The Weekender: Before retiring from his judicial job to his farm, Justice Bosco Katutsi had fixed Gen Yoweri Museveni, so to speak. Katutsi’s move left Museveni with no more appetite of taking his cases to civil courts. That is how and why the Head of State likely resorted to the court-martial.
The idea, it’s being alleged, was to fix his opponents, especially Dr Warren Kiiza Besigye. This view, especially considering that unlike the civil courts, the court martial is purportedly easy to push, deciding in favor of their Commander-in-Chief.
Returning to Justice Katutsi, he had on two different occasions, in 2005 and 2011 to be exact, dismissed two different sets of treason cases, and one case of rape that the State had instituted against Col Kiiza Besigye. The State had rolled out those charges immediately after Besigye had shortly thereafter, declared his bid to wrestle power from Museveni via elections.
The founder President of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) had just made a heroic return to the country following a four-year exile stint in South Africa, when the State slapped him with the said grave crime charges. A young woman, Joanita Kyakuwa, who had formerly worked as Besigye’s maid, was the complainant to the rape case.
While in the treason case, Besigye stood charged with using a mysterious rebel outfit staged by the State as People’s Redemption Army (PRA), to oust Museveni from power. Following his arraignment, Besigye was remanded to Luzira Maximum prison, potentially dealing a blow to his campaigns. But in a stunning turn of tables, Betty Olive Namisango Kamya, Besigye’s former blue-eyed special envoy at FDC, navigated her way into the Electoral Commission (EC) offices, picking the nomination forms on Besigye`s behalf.
Armed with the said documents, Museveni’s current Inspector General of Government (IGG), proceeded to prison, enabling Besigye to fill the said documents, hence securing his nomination as a candidate… During the hearing of the rape case, it came to light that Kyakuwa had curiously emerged from State House to purposely feature as a key witness to the case.
More curiously, before her court appearance, Kyakuwa had previously gone missing without trace from Besigye’s Kasangati home, only to, interestingly, end up at Museveni’s official home. Thereafter, Kyakuwa told court that she reported Besigye directly to Museveni. Of note, following her disappearance, her employer had launched into a frantic search to locate her, only to fail flatly.
Continuing with his evidence, Kyakuwa stated to court how Museveni, following a report she had made to him, personally instructed his then Police CID Chief, Elizabeth Kuteesa, to handle the case. Apart from handling her case, the female police officer controversially started a poultry business for Kyakuwa! She would curiously be kept at State House as a guest until she was finally unleashed by the State as a key witness to Besigye’s purported rape case.
In a dramatic turn of events, Besigye’s lead defense lawyer, Daudi Mpanga would meticulously expose Kyakuwa as a false witness. This is what the sharp legal mind did. First, he asked Kyakuwa to remove her head gear. Initially, she had hesitated to do so. But upon Katutsi’s insistence, she removed it from her head.
And, behold, It was finally established that whatever she had all along been stating to court was actually being communicated to her from outside the courtroom through her headgear. Mpanga’s stunning discovery was the last straw that literally broke the horse’s back. And Justice Katutsi dismissed all of the said cases, terming them as a “crude work of fabrication”.
Another set of treason charges were coined against Dr Besigye, following the 2021 election. This was after Besigye had declared himself the winner of that election. Despite the Besigye’s insistence that he be tried over those charges in order to table evidence and back up his purported victory, the State, possibly avoiding the embarrassment of being thrice floored by Besigye, abandoned the same.
Before that, in 2016, to be exact, the State had stunningly unleashed warlord Joseph Kony’s notorious commander, Thomas Kwoyelo with the view of linking Besigye to their globally blacklisted Lord’s Resistance Army terrorist group. But Justice Katutsi, upon sighting Kwoyelo standing in the dock, banged the table in protest and directed him to leave his court at once.
Remarkably, Justice Katutsi wondered how the State could use a man whose hands were dripping with blood of innocent Ugandans as a witness in a case that he said, had merely been made up with the view to block an innocent man from exercising his political rights. In conclusion, while Justice Katutsi has since retired from the judiciary, the State continues to this day and date, to grapple with how to secure a conviction against Besigye by either hook or crook.
Author Profile
- Mr. Stephen Kasozi Muwambi is a seasoned crime investigative writer, majoring in judicial-based stories. His two decades’ experience as a senior investigative journalist has made him one of the best to reckon on in Uganda. He can also be reached via [email protected]
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Where does this put the ongoing argument that civilians cant be tried in military courts ,meant for service offenses only?