The debate on President Yoweri Museveni’s retirement ignited by immediate former Security Minister Gen. Elly Tumwine dominated the news for the whole of last week.
While handing over office to successor Maj. General Jim Muhwezi , Tumwine promised to advise his boss to prepare a peaceful transition for the country not to fall into trouble once he leaves.
His remarks ignited an excitement frenzy among regime critics majorly, with many insinuating that things could indeed be bad enough to the extent that another four star general could be on the brink of defecting from the ruling establishment.
During a Thursday political talk show on NBS TV, big name opposition personalities Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda and Democratic Party President General Norbert Mao both attributed the axed Minister’s rant to frustration arising from getting dropped from the cabinet.
Ssemujju particularly, who says he knows the Luwero bush war veteran as a very poor hungry animal clearly stated that missing out on representing the army and then being discarded from cabinet must have taken a big toll on him.
In the concerted attacks on the legendary revolutionary, National Unity Platform [NUP] did not miss the party either.
Represented by Nakawa West MP Joel Ssenyonyi, the Kamwokya outfit described Tumwiine as ” a staunch advocate of Mr. Museveni’s brutal regime” whose rants are nothing but just acts of desperation which shouldn’t be taken seriously.
“Gen Tumwiine has always been a staunch advocate of Mr. Museveni’ s brutal regime. Now that he was dropped as Security Minister and UPDF MP and put on ” Katebe” he’ s beginning to tell Mr. Museveni what we’ ve been telling him all along…to retire peacefully. Does he expect us to believe him?” Ssenyonyi tweeted.
Generally there were tons of verbal missiles directed against the usually unapologetic general from all angles.
On social media specifically, masses hostile to the regime castigated him for pretending he cares for the country after decades of deep participation in it’s misrule.
Tumwine’s controversy did not spare his former bushwar comrades either as Dr Kizza Besigye and Gen Henry Tumukunde got involved in a bitter online exchange over the matter.
Captioning some satirical work of a local cartoonist, Besigye had seemed to remind General Jim Muhwezi that he had been appointed to a docket where men before him had ended up badly. Muhwezi had been shown cheering on Museveni to drive on since everything seemed peaceful and we’ll.
Besigye reminded him that Tumukunde had been there before he was dumped and replaced with Tumwine who also faced the same fate early this month.
Rubbed the wrong way by Besigye’s blatant view of things, Tumukunde who had earlier on accused Tumwine of blowing his own trumpet over the retirement remarks reminded Besigye that he too had more than once occupied a seat in the same bus while Museveni was driver.
He added that the mere fact that he left the bus much earlier than him doesn’t make his position any different in any way.
As the highly contagious debate raged on, the seemingly content Tumwine erupted releasing a video of himself, wife and two of his children in crazy dance moves. The video was a pointer that the man who proudly refers to himself as Museveni’s mentee was exceedingly happy over something.
On Monday morning however, he seemed to unapologetically break the spirits of his new excited friends from opposition by making a drastic U-turn in relation to his views on Museveni’s retirement.
He described the man from Rwakitura as the best gift ever possessed by this country and that the decision on when he should retire needs to be left to Ugandans exclusively.
He said Museveni is such an irreplaceable leader and it’s thus imperative that whoever takes over from him should be one exclusively prepared by him.
On who he feels should be endorsed to occupy the void once his mentor finally gives way, Tumwiine stated that this too will be decided by Ugandans at an appropriate time.
This clarification thus has been discovered to have likely had a direct bearing on the extraordinary dance celebrations by the Tumwiine family on live camera amid all the fanfare never witnessed before.
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