The Observer (Kampala)
Edris Kiggundu
12 November 2009
Kazini was a hardworking, patriotic soldier whose major undoing was recklessness, President Museveni today told mourners at a fully packed All Saints Cathedral. Because of this recklessness, Museveni revealed, he had forced Kazini to sign an agreement that he would come back to the country after a military course in Nigeria in 2004.
"I told him that if you do not I will contact Interpol," Museveni said.
Museveni said his first encounter with Kazini was in 1981 at a place called Miggade.
Then, Kazini who was serving in UNLA convinced Museveni that, he could convince some disgruntled UNLA soldiers to defect to NRA.
"I gave him money to hire trucks to transport these soldiers but he ended up in the bar where he was arrested," Museveni said.
In casting Kazini as an undisciplined soldier during such a sad moment, Museveni shocked many mourners. Some shifted uneasily in their seats as Museveni dressed in military fatigues went on to emphasize that Kazini death was a result of his lifestyle.
He said: "Whenever someone dies, people like saying it is God who has called them but in Kazini's case he has taken himself to God."
In a sign that Museveni and Kazini had had a bitter fall out, Kazini's wife Phoebe, who spoke earlier refused to acknowledge Museveni's assistance during this trying time. He thanked the army, the police and Mulago hospital for all they had done during Kazini's death.
Museveni appointed Kazini, long seen as his blue-eyed boy, army commander in 2001 replacing Jeje Odong.
But the two fell out two years later after Museveni committed Kazini and a dozen senior officers to the General Court Martial on various charges, especially creation and maintenance of "ghost" soldiers on the army payroll.
Kazini and others, still on trial, allegedly maintained 24,000 fictitious names on the army payroll which resulted in loss of Shs 600 billion in 13 years. On March 27, 2008, when the General Court Martial under Lt. Gen. Ivan Koreta sentenced him to three years in jail for causing financial loss of Shs60 million, Kazini wept.
He later challenged the sentence in the Constitutional Court, arguing that the Court Martial had no jurisdiction to hear the case but he recently lost the appeal.
He had lodged an appeal in the Supreme Court and the case was due for hearing. Kazini conflicted with virtually every senior commander in the Army but the President kept faith in him. He was so loved that even after allegedly causing the death of over 700 soldiers in the first clash with Rwanda in Kisangani; he didn't face the firing squad as stipulated in UPDF Act.
Instead, Museveni ran away from the UPDF High Command meeting at Bombo and left it to Amama Mbabazi who announced that Gen. Elly Tumwine would lead a probe that never produced a report.
Kazini knew that the winning card was to praise the President whenever an opportunity presented itself.
During one of such moment, he said during a meeting of the Army Council in Bombo that he sympathised with the President because he was left do all the work alone while officers were eating eggs and doing business. Ever since he was dropped as army commander, Kazini has been leading a poor life, his sister Naomi told mourners.
She said his brother had taken to drinking as a way of suppressing some of the problems he has been going through.
"At one point I tried to get him someone to counsel him because he had failed to adjust to life outside the army," Naomi said. Kazini, who will be buried tomorrow at his ranch in Ssanga, Kiruhura, was killed early this week by Lydia Draru, an estranged mistress.
Several conspiracy theories have since emerged trying to explain why Kazini died in cold blood. Some have suggested that his death could have had the hand of other security agencies. Police are still investigating the motive behind his death.
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