Besigye Leaks M7’s Wealth To Donors

http://redpepper.co.ug/welcome/?p=34481

SOURCE: THE RED PEPPER, 4 APRIL 2012

R-L (Dr.Kiiza Besigye, Ingrid Turinawe and MP Winnie Kiiza, after the meeting at Grand Imperial on Monday 

Opposition icon Kizza Besigye has lifted the lid on President Yoweri Museveni’s riches, leaking his wealth estimated at $1.7bn to donors, Red Pepper has learnt.

In the new political game plan, Besigye and his team are appealing to the International Community to freeze Museveni’s family wealth and that of his top lieutenants.

The latest development puts Museveni among the richest men on the continent, according to the document leaked to www.weloveafricans.com website and the donors by the opposition.

A top source in FDC intimated to us that Besigye strongly believes that Museveni is the 12th richest person in Africa.

According to the website, Museveni’s wealth amounts to $1.7b, followed by former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo.

It shows Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo as the richest with $65b, followed by former Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi at $56b.
Indeed, when this website first released this report, FDC, through Aswa County MP Regan Okumu, convened a press conference and asked President Museveni to reveal how he acquired his wealth.

Okumu, a top Member of FDC, told a press conference at Najjanankumbi that his party had embarked on an investigation to establish the riches of Museveni and his close family members and that they would reveal their findings at an appropriate time.

Our sources have established that the promise has come to pass. Sources say Besigye and other leaders of the Activists for Change (A4C) have since February this year, with the assistance of  foreign intelligence, been tabling to donors what they allegedly claim to be the wealth of Museveni and members of the First Family, based abroad.

When contacted for a comment last night, the Presidential spokesperson, Tamale Mirundi said Museveni is not a poor man. He said if Museveni was a poor man, how couldn’t have led liberation struggles for 30 years.

“Can any poor man lead a liberation war, let’s begin with FRONASA, this was way before Museveni became president.”

“If the opposition can solve the puzzle of a poor person successfully organising a struggle lasting for many years, then I will start listening to them,” he said.
“There are many websites with a lot of information. It depends on who is controlling the website. Not every information you get on a website is factual. We do not take FDC seriously.

They have nothing to do, so they jump on everything,” he added. Red Pepper has exclusively established that among the other alleged wealth details, Besigye and his team have tabled before the donors, include those of Prime Minister, Amama Mbabazi, Police Chief Lt.Gen. Kale Kayihura, First Lady Janet Museveni and that of embattled Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa.

The riches saga could send ripples down the spine of the First Family since Museveni has always presented himself as an average wealthy person.

In 2002, Museveni declared his wealth as required by the Leadership Code. At the time he stated that his annual income then was sh48.2m.

He declared that his property included his land at Katonga, Ssembabule district valued at Shs240m, land at Katwe Kambwa in Maddu, Mpigi district valued at Shs59m, residential houses at Rwakitura valued at Shs600m and land at Nyabushozi valued at Shs70m. The President is also quoted to have said he did not have property outside Uganda.

Rating Museveni at that time, according to his declaration, one would take him to be merely Shs969m rich, which is equivalent to $387,600 at the current exchange rate.
However, the new rating of Museveni’s riches at $1.7bn is over 4000 times more than what he declared to the office of the government ombudsman.

BESIGYE HANDS DONORS ANTI-M7 DOSSIER

Meanwhile, Besigye yesterday managed to meet a section of Inter-parliament Union (IPU) delegates and handed them anti-Museveni dossiers.

“We want to give you the real perspective regarding the political situation in Uganda which may not have been given to you at IPU” said Serere Woman MP, Alice Alaso, while addressing  the IPU delegates at Grand Imperial Hotel hours after they had been flashed out of Fairway Hotel.

The meeting was summoned by Besigye in his capacity as FDC president, chairman of the Democratic Union of Africa and as vice chairman of the Inter-Democratic Union (IDU).

In his 10-page dossier titled “Africa’s Democratic Deficit – Uganda Case”, Besigye doesn’t have any kind words for Museveni’s regime.
He asked for two things; foreign intervention into the affairs of Uganda and formation of an international IDU human rights body to monitor and try human rights abusers like what the ICC court does.

“There is need for IDU to form a body that has powers to monitor, issue sanctions against government agents and try those who abuse people’s human rights just like the ICC.

I want also donors to use their powers to influence dictatorial regimes make reforms basing on what people want,” Besigye said.

Besigye wants the international community do this by taking firm and unequivocal stand on regime’s observance of universal human rights and freedoms.

He however, noted that some donor countries have betrayed people by allying with repressive regimes which offer to fight terrorists.

 “It ought to be realised that dysfunctional states are fertile grounds for breeding and disseminating terrorism. While Uganda’s oversized military is being taken advantage of to control terrorists and extremists in Somalia, the Museveni regime is doing exactly the same things that made Somalia a failed state,” said Besigye.

Besigye reiterated that the 2011 political wind in North Africa might spread to Sub-Sahara including Uganda.

He called for immediate reforms including electoral reforms, legal and institutional reforms, dismantling of monstrous patronage systems, decrease in military budget and increase in public sector investment.

“Unfortunately but expectedly, most African countries just like Uganda, respond to mounting popular discontent with increased repression. They reinforce personnel and expenditure of security organisations, police and military. They react with maximum force and brutality to peaceful demonstrations. They enact repressive laws,” he said.

He reported Museveni to the delegates that he wants to bring laws to stop bail for rioters and those who sabotage the economy.
“With absence of credible elections, Uganda like most African countries has no pressure to deliver public goods and services. Instead, a lot of resources are put on escalating patronage system, huge military establishments and propaganda. Corruption is systematic and pervasive,” Besigye said.

He added: “It is a way of life. No leader in Uganda has ever handed over power peacefully. They are all bombed out. The present regime came to power after a five year bush war that butchered half a million people and caused widespread destruction of infrastructure and property. It has been in power for 26 years and Gen. Museveni would makee 30 years in power after this current term.”