EXCLUSIVE: Gen. Tumukunde’s Thursday meeting minutes emerges, tells participants; Go & Vote, army will support you

By Francis Otucu

Before his arrest Thursday evening, LT. Gen. Henry Tumukunde addressed several meetings at his offices along Impala Avenue in Kampala.

He met among others, delegations from Tororo, Lango and Busoga.

This, in the presence of his national coordinator, Annet Nyaketcho and one of his trusted sons, Phillip Tumukunde.

But what did he tell his meetings?

See excerpts below;

The security agencies will have to continue. I don’t want us to have circumstances where because a regime has changed, they have disbanded an intelligence agency. I don’t think this should happen.  But Ugandans should get all the assurances. If you vote, the army will support you. I don’t see why this should be a very big matter. First vote. Encourage Ugandans to vote. Stop asking for small monies in the exchange of your values. Stop taking small favors in exchange of your children’s future. Stop taking pieces of groundnuts for the improvement of your school and hospital. Stop being clothed in when some of you have had the privilege of being educated and you know what to. Educate your people. Jesus had only 12 disciplines. Amongst them, including St. Paul. St. Paul was a lawyer. Luke was a doctor. The rest were just fishermen and that’s why I am a Christian. If those people could do it, why not us. If the people of Bulemezi could change a situation in Uganda whether each of us was on which side of the politics, why not? Why can’t Ugandans do it? I have just been meeting women from a market in northern Uganda. They came by themselves. They didn’t even ask me for money. They didn’t even ask me for transport. They said we have to come and check on you. Are you serious? So, why do you let our people down by giving little hope? I can tell you that what happened yesterday doesn’t have to continue for forever.

I would want to use the correct words. I have served with President Museveni for 13 years out of the 33. So, I would want this record to be correct. It isn’t because I wasn’t able to serve with him. It is because we were disagreeing. Please, whenever I am disagreeing with Museveni and I am being imprisoned and incarcerated, I don’t know why you say this was a design. That it is a tactic to keep him in power, that’s why President Museveni has put Tumukunde under incarceration. The other thing, even if we were changed. Leaders change. Even with the same ideology. First of all, I am not a mole. I am 60 years. I don’t have to be any body’s mole and if I was a mole, you should be seeing the kind of circumstances surrounding me. Even then, we shall be different. My priorities shall be different. That’s why countries change leaders. For example, when you see the democrats fighting between them. That’s when you see how different they are. Sanders is keen on the youth as I am. Others have got other priorities. So, the assurance is that, first of all, I don’t have to be hired by anybody and also, please, read my background and record and don’t arise my bad heart about how I am so mistreated and according to you, you think it is a designed. I want to remain as straight I am and as forgiving as a leader or to be, especially in African circumstances. So, that answers your question. My priorities are different. For example, I am sure after 33 years, President Yoweri Museveni thinks grass thatched units are very good for northern Uganda. Me, I don’t think so. Those are small differences. For example, I believe we should get rid of the hoe. I am sure for him he thinks that the hoe is the best form of production. For example, I believe we must have a more organized land tenure system in northern Uganda for purposes of easy usability of the land. I think for him, he has been comfortable with it. For example, I believe that we must development ourselves products that feed the neighboring countries, Congo and Sudan. I am sure for him, he thinks doesn’t mind where it is sourced from. For me, I want to source it from your own people (northerners). Quiet a number of things. For example, according to Museveni, NUSAF is a very big project. He has done wonders. Foe me I think, it is a fallacy. It’s not turning out anything. I want to conclude by saying, if we don’t attend to the young people today, we stand a very explosive future tomorrow. For example, I found 7,500 veterans in the TESO sub-region. I found so may Amuka. They were used to counter Kony and thereafter, they were left in total isolation. I am sure you know so many generals and senior officers in Arua area. Who gives it attention? So, even if it was the same people, I am sure that our priorities will be different.

