When Uganda’s chief of intelligence reported the First Lady for “plotting” to overthrow Museveni

One of the ‘strangest’ intelligence reports in recent times to President Museveni was one in which the intelligence chief and head of Internal Security Organisation Col Frank Kaka Bagyenda accused First Lady Janet Museveni of planning a coup against her husband.

Kaka in 2020, according to highly placed sources wrote a 10-page report to the president, in which he alleged that he was in danger of being overthrown- by his wife.

In the report, Kaka’s team built the plot of the coup through certain elements of the army whom they claimed were loyal to Janet Museveni and were under the command of former Special Forces Command boss Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba.

The report according to Kaka’s team had been obtained based on “internal conversations” obtained from people close to the Presidency.

On reading the report, President Museveni was heard furiously exclaiming: “Ujinga!” (stupidity), before calling Kaka and scolding him.

According to the source, the phone conversation took a very short time, and it was mostly from one end as Museveni continuously wanted to know the methodology of such a report, and Kaka had none.

Kaka, according to another source, didn’t have anything tangible to make the report believable.

Most importantly, he had never heard anything from Janet Museveni or anyone close.

This specific report was the last nail in Kaka’s coffin, as the spy chief is said to overtime had continued to share “concocted reports”.

One such report was the one that led to the arrest of former Inspector General of Police Gen Kale Kayihura and another in which he claimed Lt Gen Proscovia Nalweyiso should not be trusted anymore.

Seasoned journalist Andrew Mwenda is also on record for bashing Kaka's false reports especially regarding Janet Museveni.

Another report from Kaka’s team implicated Maj Gen Jim Muhwezi and Keith Muhakanizi in funding Museveni’s enemies to push him out of power.

Kaka had also irked Museveni with another “bogus report” in which he insisted he had a plan to stop Bobi Wine’s NUP party by using Nkonge Kibalama but the president is said to have dismissed his plan and told him to mind his business.

Internally, President Museveni asked certain sources inside Kaka’s office to investigate their boss with the help of the intelligence unit of the SFC.

On April 4th 2020, an officer inside Kaka’s office,  one Alfred Iduso issued a report to President Museveni on the alarming incompetence of Kaka and his love for fake reports.

Iduso also accused Simon Peter Odong, an ICT expert whose role was to concoct audios implicating people.

Kaka was consequently sacked following a meeting at State House a few months earlier.

Kaka’s time at ISO

Col Kaka Bagyenda was in October 2020 replaced as the Internal Security Organisation Director General to bring to an end his three-year tenure.

He was replaced with Lt Col Charles Oluka who was the former director-in-charge of technical services at ISO during Kaka’s time.

Before being appointed by the president as the head of the country’s internal spy agency, Kaka who was credited for crucial intelligence roles during the National Resistance Army’s liberation war had retired into private business in Kalangala Island.

After only two months of Kaka being in office, the gruesome murder of AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi together with his bodyguards and driver happened, sending shockwaves among the public.

Investigating the murder was one of the first tasks that the new spy chief was tasked to handle in a bid to try to find Kaweesi’s killers but before this development, he had accused police of being part of the country’s security problem.

He consequently arrested several police officers and detained them.

Kaweesi murder investigations

It was reported that Col Kaka’s ISO provided a tip that Kaweesi could have been killed by his colleagues over power struggles.

Investigations implicated several senior police officers and an audio recording shared by ISO operatives tapped into a phone conversation between then Police Chief, Gen Kale Kayihura and then Flying Squad commander Herbert Muhangi about Kaweesi’s murder.

Further investigations and analysis of the audio recording later indicated it had been fabricated.

The investigating team concluded that many of the eyewitnesses and evidence provided by ISO were either fabricated or coached and consequently the investigations collapsed.

Scandals

Meanwhile, it was not long before Col Kaka’s ISO was accused of operating safe houses where suspects it arrested were detained but also tortured as the spy agency allegedly used unorthodox methods to gather information.

MPs on the committee of Human Rights paraded in parliament several victims who accused ISO of torturing them, forcing the legislators to visit several safe houses but were denied entrance.

Speaking in defence, Col Kaka said these were not torture chambers but rather safe houses.

“Those houses are there for keeping those people threatened with death and others whose security is threatened,” he said.

The ISO chief explained that between 2017 and 2018, the intelligence organ had initiated an operation code-named “Dumisha Usalaama” in which over 400 criminals were arrested but noted that six months later, 80 per cent of these people (criminals) had returned to the streets to terrorise the public.

According to Col. Kaka, their investigations found out that the criminals were part of a well-networked syndicate including lawyers, judiciary and police officers noting that these had helped to have the criminals released.

“I said, we could not sit like clowns and watch this happen. We built intelligence positions on these groups and started harvesting the cream or hardcore criminals but at the same had to protect our assets (who gave us information about the criminals),” he said then.

Kaka said it is then that safe houses became more prominent but noted that they are used to protect suspects whose lives are in danger or their assets threatened.

Kidnaps

To add insult to injury, ISO under the leadership of Col Kaka was also accused of masterminding kidnaps and asking for huge sums of money from their victims before being released.

Several people, including journalists, lawyers and businessmen accused operatives from ISO of kidnapping them and the allegations grew day by day during the tenure of Col Bagyenda.

It was also reported that during Col Kaka’s time, ISO gave false intelligence reports to President Museveni, a thing many said didn’t augur nicely with the commander in chief and could have led to his sacking.

The Observer newspaper recently reported that the Executive Director of the Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, said that during his meeting with President Museveni about the issue of human rights in the country, Col. Kaka was a subject of their conversation.

“We mentioned the need for prosecution of those who sanction torture. We mentioned the prosecution of the former ISO commander Colonel Kaka Bagyenda. We asked the president, “If his (Kaka’s) so-called punishment is to be transferred to a cushion job, what kind of signal does that send Mr President? If you say you are against these things (torture and extortion of victims), what signal does this send?” Roth is quoted by the Observer to have said.

“If the president is failing to find a way of prosecuting senior officials who sanction torture, who shall? He (Museveni) said that Kaka shall be prosecuted. Our job now is to follow up on those words and turn them not just into commitments but actions.”

It is said the president promised to take action against Col Kaka.

It remains to be seen if this will come to pass.