Promoted and retired in September 2015 and later singularly reshuffled in 2018, Lt Gen Henry Tumukunde has announced he is weighing a run for president in 2021.
In a February 28 letter to the Electoral Commission, the former security ministry, who played a key role in the felling of the longest-serving former Inspector General of Police Gen Kale Kayihura in 2018, has asked for clearance to consult the electorate in preparation for his nomination as a presidential candidate later this year.
"My consultations will therefore target various interest groups in the country with a view of facilitating my decisions ahead of nominations of presidential candidates slated for October 2020. I will communicate those decisions to the EC as soon as possible in any case during the time frame prescribed in the relevant laws…" the general said in his two-page letter to EC.
"My consultations will extend to the currently existing political groups and/or political parties, security agencies and law enforcement agencies, the rural population especially farmers, urban dwellers, youth, women…I will be consulting on local as well as regional and international security issues, economic development, social cohesion and political harmony…" he said in the letter EC acknowledged receipt of on March 3.
"I join other well-meaning Ugandans to support the fundamental change, which we promised Ugandans in the past and a peaceful transition from one generation to another…While I expect the support that EC can offer me and my team to carry out peaceful consultations as a presidential aspirant, I pray that the statutory mandate of the EC shall be respected by other organs of the state and that there will be harmony throughout this important constitutional exercise," he added.
With this declaration, Gen Tumukunde joins other presidential aspirants who have sought EC's nod of approval to consult the electorate.
They include President Museveni's newest challengers; Timothy Mugerwa, Paul Akileng, Steven Kaweesa, Apostle Israel Sseninde, Joseph Mwanbazi, Moses Amin, John Herbert Nkangabwa, Fred Mwesigye, Tunawooza Makoma and Charles Mutaasa Kafeero.
Kyaddondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi has suffered the harshest brunt of police brutality so far. Every single consultative meeting he has tried to convene has either been blocked or disrupted by police at a very heavy cost.
EC chairperson, justice Byabakama said last week that Section 3 of the Presidential Elections Act allows any Ugandan who wishes to run for president to introduce him or herself to EC and notify the relevant area LC and police. But the guidelines are still hazy.
In July last year, Tumukunde declared his run for Kampala Lord Mayoralty. No one at the time figured that in declaring a mayoral run he was clearing his path for a shot at the presidency.
Between July and December last year, Tumukunde convened a total of 47 meetings around Kampala, mostly with groups of boda boda cyclists that were opposed to the disgraced and jailed Abdallah Kitatta, leader of the disbanded Boda Boda 2010.
While his Kampala meetings did not attract a lot of attention from the state, intelligence services eventually picked interest once word slipped through that Tumukunde was clandestinely establishing contacts with mobilisers outside Kampala.
According to well-placed sources, Tumukunde pretended to be mobilizing for the Kampala Lord Mayoral race while quietly building networks in Busoga, northern Uganda and parts of Buganda in addition to making monthly trips to western Uganda.
"Suspicion grew and President Museveni started sending emissaries to him but he brushed them off," a source said.
Tumukunde's interest in the presidency is not new. In 2003, during a retreat at the National Leadership Institute Kyankwanzi, Brig. Tumukunde, then an Army MP infuriated Museveni when he openly criticized the "third-term project" tailored largely to amend the Constitution and remove presidential term limits. That project handed Museveni a termless presidency.
At the expiry of his second elective term in 2006, Museveni would not have been allowed to stand for re-election because he had served out his two five-year presidential terms.
His opposition to the amendment led Tumukunde to lose his seat in Parliament in May 2005, a month before MPs took the controversial vote to amend the Constitution.
In days that followed, Tumukunde was arrested and subsequently charged with abuse of office, military misconduct and spreading harmful propaganda.
The abuse of office charge was later dropped but the state maintained the other charges. The General Military Court martial, which tried him till April 2013, later sentenced him to severe reprimand.
In September 2015, Tumukunde who was at the rank of Brigadier was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and subsequently retired from the army before Museveni deployed him to neutralize former prime minister John Patrick Amama Mbabazi's 2016 presidential campaign network.
Museveni named Tumukunde in his post-2016 election cabinet as security minister giving him an opportunity to fell Police chief Gen Kale Kayihura who commanded the soldiers that arrested him (Tumukunde) in 2005. Both men were later dropped from government in March 2018.
GUARDS WITHDRAWN
Tumukunde led the push that exposed Kayihura's wrongdoings, which culminated in his sacking after a 12-year-long career as Inspector General of Police (IGP) and his subsequent arraignment before the General Military Court Martial.
Tumukunde planned to announce his presidential bid in April – four months to the proposed nomination dates, but his plan was scuttled once the intelligence services got wind of it and alerted their commander-in-chief.
Museveni responded by ordering the withdrawal of all Tumukunde's army guards. Besides the military escorts and a UPDF lead car, Tumukunde also had military guards at home and office, along Impala avenue, Kololo. All were recalled last week.
Tumukunde did not pick nor return our repeated calls for a comment. Tumukunde joins a long line of former bush war veterans that have over time taken a shot at the presidency or parted ways. They include Col Kizza Besigye, Gen David Sejusa, Maj Gen Benon Biraaro, Amama Mbabazi and, Maj. Gen Mugisha Muntu.
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