Former National Resistance Army – NRA Recruitment Agent Warren Tumusiime is frustrated over delayed compensation for his property he lost during the 1981 -1986 Bush war that ushered President Yoweri Museveni’s government into power.
Tumusiime 70, a father of seven and resident of Kabasyaba village in Kahondo Parish, Maziba Subcounty, Kabale District said he joined the NRA’s rebel group to capture power in 1984 through the incumbent Minister of Security Rtd. Maj. Gen. Jim Muhwezi Katuguugu who was then the NRA Director of Counter Intelligence in charge of Western Uganda.
Before Joining the NRA, Tumusiime said he was involved in buying maize and beans from Kasese and Fort portal to sell them in Kabale District with most of his supplies going to weekly markets and education institutions especially Kigezi High School and the now defunct Tutorial College.
Tumusiime explained that by 1984, the Uganda People’s Congress -UPC government had started harassing traders involved in business with Rwandans and that’s how he met Jim Muhwezi as he sought protection by the NRA. He said that while in a meeting in Kasese District, Muhwezi asked him to identify ex-army officers who could join the NRA’s rebellion against the UPC Government. “I accepted the task because I was tired of the UPC government and secondly, I wanted protection for my business.”
Tumusiime noted that with help from his friend only identified as Babu, he managed to coordinate the recruitment of over 100 men into the NRA, and he still remembers identities of about 85 colleagues whose names and military ranks are attached to the petition he wrote to President Museveni in 2017.
In the petition, Tumusiime seeks compensation for property lost when his home was sealed off by UPC government soldiers who wanted to kill him after information leaked that he had connections with the NRA Rebels. He said he managed to escape narrowly, but the soldiers vandalized his banana plantations and went away with his green Peugeot 504 Pickup Truck.
He presented to the press, a a copy of the petition he wrote to President Museveni four years ago, but the letter has reportedly not reached the President up to date. Tumusiime who turned to agriculture for a living, wants the President to buy him a new car for transporting his bananas to Kabale town for sale.
The petition has the signature of Jim Muhwezi who acknowledged that he knew Tumusiime. In his hand written recommendation dated 28th feb.2019, Muhwezi indicated that even former prime minister Ruhakana Rugunda recognized the support offered by the petitioner during the NRA bush war.
However, Tumusiime said his petition had never reached Museveni because he was blocked whenever he wanted to see the latter. He explained that he had engaged top government officials from Kabale District including the Special Envoy in the office of the president Ruhakana Rugunda, State Minister of Trade David Bahati among others, but all of them have not helped him.
Our reporter tried to reach Minister Jim Muhwezi and Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda for a comment, but they could not pick his repeated calls.
Minister Bahati who is also the Ndorwa West County Mp said he had seen Tumusiime’s letter to President Museveni but could not give details of what he knew or what he had done about it. He asked the reporter to call him again on Tuesday, the 30th of November 2021 for further discussion about the matter.
Meanwhile, William Kangyire, the elder brother of David Kangyire who was also killed for his membership to Museveni’s Front For National Salvation – FRONASA rebel group of the 1970s, has been searching for the president for the last 20 years but in vain.
David Kangyire a resident of Mparo Town Council in Rukkiga District was executed alongside three other FRONASA Fighters, namely Joseph Bitwari and James Karambuzi in a firing squad operation carried out in Kabale Municipal stadium in 1973. Museveni has since built memorial buildings for Karambuzi and Bitwari at their homes in Kabale Municipality, though he is yet to do anything in remembrance of Kangyire who was the youngest of the trio and died before he married or produced any child.
Kangyire was a Senior three student at Kigezi College Butobere by the time he left to join the Bush war and got killed the following week.
According to his brother William, their father, late Ephraim Bujune Kangyire had met Museveni through former Rukiga County Member of Parliament Jack Sabiti in the late 1990s, and the President promised to construct a memorial building for the late David Kangyire whose name is among those written on a mark stone built in Kabale Municipal stadium at the spot where the FRONASA fighters were executed.
However, later in 2001, Jack Sabiti who was the mediator between Museveni and the Kangyire family joined the Reform Agenda, a Political Movement founded by Rtd. Col. Dr. Kiiza Besigye, and later gave birth to the Forum for Democratic Change -FDC. According to William, Former Trade Minister and Mawokota County North Mp Amelia Kyambadde who was then the Private secretary to President Museveni openly told the kangyire family that since Jack Sabiti had joined the opposition, he was nolonger welcome to the state house, and that meant the end of their search for anything from the President.
William further explained that Dr, Ruhakana Rugunda had on several occasions promised to organize a meeting between President Museveni and the Kangyire family, but the promises have never been fulfilled. Only William and his two sisters are surviving in the family of the late Ephraim Bujune Kangyire in which FRONASA’S David Kangyire was the sixth born of eight children.
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