Gen Kayihura

A year ago while at a function in Kyengera, Abudallah Kitatta, the incarcerated leader of the Boda Boda 2010 did the unthinkable.

Gen Kale Kayihura, the police chief was speaking about community policing and why it is important for the security of communities.

Kitatta then emerged from the shadows and without any warning, grabbed the microphone from him. Under normal circumstances, Kitatta would have been immediately carted away by Kayihura’s security detail.

Instead, they stood still and remained rooted in one spot as Kitatta warned to deal with anybody who is planning to cause chaos.

He then handed the microphone back to Kayihura. The arrest of Kitatta over the weekend has inevitably put the spotlight on Kayihura, the police chief who has time and again defended the activities of Boda Boda 2010.

Just last week, Kayihura told Parliament the group had been instrumental in fighting riots in the city after the 2016 elections. He emphasised that Boda Boda 2010 was not a criminal group.

The group last year beat up pupils of a primary school, a crime preventer and police officer who were escorting them to a police function in Entebbe but no action was taken against it.

Kayihura instead said the director of the school told him no pupil was beaten.

Therefore, the arrest of Kitatta, who is also the NRM chairman for Rubaga division and his members by the military is a slap in the face for Kayihura, who for long has been a shrewd political operator for President Museveni.

 

Just last year, the military arrested some of his close confidants in the police force including Nixon Agasiirwe and Joel Aguma who are facing kidnap charges in the army court.

Some analysts said this was a clear sign that Kayihura’s wings were being clipped.

Speaking at the vigil of the slain police spokesperson, AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi, President Museveni said the force is littered with criminals who needed to be weeded out.

However, Museveni, months later, went ahead to renew Kayihura’s contract making him the longest serving police chief in the country’s post independence history.

This could have been interpreted to mean that the president still had great faith in Kayihura, whom he described as a "loyal cadre" at the burial of the Brig Noble Mayombo in May 2007.

Yet in the same breath, another reputed security operative Lt Gen Henry Tumukunde was pulling strings from the background.

Tumukunde and Kayihura have never been the best of friends and increasingly, they have fought for influence within the security turf and for Museveni’s ear.

That is why some people have pointed out that the weekend arrests of Boda Boda 2010 members which was partly carried out by intelligence agencies who are supervised by Tumukunde, were a show of who between the the two men has more clout.

Ordinarily, investigations and arrests of such nature would have to be carried out by the police force but the involvement of the military and security agencies brings in another perspective.