Angelo Izama
12 July 2009
Kampala — When this newspaper started making calls about the threat of 'rebels' in Bunyoro last week, few people in the know could make head or tail of it.
Yet, the latest special Cabinet session was dedicated to just that - the question of how to deal with Bunyoro as President Museveni seeks to begin commercial oil exploitation and extend his hold onto power with 2011 round the corner.
Several Cabinet sources confirmed that Tuesday's special cabinet session had several stormy moments on the question of "Bafuruki" or migrants.
The President, Inside Politics has learnt, has ordered a multi-agency operation to secure Uganda's oil exploration fields particularly within the Bunyoro districts of Hoima, Buliisa and Kibaale. The decision was taken sometime in June, according to those involved, and has seen the country's top law enforcer, Gen. Kale Kayihura, personally supervise the deployment of the paramilitary Mobile Police Patrol Unit, the Rapid Response Unit and other offensive sections of the Police in Hoima.
Armed MPPU officers in their blue uniforms are conducting a 24-hour foot and motorised patrols in Hoima town and set up check points on several roads leading to the oil fields at Biiso, Kiziranfumbi, Kaseeta, Duhaga and Buliisa.
There are plans to establish police stations every 5 miles, Inside Politics has been told. The police maintain it is business as usual but the deployments have increased in the last three to four weeks and peaked after June 15. On this day, President Museveni met with a delegation of Bunyoro leaders including the Mubende Bunyoro Committee [MBC] a grassroots pro-kingdom activist group that lobbies for Banyoro affairs.
"I have heard that there are people planning a rebellion in Bunyoro and planning to attack oil workers. I will pick you up one by one," he is quoted to have said by a source who attended the meeting on the government side.
He reportedly told Banyoro leaders he had a file on them which included various meetings, informed sources say, held by the MBC to agitate for Bunyoro's issues including a popular demand for a guaranteed share of the oil.
The reference to "rebels" in Bunyoro by the President has also been confirmed by kingdom officials who attended the meeting.
"He mentioned he had heard of rebels. I cannot say there are rebels. Bunyoro and Hoima is peaceful. The President may need to revisit some of the information he received," said deputy Katikiro [Prime Minister] George Kyaligonza, who attended the meeting.
Mr Kyaligonza, who is also the kingdom's minister for natural resources [often referred to as the oil minister], said Bunyoro had observed the new security arrangements in Hoima.
"The kingdom does not ask why [these arrangements] are being made. The government is entitled to do what is proper for security," he added.
According to the western region police spokesperson, Diana Nandawula, the approach the Police have taken is pre-emptive.
"The deployments were planned last year and are centered on [Uganda's oil programme]. We have chosen to be pro-active so that the Police is on the ground," she said, adding that the police was just one layer of the security arrangements.
Oil companies maintain their own perimeter security while the Presidential Guard Brigade, the most elite unit of the army is responsible for the overall security in the Albertine Graben, the swathe of the western rift valley, where oil prospecting licenses have been issued.
According to Nandawula [confirmed separately], there have been a string of robberies and murders in Hoima and Kibaale areas that required action.
With talk of rebels in the north, West Nile and east, whose authenticity have been roundly dismissed by local politicians there, talk of insurgents with elections around the bend, is a contentious issue.
"We cannot dismiss threats to Uganda's oil but the government must properly distinguish between civil disobedience and rebellion," said Steven Birahwa Mukitale [MP for Buliisa and also chair of the committee on the National Economy].
Speaking to Inside Politics about the additional security in Bunyoro, he said there were genuine grievances and issues that required resolving there but said rebels were unlikely [even if Bunyoro has produced Uganda's most famous rebel Omukama Chwa Kabalega, who fought the Imperial British army from 1893-1899].
According to Mukitale, Bunyoro was facing longtime tensions over land, especially in Kibale between the Bakiga and Bunyoro] and between pastarolists [known as Balaalo] and locals in his district of Buliisa.
"Bunyoro leaders have met with the President about six times in a period of a month. There are demands by the MBC for amendments to the laws on sharing oil and they are currently studying the Presidents response," said Mukitale, who added that high expectations over oil and an influx of Congolese and other tribes to Bunyoro to look for jobs, was an added strain.
"These so-called foreigners flocking to Bunyoro for oil jobs are making locals nervous," he said.
A security source who is familiar with the situation told Inside Politics said intelligence reports were susceptible to exaggeration and hyperbole because like the hordes looking for jobs in the oil sector, Uganda's many agencies are all keen to work on oil issues which have the ear and eyes of the President.
"The Police have a desk on oil, so does the army, military intelligence, internal and external security organisations [and others] have their own oil security programmes.
There is competition to work there and all kinds of reports are written," the source said, while dismissing the possibility of rebels in the region. He said one report had talked of a build-up of Allied Democratic Forces in the area and noted an alleged plan to harm the President on June 9 [Heroes Day].
The source explained that the current policy around Gen. Kayihura's operation was to "demilitarise" government response to the security challenges associated with oil.
"Rebel talk benefits local Banyoro politicians who have dropped hints about bad elements. Its meant to attract the President's attention and cause him to tend to their concerns. At best, this talk [of rebels] is simply dangerous talk," the source added.
Gen. Kayihira's present commission is, however, a sign that the State may not be taking chances.
Independent sources said the General had been assigned by the National Security Council, the highest security decision making body of the country, chaired often by the President Museveni himself.
The flagging of so-called rebels in various parts of the country has produced its share of controversies lately. Members of Parliament like Mr Odonga Otto called it the work of "war merchants while his colleague, Mr Fungaro Kaps Hassan [FDC, Obongi] said there was a ploy to frame opposition politicians ahead of 2011.
After the coordinator of intelligence services dismissed the Uganda People's Front, an alleged group forming in the north - Security Minister Amama Mbabazi told Parliament they were real.
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They discovered oil...then the troubles stated. Sadly, it is the same story all over Africa; Nigeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Tanzania, etc. Ghana should be very careful on this.
They discovered oil...then the troubles started. It seems to be a common story in Africa. Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Uganda, Tanzania, etc. Ghana, be on the watch out!