Government of Kenya when there was one group on one side of the equation of politics, with time, the group split. For example, a man came carrying a coffin and people were crying. But because these people had split sides, one of them but these tears don’t seem to be very natural. There must be a problem with this coffin. So, he said, why don’t we open this coffin. He opened the coffin and what did they find there-ballot papers. So, everyone comes with their own experience, knowledge, exposure.  We don’t have to disclose everything here as what our tactics will be but you can be sure, I have more knowledge or slightly different knowledge than maybe Hon. Mbabazi had. These are some circumstances. Keep remembering the coffin and the ballot papers.

For us, me and my people and our group. We see politics as a service to the public, especially where one has a mission to set a new agenda that will reflex the changing nature of society and economy. We cannot therefore maintain the same rhetoric. Same story of yesterday with all the agendas that are increasingly becoming irrelevant with one side trying to justify why it should be in power and other one, why the former should leave power. So, for me I think this is a statement that partially answers what you are saying. We did so much and I want to tell you that it wasn’t because of our own selves but Ugandans gave every confidence to President Museveni including Kawanga Ssemogerere. The Akena Adokos, the Adoko Nekyons who worked in what we called a government of national unity. All of us were not even very adequately paid. We were simply working hard to see that everything changes. We did very well with the support of some international communities who lent us money. However, with time, I think we became too satisfied with the successes of our own selves and then, we included some habits of working because you have some benefits until you reach levels where even a vote is up for sale. No, those kind of circumstances are natural. I am sure you know how many African governments have collapsed. All the empires, like the empire of Mali collapsed. We are saying that the struggle continues. We shall certainly offer leadership for a new revolution and this time, we are not stressing people with a lot of thinking. We are simply saying. Let us cause change. Once change is achieved, it does not matter as time goes on as long as it is peaceful change and as long as with time we shall manage the change. So, this caters for everybody. That’s why we welcome people in opposition, even the NRM and I emphasize, NRM, to come and join us because the forces of change are not discriminative. We shall allow ow everyone to come and be part of us because beyond reasonable doubt, when change comes, we shall recruit better brains and new ideas.

Even if you don’t want to go to anything else. Let’s go to voting power. 9.8m young people will vote in 2021. Amongst them, 4.5m are new voters. Now, the most important point I want to make here is that today’s budget or programmes, apart from the youth programmes which also has very many mistakes, does not take care of what is largely half of the population of Uganda even where some little money has been put together. For example, the youth fund, the problem with it is that the procedure and the processes of having this money reach the beneficiaries is simply complicated and does not in any way encourage the proper use of this fund or even turn around this fund so that other youth can benefit. I must say that if I was the one, I wouldn’t hesitate to use the banks we have like Post Bank, set proper procedures, Uganda Development Bank, Housing Finance Bank, these are banks belonging to the Republic of Uganda, we can now draw programmes and also do minimum skilling. It is true that that India’s most productive sector of the economy is simple cottage industries. It takes care of almost 54% of what runs that great economy. Why should we be importing from everywhere when we can actually manufacture from Lira and Gulu, especially for you who neighbor South Sudan and Western Congo. Why don’t you start manufacturing from there and we supply these centers as they organize themselves. I can tell you that the youth can do agriculture in your home town. There is good land, tractable, usable for purpose of commercial agriculture. Malaysia hanged hoe in 1972. We entered independence with them. But the hoes is now a decoration in people’s homes. In our own case, we still tell members of our communities who compose 15.3m voters that actually we shall depend on the hoe to improve our country. When you over fly L. Kyoga, you start looking at grass thatched houses. When you cross this side, you don’t see anything. Are you sure we can’t get rid of grass thatched houses, especially now that we don’t even have enough grass? The post war effects, where people lost their cows, economic bases and were to depend on IDPs for survival as well as post IDP problems which also need very special attention. This war zone stretches from eastern Uganda up to West Nile where you also find seated generals without survival and young people who for 10 years because of being in exile, did not benefit from going to school. Lango and Acholi lost 20 years and the reasons why war was war is not the business of our people. Our people don’t organize wars. They are either victims of war or are incorporated in war without proper appreciation without what is likely to go on. I am glad that when I came and talked to the people of Uganda, that’s when Kony ceased to have presence although this credit has never been given to me. Now, when you take care of the youth, get to know and give special kind of attention to those problems.